4 ms·

I kind of agree but kind of disagree. I find GBoard to be incredibly good, more or less as good as I remember Swype being. (I initially switched because GBoard

by edanm 5y ago

I kind of agree but kind of disagree. I find GBoard to be incredibly good, more or less as good as I remember Swype being. (I initially switched because GBoard supported Hebrew and Swype didn't, not because of accuracy, but didn't find it worse at least.) I find the native Apple swipe interface to be terrible. It doesn't even come close to being as good as GBoard. And I use it fairly often, because if the Apple keyboard comes up I'll usually try to use it for 2-3 words, before getting frustrated and switching. I have no idea why.

user_7832 5y ago
That's an interesting perspective. I personally haven't found Apple's keyboard to be bad (it's a bit over-aggressive, but I don't find it incorrect very often, it just censors everything to a duck). But the multilingual thing is an important point - in my very limited testing of Hinglish (English+Hindi) Swype used to be very pro-Hindi, even when I wanted to use an English word. But I don't remember comparing it to GBoard then (not sure if it even supported Hinglish back then). Google's team has certainly put a lot of effort into local Indian languages from what I've seen (including ads if I'm not mistaken). Oddly, I find Apple's Keyboard almost completely superior to GBoard (the only exception being the number row option). However I use it on an iPad and not a phone so that may also be a factor.
- rootusrootus 5y ago
  I have good experience with Apple's keyboard for accuracy, but I do get frustrated routinely that it won't let me swear.
- edanm 5y ago
  To be clear, I have to explicitly switch language. It doesn't do anything automatically (which makes sense since it's a different alphabet). But my hit rate with Gboard is staggeringly higher than apple keyboard. I wonder if we're using it differently, which is what is causing the difference in experience here.
  - user_7832 5y ago
    > I wonder if we're using it differently, which is what is causing the difference in experience here. Yep I think this is true. I use the Apple Keyboard only on my iPad (my phone is android), while if I had to guess you use an iPhone with a much smaller screen/keyboard. Everyone's real life mileage varies, as the saying goes.

by edanm 5y ago

user_7832 5y ago

That's an interesting perspective. I personally haven't found Apple's keyboard to be bad (it's a bit over-aggressive, but I don't find it incorrect very often, it just censors everything to a duck). But the multilingual thing is an important point - in my very limited testing of Hinglish (English+Hindi) Swype used to be very pro-Hindi, even when I wanted to use an English word. But I don't remember comparing it to GBoard then (not sure if it even supported Hinglish back then). Google's team has certainly put a lot of effort into local Indian languages from what I've seen (including ads if I'm not mistaken). Oddly, I find Apple's Keyboard almost completely superior to GBoard (the only exception being the number row option). However I use it on an iPad and not a phone so that may also be a factor.

rootusrootus 5y ago
I have good experience with Apple's keyboard for accuracy, but I do get frustrated routinely that it won't let me swear.
edanm 5y ago
To be clear, I have to explicitly switch language. It doesn't do anything automatically (which makes sense since it's a different alphabet). But my hit rate with Gboard is staggeringly higher than apple keyboard. I wonder if we're using it differently, which is what is causing the difference in experience here.
- user_7832 5y ago
  > I wonder if we're using it differently, which is what is causing the difference in experience here. Yep I think this is true. I use the Apple Keyboard only on my iPad (my phone is android), while if I had to guess you use an iPhone with a much smaller screen/keyboard. Everyone's real life mileage varies, as the saying goes.