On January 16, 2014, Microsoft researchers and Windows Phone engineers set out to challenge the Guinness World Records fastest text message using a touch-screen mobile phone record.

Typing on a touchscreen device without having to look at the screen could be extremely useful in cases when it’s either dangerous, interruptive or impolite to text. Microsoft researchers developed a novel UX and robust decoder to shape write in groups of characters. To demonstrate the feasibility of this approach, the research team broke the Guinness World record for touchscreen and blind texting, and worked with the Windows Phone team to include the WordFlow feature in Windows Phone 8.1.

Congratulations to Gaurav Sharma, record holder: Guinness World Records fastest text message using a touch-screen mobile phone – 18.44 seconds using WordFlow on Windows Phone 8.1.