Is it time to abolish autocorrection on smartphones?
By: Terry Andrew Dunn
Tags: Android Phone, iPhone, Smartphones, Messaging, Autocorrection

Do they create more errors than they solve?

Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash

Mobile phones, technologically speaking, have come a long way in a short amount of time. Not too many years ago they were not smart. They have rapidly evolved to the point where they almost replace laptops.

There are a huge variety of apps available to download and most of them are free. They have rapidly become indispensable to our daily lives. And this year, they have allowed us to stay in contact with friends and family.

Just how big is the smartphone marketplace?

Statista.com reckon there are 3 billion smartphones worldwide, which is forecast to grow by several hundred million in the next few years. This compares with around 2 billion computers, including laptops, desktops, and servers in the world currently. The smartphone is winning.

The iOS app store — for Apple iPhones — has 1.85 million apps available for download, and Android smartphone users have over 2.56 million to choose from in the Google Play Store. A huge industry has grown up around these modern-day tools. Will there be one phone for every person?

Mature marketplaces like this have great products

So, why is it that autocorrection software on smartphones is really annoying? You’d think that with so much money invested in the industry, a vast number of phones, and how much messaging is used, it would be slick.

We all understand why the developers have added this feature. Not everyone is good with spelling and grammar. It’s useful that it points out our errors when we are constructing our messages before we send them.

But do we really need it to change words into something completely unrelated to the message, or insert words that make no sense? I’ve owned several smartphones and they have all worked like this. In fact, I now read back the message before sending it so I can catch the illogical changes the correction software has made to my, usually, error-free, grammatically correct compositions. Normally, I don’t make many writing errors.

But I still send out messages with errors, leaving the recipient scratching his head, trying to figure out what I meant to say. This is because of readback blindness. Our brains are able to automatically correct errors in our mind, knowing what it should say, so we don’t see the mistake.

Can we reverse engineer the problem?

Perhaps the software developers need to reverse engineer this ability we have, translate it into code, and replace the current, flawed autocorrection on our smartphones. Then it might actually work properly.

And it’s not just me. Everyone I know complains about the autocorrection software with a variety of expletives or sighs of resignation. And everyone excepts the status quo. What can be done? What indeed.

There is a simpler solution

Well, the developers could add a button to allow us to turn it off. Heresy? Crazy? No. Just a simple idea I’m sure could easily be implemented. Perhaps an update from Google and Apple is all it might take.

From my experience, they do create more problems than they solve.

It’s time for a change. Are you listening, Google, and Apple?