Have you ever let out an audible groan when an app on your TV asks you to type something?
It’s never fun having to navigate an on-screen keyboard using only the directional pad on a remote control, but Direction9 has a plan to make it more tolerable. At CES 2025, the company was demonstrating a software keyboard that resembles the T9 format on old cellphones with physical numeric keys. By combining this layout with text prediction, it lets you type quickly on TVs without as much clicking around.
If you’re too young to remember the T9 layout, it looks like this: At the center of the keyboard is a 3×3 grid of keys, representing numbers 1-9. With the exception of number 1, each number key also corresponds to a cluster of letters. The 2 key contains the letters abc, the 3 key contains def, the 4 key contains ghi, and so on.
Jared Newman / Foundry
Instead of making you press each number key multiple times to select different letters, Direction9’s keyboard predicts what you meant to write with just a single stroke of each key. To type out my first name, for instance, I just hit the buttons corresponding to 5 (jkl), 2 (abc), 7 (pqrs), 3 (def), and 3 (def again). “Jared” was the first result in the list of predictions on the right side of the screen.
Direction9 also lets you disable the predictive mode while entering usernames, passwords, or obscure words. In this case, hitting a key shows a small pop-up for each letter, which you can select with the directional pad. Once you’ve typed a word manually, Direction9’s keyboard offers to save it in its prediction list.
Jared Newman / Foundry
I picked up the system pretty quickly, my one hang-up being that the letter selector returns to the center of the keyboard with each stroke. This behavior serves an important purpose, though: It allows vision-impaired users to type without needing to see where they are on the keyboard. I’m guessing that with a few days of regular use, it would feel even faster than having the selector remain on your last-pressed key.
Will we ever see it?
Direction9 is hoping to license its keyboard to makers of smart TVs, streaming players, and game consoles, though it doesn’t yet have any agreements in place. It’s also eying other industries such as the automotive and medical fields.
I’d love to have it as an option on my streaming devices, though I’ve been covering this industry long enough to feel a bit cynical about the odds of it happening. Smart TV and streaming box makers are extremely cost-conscious, and may not want to pay for licensing something that doesn’t directly drive sales. There’s also the challenge of certain streaming apps deciding to use their own on-screen keyboards instead of the one provided by the operating system.
The T9 layout may also just be too alien a concept for mainstream audiences. Scrolling through lengthy rows of numbers and letters may be a pain, but at least you know what you’re getting when you click. It’d probably work best as an optional alternative—if any streaming device makers cared enough to offer it.