Tegic Communications, Inc. was a software company based in Seattle, Washington, founded on 18 November 1996. It developed T9, a predictive text input system that became the dominant text-entry method on mobile phones during the late 1990s and 2000s. AOL acquired Tegic in December 1999, and Nuance Communications subsequently acquired it from AOL in August 2007, after which Tegic ceased to operate as a separate entity.
History
Tegic was founded in Seattle in 1996 to commercialise a predictive text input method for devices with numeric keypads. Its core product, T9 (short for Text on 9 keys), allowed mobile phone users to compose text messages by pressing each key only once per letter, with the software using a built-in dictionary to predict the most probable word from the sequence of key presses. The approach reduced the number of keystrokes required compared to the multi-tap method, in which users pressed a key repeatedly to cycle through letters.
T9 was licensed to handset manufacturers and became one of the most widely deployed text input systems for mobile phones throughout the late 1990s and 2000s, appearing on devices from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and others. The technology was particularly important during the period before smartphones with full touchscreen keyboards became common.
AOL acquired Tegic Communications on 3 December 1999. On 24 August 2007, Nuance Communications acquired Tegic from AOL, integrating the T9 technology into its broader portfolio of speech and language technologies. The Seattle office was expected to remain open following the Nuance acquisition, but Tegic ceased to exist as a distinct company.