Singaporean beats Guinness World Record for fastest texting

Typed 160 characters in less than 42 seconds

13 November 2006 10:15 GMT / By Amber Maitland

Another world record was shattered this weekend as a Singaporean student set a new benchmark for texting.

Ang Chuang Yang typed 160-character SMS message in a blistering 41.52 seconds, beating the previous record of 42.22 by a fraction of a second.

Singapore Telecommunications sponsored the competition, held on Sunday, to shatter the world record held by American Ben Cook since last July.

Typically for a world champion, Ang wants to push the limit a little bit further, saying, “I’ll try for 39 seconds next year”. His tip for faster texting? Use a mobile phone with big buttons to make it easier to hit the correct keys.

The Guinness organisation provides the 160-character text so that it’s a level playing field for all those trying to break the record. The sentence reads: “The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the more ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human”.

That wordy mouthful took us longer than 40 seconds to type, let alone text.