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Mobile Cipher

The Mobile Cipher lets you write messages using old-school mobile keypad codes. On old mobile phones (before smartphones), you had to press number keys multiple times to type letters. Each number key had 3-4 letters assigned to it.

Telephone T9 keypad

A classic telephone keypad layout used for T9-style encoding. Source: Wikipedia


Encoding

To encode a message, find each letter on the keypad and write down the key number repeated by how many times you'd need to press it.

  • H → Press key 4 twice → 44
  • E → Press key 3 twice → 33
  • L → Press key 5 three times → 555
  • O → Press key 6 three times → 666
  • Space → Press key 1 once → 1

So "HELLO WORLD" becomes a series of number presses like you'd make on an old phone!

Decoding

To decode, group the numbers and convert each group back to its corresponding letter:

  1. Split the encoded message into groups of the same digit
  2. Count how many times each digit repeats
  3. Look up which letter that combination represents

Example:

Input: HELLO WORLD

Encoded: 44 33 555 555 666 1 9 666 777 555 3

Decoded: hello world

The decoder figures out that 44 means the 2nd letter on key 4 (which is H), 33 means the 2nd letter on key 3 (which is E), and so on!

Learn More

Demo

Demo

Encode Options
Decode Options