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points by scosman 12 hours ago | 0 comments

Not predicting to something controversial when doing predictive text isn't censorship. You can still type any of these things. When I swing my finger around wildly it's making a best guess; not jumping to a phrase that makes me look bad or get arrested (in some countries) isn't an awful design choice.

[–] user_7832 10 hours ago

I'm not sure you get what's exactly happening. It's not only not predicting, it's also "typing something else".

Swipe "Ireland" alone, works. "United" alone, works.

Same swipes but back to back, and now it's suddenly "United Iceland".

There's no predictive text involved here, this starts going into the willful territory.

[–] pj1115 7 hours ago

I'm a pretty quick and accurate swipe typer, and it's so frustrating to repeatedly get the wrong result and get NO signal that it's not my error, meaning I usually try one or two more times.

Picked at random: "right wing propaganda" isn't severe enough a phrase that I instinctively know I'm hitting a swear filter. After swiping the last word iOS goes back and changes the second word to "Wong". In order to understand what was happening and then fix it, I had to backspace (deleting the whole phrase), re-swipe both words, backspace, re-swipe both words again, double tap the incorrect word, backspace, type the word, tap to return to the end of the sentence, and hit space. All to fix one letter.

If this was really about protecting people from accidentally typing these that might land them in hot water, why wouldn't iOS at least offer the word it knew I wanted in the suggestion bar?

[–] unpleasurable 3 hours ago

maybe it's actually trying to warn you about the Wongs, if only you would listen

[–] flumpcakes 9 hours ago

That is still predictive. Words can be fine in their own and then contentious when strung together. I agree this is not censorship and that if peoples phones were autocompleting to something horrible then people would be up in arms.

[–] wiseowise 8 hours ago

I'm sorry, how the fuck swiping over `iReland` predictive of `iCeland`, when they're on the opposite sides of a keyboard?

[–] scosman 7 hours ago

All swipe to type is predictive. It's ignoring 80% of the letters you swipe over, and guessing your intent.

You didn't "swipe Ireland", you're swiping something like IUYTRERGHJKLKJHGFDSASDCVBNHGFD" and it's predicting "Ireland".

[–] pj1115 7 hours ago

The problem is not accuracy -- the words from the problem phrases are never suggested either. Worse, on the three-word phrases, iOS goes back and changes earlier words to avoid completing the phrase, and removes the original from the suggestions.

I tried typing "propaganda" ten times with 100% accuracy. When it's preceded with "[left] wing", the accuracy drops to 0%.

[–] scosman 7 hours ago

It's still predictive. It's using the context of surrounding words, and guessing the whole phrase.

Try swiping "grocery lost" and it will predict "grocery list", even you swiped over "o" and not "i". "put", "pit" and "pot" are all exactly the same swipe, and it always has to guess which you want.

It really is always guessing, and never completely sure. Every good consumer predictive system has some guardrails. Not guessing "free tibet" for someone in China could keep them out of serious trouble.

Could then tune the confidence thresholds instead of block list? Probably. Are they censoring you? No, just tap the letters.

[–] aucisson_masque 7 hours ago

I swipe United, it gets it right the first time.

I swipe Ireland, it gets it right the first time.

I swipe “united ireland” a hundred times, it never work.

It’s not probability.

[–] ryandrake 10 hours ago

Just because one mode of input is not censored doesn't mean that the other modes are not censored.

[–] ksec 5 hours ago

I was going to comment the same. It seems to be two things.

Auto Complete on Swipe Input and Next Word Predictive Input.

This is not an Autocorrect spelling issue.

[–] Rexxar 11 hours ago

If it was explicit and could be opt-out (partially or totally) it would be a good feature.

[–] isodev 2 hours ago

You mean opt-in, and word list that’s editable…

Despite what Apple wants you to think, people have agency and can decide for themselves.

[–] Jtarii 11 hours ago

duck off

[–] morkalork 10 hours ago

It's taking a position

[–] akersten 12 hours ago

> When I swing my finger around wildly it's making a best guess;

Alright, well some of us are actually deft at swiping text on our phones and would very much like the keyboard to type the word we entered.

[–] scosman 11 hours ago

You're deft at using it well enough that their predictive engine can guess your intent. There's never been a swipe keyboard that isn't guessing. Your finger literally goes over many chars it doesn't use. The team building the predictive engine has to make calls balancing their accuracy vs failure modes.

[–] noitpmeder 11 hours ago

Oh comon, these model quality isn't the issue here.

The models know which words we intend to type. The problem is those specific words are on unchangeable and hidden block lists.

[–] dizhn 10 hours ago

Parent is kind of right too. This should be configurable or people will complain the other way. Even something simple as "I am swiping heck but it's typing hell".

[–] hocusPokeUs 11 hours ago

Yall still swipe/type that much?

Yea it's not the best option in all situations but fixing voice dictation glitches is way less tapping over the long haul; fingers no go numb using it as much as possible by saving the tap tap tap for absolutely necessary moments

[–] angry_octet 9 hours ago

Guess what is going to happen with voice input?

[–] moron4hire 9 hours ago

Plus don't be this guy, dictating every text message, email, and YouTube reply. Folks around you will appreciate you for Internetting quietly.

[–] vlyan 10 hours ago

>You can still type any of these things.

for now :)

[–] mitthrowaway2 11 hours ago

True, it's a very user-oriented feature. That's why they let you disable it, and also let you edit the blacklist, so that you can prevent accidentally typing words that are offensive in your own cultural context.

... Actually I'm not sure if they let you do those.

[–] aranelsurion 9 hours ago

TBF user choice and customizability aren’t very Apple things in any context.

My Apple Watch has a setting for how long the display stays on before sleep. It’s a dropdown with two choices: 15 seconds or 70 seconds. Would you prefer 30 seconds? Why not 60 seconds instead of 70 you say? Fuck you, you don’t know better than Apple designers. Take it or leave it, best we can do is 15 seconds.

[–] sandworm101 11 hours ago

Try getting things done on such a device in a military context. A thousand acronyms adopted by generals who dont know the internet from a hole in the ground. I saw a Gunnary Seargent scream when he saw his rank acronym (GySgt) get autocorrected on a form to gynocologist (i suspect he hit a suggested word popup). It is bad enough having to deal with the keyboard rejecting capital letters in the middle of a word.

[–] Rodmine 7 hours ago

Speaking of predictions, I can predict your religion just from this comment. I know I am not allowed to, but I can.

[–] allarm 11 hours ago

Of course! And the next logical step would be to restrict the entry of such phrases via the keyboard. Isn't an awful design choice either.