When did we start using touchscreen phones?

It wasn't quite like that from the start - touchscreens existed before they went mainstream, there were some experimental devices in the 90s, but people only really started using them when the iPhone came out in 2007 and changed everything. After that it took off fast, with Android and other phones adopting the technology too. Nowadays it's so normal that it's weird to think there was a time when phones had physical keyboards, you know.

I remember people using those first big Android phones with touchscreen back around 2008, 2009, but it really only became mainstream after the iPhone came to Brazil in a big way - that's when other manufacturers started actually competing in that market. One tip nobody takes advantage of is that if you've got an older phone with resistive touchscreen (the ones where you had to press a bit), a soft-tip capacitive stylus works way better than your finger, especially for drawing apps or if the screen has trouble responding properly.

I had one of those phones with a resistive screen back around 2007, 2008 and it was crazy! You had to use your fingernail or a stylus to touch the screen or it wouldn't work properly, very different from the capacitive ones that came later. But I agree with you guys that it only really became normal when the iPhone blew up here in Brazil - that's when everyone started ditching physical keyboards and really embraced touchscreen for good!

The technical difference nobody mentions is that those old phones with resistive screens actually required pressure, while the capacitive ones in the iPhone work with just skin contact - that completely changed the user experience and that's why it became actually practical for most people.