Is he bad at texting or just not interested?

A single curt message tells you almost nothing. Look at what the thread has done over the last several days. Did he ever initiate, or has every conversation started with you? Did he add anything of his own when he replied, a joke, a story, a question back? Or does every answer come back as a flat acknowledgement? Short replies that still carry a small hook, like a reference to something you said earlier, suggest he is engaged but not a natural texter. Short replies that never give you anything to pick up suggest he is spending as little energy as he can.

Also notice what happens when things are concrete. If you suggest a specific time and place, does he take it or deflect? Someone who is mildly interested but lazy with words often becomes more responsive when the question is practical. Someone who has checked out will keep the conversation floating and avoid anything that commits him.

A useful habit is to match his message length and energy rather than writing a paragraph that he then has to match. If he sends short messages, short messages back that still contain a small piece of you give him a clean place to continue. Keep one thing per message, one question at most, and make it easy to answer. This is not about playing games. It stops you from over-investing in a thread that cannot hold that weight, and it lets you see whether he wants to put more in when the bar is low.

Do not treat matching as a way to escalate into sarcasm or cold one-liners. The aim is to remove pressure, not to send a signal that you are upset. Keep warmth in the tone even when the message is brief.

When he goes quiet for several days, the length of the gap tells you more than anything he wrote before it. A gap of a day or two between messages is normal even for people who like each other, especially early on. A gap of a week or more without any reason is a different situation. If you have sent one message after the silence and gotten nothing back, the most informative thing you can do is wait and see whether he reaches back out on his own.

If he does come back, notice how he opens. Does he apologise, reference the gap, or pick up where things were? Someone who wants to continue will usually make the return easy. Someone who is using the silence as an exit will often bring it back as if nothing happened, which tells you what the silence was for.