Ask HN: Why has typing on a phone not improved in ~20 years?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45877200

by mvkel • 8 months ago

15 21 8 months ago

news.ycombinator.com

Typing on an iPhone today is just as error-prone as it was when the phone launched in 2007.

Next token predictors have largely solved this for day-to-day use.

Swipe + a more modern prediction model would mean we'd be able to type one-handed without looking at the screen at all, and have perfect accuracy.

We have the tech today. For whatever reason, nobody is using it. Why?

PaulHoule• 8 months ago

There is dictation.

mvkel3• 8 months ago

Divorce.

This is what appeared when I said "it's even worse"

k310• 8 months ago

Do you want neuralink? I really don't like the invasive aspect of it.

I turned off all assists to typing on this iPhone. They kept giving me maddening substitites for my words.

Going to fire up the computer now. The one with the giant lighted keyboard. And the FORWARD DELETE KEY, the single greatest efficiency booster since the invention of the "vi" editor. The "dot" command alone has saved years of work (slight hyperbole there)

And no AI. EVER. I speak for myself. Otherwise no point in living.

Note to Apple: why can't I get a lighted keyboard from you for any amount of money, unless I buy a laptop, where it drains battery, rather than the power grid?

JohnFen2• 8 months ago

I just want physical keyboards back.

fsflover2• 8 months ago

Can't you connect one to your phone?

JohnFen2• 8 months ago

Yes, but that requires carrying a separate device, which makes it too inconvenient to use casually. I want the keyboard to be built into the device itself, like you used to be able to get.

kristianp• 8 months ago

This. Much of my typing speed and accuracy comes from feeling the positions of the keys. I can't do that on a touchscreen phone. They are so error prone and frustrating. Autocorrect is almost useless.

Moomoomoo309• 8 months ago

One just came out. Only one on the market I know of. It's called the Unihertz Titan 2, and I'm typing this comment on one. It's got a blackberry style keyboard and runs pretty close to stock android. I recommend swapping their default keyboard out with swiftkey, though the default one isn't terrible - swiftkey just gives me a few conveniences like emoji suggestions. It has play services, so it works.

runjake2• 8 months ago

iOS already has swipe entry by default. I use it for most of my text entry. It is wonderful.

For me, typing on an iPhone worked well until iOS 26. Now I get jumbled AutoCorrect which acts like it's LLM-driven.

When I turn off Apple Intelligence on iOS 26, I get the old, properly-functioning AutoCorrect back. So that's a potential workaround.

mvkel3• 8 months ago

In my experience it is not so good that you could happily swipe away without needing to review the generated text. For example, sliding to type "rife" autocorrects to "ride," despite the context of the sentence making "rife" the only possible word.

That context tech is here in LLMs.

runjake2• 8 months ago

With the caveat of Apple Intelligence is disabled, I believe it is that good and that's how I generally use it: with reckless abandon. And it does a great job. YMMV.

I believe that with AI turned off, it's not using LLMs for autocorrect -- or at least not the new Apple Intelligence LLM junk.

hulitu• 8 months ago

Swipe + a more modern prediction model would mean we'd be able to type one-handed without looking at the screen at all, and have perfect accuracy.

Dream on. The first thing i do is disable prediction so the keyboard sucks less. Swipe makes no sense.

impendia• 8 months ago

type one-handed without looking at the screen at all, and have perfect accuracy.

A computer that can predict what I'm going to write next with perfect accuracy? This is the stuff of dystopian science fiction.

Indeed, along these lines I recommend the movie Minority Report, which shows a society that gained the ability to predict crimes before they happened, and therefore to arrest criminals in advance.

mvkel3• 8 months ago

I’m tpng ths wth autocrct nd y knw wht th wrds r wtht m hvng t wrt thm ot. Bt autocrct dsnt bcs it scks. Ths s th prt tht cld b bttr. W hv th tchnlgy.

al_borland• 8 months ago

I think it’s noticeably worse than in 2007. The update that added a row above the keyboard to predict the next word is when I noticed it be worse, and several updates have made it worse still.

COMBINATORNEWS• 8 months ago

I have no problem with this.

aristofun• 8 months ago

Touch screen was and will always be a compromise, a trade off.

Many people forget about it today.

It will always suck in one way or another.

Best UI mankind came up as of today is still buttons and knobs. But it’s not always feasible.

codegeek• 8 months ago

I miss my blackberry when it comes to typing.

firefax• 8 months ago

If you want to type one handed, have you looked into T9?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T9_(predictive_text)

Ask HN: Why has typing on a phone not improved in ~20 years?

Related Stories