Systems, devices, media, and methods are presented for composing and sharing a message based on the motion of a handheld electronic device such as a ring. The methods in some implementations include presenting a keyboard on a display, collecting course data associated with a course traveled by the ring, and overlying a trace onto the keyboard, such that the trace is correlated in near real-time with the course traveled by the ring. In some implementations the display element is part of a portable device, such as the lens of an electronic eyewear device. Based on the course data relative to the key locations on the keyboard, the system identifies and presents candidate words to be included in a message.