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joecool1029yesterday at 7:18 PM3 repliesview on HN

I guess I'm in an extreme minority here but... it's not broken if autocorrect is off.

I raw dog my typing everywhere. Zero autocorrect. The last time I did use typing assistance was on BB10 with the 'flick to complete' because it was out of my way enough that I could ignore it was there or use it to save a small amount of time. Otherwise I too have the fond memory of Windows Phone's keyboard (I ran it on the HTC HD2), I couldn't tell you why it was good other than it felt good to use, again without autocorrect.

However, I'm CERTAIN there's an ergonomics thing at play, the 'brain calibration' time for me to type accurately on a big screen takes longer. I ran the original iPhone SE's as long as I could and always carried a second android device that was huge by comparison. Today I have the 15 Pro and a OnePlus 11. If I spend a lot of time using the iPhone it takes a little time maybe 20 minutes or so to stop making easy errors on the OnePlus 11. However, going back to the smaller iPhone after being on the OnePlus for awhile, there's not really an adjustment, I can hit all the letters accurately.

I have large hands, I still want the smaller device. There is extra work to need to move your hand and eyes across a larger device. More space to misclick on.

Swipe to type is enabled on android/ios for me. I use it sometimes, if you are hesitant at all on iOS or have a tendency to drag fingers at all don't enable it or it will mess up your typing. It's of course enabled by default like autocorrect. Some people have issues with it.

Dictation is underrated on iOS at least. It just works better and faster than the shitty autocorrect for typing. Obviously not applicable to a lot of situations but when I don't feel like typing it works really well.

EDIT: And I really have to have it off, I switch between devices too much and even with them learning my style of writing, I write differently for different contexts and each OS does its own thing differently. I don't want to spend the extra mental bandwidth correcting the autocorrect or having to think of how that specific autocorrect will behave.


Replies

SJMGyesterday at 10:14 PM

Also in the minority. I use pretty atypical language and grammar for effect frequently, which is a nightmare to edit on iOS. I'm probably a little slower typing now for run of the mill message, but like you said dictation is actually great for that.

I'm overall happy with the decision and would recommend others try it.

garbagewomantoday at 5:23 AM

Looks like your experience isn’t universal

Gander5739yesterday at 10:51 PM

I use Thumb-Key, an android keyboard that doesn't have features like autocorrect and swipe-to-type, and it works quite well for my purposes.