Removing Text Messaging Keyboard Lag – Part 2

It’s been a long time since we’ve discussed keyboard lag but a while back we mentioned a tweak that modifies the keyboard input and the effect is to reduce the lag when you type (which is especially noticeable when typing text messages). Well bradyonly of PPCGeeks was playing around a bit and noticed a file located in Windows called thread_sms.htm and he decided to remove a single word from within it – the word ‘count’ and after a soft reset he noticed that the keyboard lag was gone. Well I just tested this myself and I can confirm that it absolutely worked for me and I have zero lag now (I’m on the new AT&T Fuze ROM). Now the one downside is that when you’re looking at a threaded message and type, the letter count is gone (when you compose a new message instead of replying to one within a thread the letter count is still there). So you can no longer tell when you are approaching the magical 160 letter limit (unless you start a new text because then the phone is not in threaded mode and as odd as it sounds that is how it’s reacting).

So you can do this tweak in one of two ways. You can overwrite the file thread_sms.htm with bradyonly’s file (or if you’re using 6.5 then use hibby50’s) or you can just do it yourself. The DIY method is pretty simple. Just open up thread_sms.htm (you can copy this file to your desktop and open it in notepad or if you’re using Total Commander locate the file and then press the pen/paper icon at the bottom and it will open in notepad on your phone). Then locate the line that begins “<Inbox: content id=”COMPSESUBJECT” width=”98%”… and delete the single word “count” from that line then hit ‘save’ (or if you used your PC then overwrite the file) and soft reset your phone.  And you’re done.

Hats off to bradyonly! I love a bit of good tinkering 🙂