QuickType, Stop Putting Words In My Mouth
I’m not too keen on many of the new features rolled out with iOS8. In addition to infecting my phone with a forever pending download of U2’s latest album, a new default keyboard appeared in all of my messaging apps. I sent out multiple screenshots of my awkward new texting vehicle the other day, trying to figure out if the predictive keyboard was affecting others the same way it was affecting me, but I couldn’t find a co-worker who had upgraded their phone yet. (“I’m afraid,’’ one told me.)
I guess I’m the sucker, because my phone’s QuickType feature is messing with me.
In case you don’t know what I’m talking about – QuickType is a new bar that appears above your keyboard, learning your habits as you go, predicting and autocorrecting words within your texts. You can tap the next predicted word from the bar before you even finish typing it… well, if it’s there. It’s frustrating and fascinating. It also seems pretty useless.
I noticed it first when it predicted I would say “Ya’’ after I typed the letter Y. I’m occasionally a “Yeah’’ person, but more consistently I type “Yes,’’ so the assumption was both amusing and offensive. As someone who is constantly fighting an uphill battle against her own Valley Girl twang, the forced default of “Ya’’ only strengthened my persistent use of “Yes,’’ and for added measure, “Yes, indeed.’’
The second instance occurred after typing the letter S, giving me the immediate result “S&M.’’ Other than having Rihanna’s 2010 hit single buried somewhere deep in the nether regions of a Spotify playlist, I’m not entirely convinced the term pops up in my text conversations enough to be considered a default. Is my phone judging me?
However, I’m not the only one messing with QuickType keyboard. The Wall Street Journal pointed out the predictive typing could make “hilarious ‘Mad Libs’ for you.’’ “If you keep following its train of robotic thought, QuickType will form entire sentences on your behalf,’’ they wrote. The Verge let the feature loose on a similar exercise, writing, “I just wanted to go down the weird rabbit hole of setting off with one word and seeing where we could go with it. Or more importantly, where Apple wanted me to go with it.’’
Sometimes QuickType gets it right (suggesting “OMGOMFG’’ after a friend texted about baked goods in the office was characteristically spot on) and then sometimes completely wrong (changing “Gilderoy’’ to “Voldermort’’ was a shocker) – so it’s been a productive, useful addition to my phone about zero percent of the time.
I complained to Chelsea, our health writer (@ChelseaRice), who sits next to me and gets to listen to me wax poetic all day. She promptly showed me her Windows phone which has a predictive keyboard of its own. She likes it, says it makes texting easier. When I asked how she got it to work for her, the answer was easy: Her software has had it for a long time and it’s been learning from her all along. So apparently that’s the reason we’re suffering: Apple is late to the game.
I assume there’s some way to turn it off in the settings, but being the sadomasochist I apparently am, I’m just going to suffer through it until it learns my proper ways.
But until then, ya. I guess.
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