The world's most valuable technology giant, Apple, has its fair share of pros and cons list that surrounds its iPhone, primarily for its 'closed' feature that hinders DIYers from tweaking the phone to their preferences. However, 'Autocorrect' is also a faulty keyboard that makes many mistakes for the owner. Apple's Autocorrect sure is faulty, according to its engineer, and it is actually a feature.
Since the iPhone's first release, Autocorrect is a function that came with its keyboard to help the user avoid mistakes and typographical errors while sending a message using the device's touch screen. Most people are adept at typing that using the keyboard only requires them to split seconds to input the text.
This is where autocorrect swoops in and saves the day. The rapid typing in the iPhone's glass may lead to many errors that cannot be avoided, and some people fail to see it or notice. Some are just too lazy to delete and re-type everything again, so it leaves the keyboard's feature to save the day.
While autocorrect works for some and is preferred, many users detest the function, especially newly bought iPhones who have it turned on as default. Apple's Autocorrect tends to make many mistakes that can lead to users getting annoyed. People are having a hard time using autocorrect as it affects communication.
Ken Kocienda, One of Autocorrect's Engineer: It was meant to save us
Business Insider got the chance to interview Ken Kocienda, one of Apple's keyboard and autocorrect engineers, to ask about the faulty function present in several devices such as the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
According to Kocienda, Apple had a hard time making the autocorrect function as several challenges in the 'QWERTY' layout present to be troublesome. Letters I, O, and U are relatively close to each other and tend to get mixed up most of the time. This was the first challenge, according to the engineer.
The algorithm and software, commonly known as autocorrect, was designed to prevent typographical error and vulgar words to be changed. Apple's autocorrect bases itself on a vast list of known words from the dictionary and learned words from a person's usage.
Apple's autocorrect and predictive text learns from the user, basing it on their typing language. Kocienda's job is to make an accurate and speedy way of typing through the glass sheet that interprets the touch screen. Analyzing what a person will say is the challenge to Apple's autocorrect, not the languages from the dictionary, spelling, or grammar.
Autocorrect is better than you think.
Kocienda expresses his disregard for people saying that autocorrect is a disaster. In the 20 times a person correctly types a word and makes one mistake, the other 19 times autocorrect succeeded will be disregarded for the one time it made a mistake.
Autocorrect's function sometimes makes people feel that their keyboard is against them, preventing them from conveying their own words. The process is meant to be useful and helpful to the user, not the other way around.
This article is written by Tech Times
Written by Isaiah Alonzo
