I always struggle with autocorrect on my phone, as it tries to correct too much. I never used to struggle with autocorrect on Microsoft Word, but I now find myself often frustrated when it doesn’t automatically correct every little thing like I am used to with my phone.
My iPhone annoys me when it tries to correct/autocomplete words that I actually meant, or words that aren’t exactly real words, but I meant to use nonetheless. For instance, my phone always used to automatically change “unfollowed” to different, legitimate, words. (It now understands that when I say “unfollowed,” I do in fact mean “unfollowed”)
The affordances of autocorrect is that it makes for more accurate and easy, quick, rapid texting. When I am trying to type something out quickly and get the message sent out as soon as possible, I am more likely to be making spelling mistakes along the way. Autocorrect is really helpful in these particular situations in that it changes the mistakes as I go. Autocorrect is also helpful when I am trying to type without looking. With touch screens it is a lot harder to correctly spell out messages without looking at the screen, than it was using phones with actual buttons. In these situations, autocorrect is equally as helpful as when I am trying to rapidly text.
The major constraint I have found with autocorrect, is that I don’t actually learn how to spell things I otherwise would have been forced to learn how to spell without autocorrect/autocomplete. After getting an iPhone, I definitely forgot how to spell the word “schedule”…and it took me a while to finally realize that I need to actually memorize the correct spelling so that I will still be able to spell the word when autocorrect isn’t there to have my back. Another annoying constraint of autocorrect is when it keeps changing a word I meant to type, back to a different word, such as the word “unfollowed” that I mentioned earlier. There are instances when I type out a word and autocorrect changes it, and once I go back and correct the word to what I originally meant, it again changes it back as soon as I press the space bar, and this process continues to happen a few more times. In these situations I feel like I am almost in a fight with autocorrect! It is incredibly frustrating but I have found a way to fix this problem with certain words that this often happens with. A feature available and helpful with autocorrect is an offered in settings where you can distinguish certain words you want left unchanged. You can type in acronyms or words with the word or phrase you want autocorrect to identify them as. In the past, I have found this feature very useful, and continue to find it useful as I update it regularly.
Features that are available and helpful with autocorrect is an option in settings where you can distinguish words you want to keep. You can type in acronyms or words and the word or phrase you want autocorrect to identify them as. I have found this feature very useful in the past.
