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iOS must have changed some things related to keyboards. On an iPhone many years ago it was definitely a better experience. I’m not sure if some sort of predicti

iOS must have changed some things related to keyboards. On an iPhone many years ago it was definitely a better experience. I’m not sure if some sort of predictive text gets in the way or what. Or maybe something with the spacing. Or it also seems like some sort of thread priority issue because there are times where I can distinctly tell that there’s some sort of input lag that’s messing with it. Gboard is crippled on iOS — why can’t we just have a damn comma on the main screen?! And why can't I just get my keyboard to be at the very bottom of my screen. It's 2025 and we have gone so far backward.

dingnuts 1y ago
today I was texting and Google Messages began to lag. Why DOES everything seem to get worse? I can hear the Doctorow fans coming out of the woodwork to tell me it's "enshittification" but that's a cute conspiracy theory that doesn't explain at all why Google would allow Messages to have a memory leak after working fine for years. There's no profit motive to making a core application shittier. We have to dig deeper, because this kind of thing is everywhere and hand waving at capitalism like Doctorow does is a cop out and an unsatisfying explanation IMHO
- 2muchcoffeeman 1y ago
  Why do you need to dig deeper? If you were the PM would you prioritise the fixing of the bug instead of other work that’s more important? How many customers will you actually lose?
- murderfs 1y ago
  Because random performance bugs are a giant pain to even detect, let alone root cause.
- moi2388 1y ago
  Because of agile and ci/cd practices. Meaning you ship features to production with at best a/b testing. Never mind writing tests. Of course written by some cheap devs from India or Bangladesh. If the code was even still written by a human at this point.
dav43 1y ago
Been using iPhone for years and I swear the keyboards accuracy has turned to absolute shit. I am convinced through my experience that they have definitely changed something and made it terrible. It’s making me consider getting an android cos that’s how we use our phones - with a keyboard.
- whycome 1y ago
  Oh and it's distinctly worse on the iOS 26 beta. Certain text boxes (like HN) are a nightmare. I used to smoothly type without looking on iOS. It was like magic. Now, it's just a mess. I think gboard on Android is the current top experience.
  - W3zzy 1y ago
    FOSS heliboard is a strong competitor to Gboard.
    - dotancohen 1y ago
      I'll check out out, thank you.
      - W3zzy 1y ago
        Alas, I don't think it's available on iOS.
        dotancohen 1y ago
        I use Android as my daily driver.
    - dotancohen 1y ago
      I just tried to use Heliboard. It has many rough edges, I'll file issues to see it they can be improved. For one thing, the voice typing is useless. It respects neither the language of the full keyboard nor the language shown in its interface. And that separate interface needs to be brought up separately, thus requiring many taps - exactly what I'm avoiding by using voice typing in the first place. Selecting text then pressing the Delete key does not delete that selection in Hebrew or Arabic. It does work in English. The swiping in English works fine - probably because that library is lifted directly from Gboard. So the idea is independence from propriety Gboard is not reality anyway. Swiping does not work in Hebrew or Arabic - which together with the lack of voice typing means that I can not use this keyboard at all. I do like the arrow keys and selection buttons in the toolbar. Gboard has that in a seperate pane, but in the toolbar is much more convenient.
hshdhdhj4444 1y ago
Same here. The iOS keyboard puts absolute gibberish in there in ways it never did for me before. The Apple AI predictive text seems strictly worse.
GrantS 1y ago
Wow, as others have said below, disabling the “Slide to Type” feature in Settings > General > Keyboard makes typing work well again on iOS. I cannot believe I put up with this awful typing experience for the past year/years. This should be broadcast more widely somehow. I’m sure many people have just assumed they got worse at typing. I am genuinely flabbergasted.
- whycome 1y ago
  HOLY shit. You just changed my life. You're absolutely right. It fixed the exact problem I could never quite pin down. I guess the keyboard was always a bit too eager to detect a swipe? This is absolutely nuts edit: i can type without looking again! i hate that this was the issue.

dingnuts 1y ago

today I was texting and Google Messages began to lag. Why DOES everything seem to get worse? I can hear the Doctorow fans coming out of the woodwork to tell me it's "enshittification" but that's a cute conspiracy theory that doesn't explain at all why Google would allow Messages to have a memory leak after working fine for years. There's no profit motive to making a core application shittier. We have to dig deeper, because this kind of thing is everywhere and hand waving at capitalism like Doctorow does is a cop out and an unsatisfying explanation IMHO

2muchcoffeeman 1y ago
Why do you need to dig deeper? If you were the PM would you prioritise the fixing of the bug instead of other work that’s more important? How many customers will you actually lose?
murderfs 1y ago
Because random performance bugs are a giant pain to even detect, let alone root cause.
moi2388 1y ago
Because of agile and ci/cd practices. Meaning you ship features to production with at best a/b testing. Never mind writing tests. Of course written by some cheap devs from India or Bangladesh. If the code was even still written by a human at this point.

dav43 1y ago

Been using iPhone for years and I swear the keyboards accuracy has turned to absolute shit. I am convinced through my experience that they have definitely changed something and made it terrible. It’s making me consider getting an android cos that’s how we use our phones - with a keyboard.

whycome 1y ago
Oh and it's distinctly worse on the iOS 26 beta. Certain text boxes (like HN) are a nightmare. I used to smoothly type without looking on iOS. It was like magic. Now, it's just a mess. I think gboard on Android is the current top experience.
- W3zzy 1y ago
  FOSS heliboard is a strong competitor to Gboard.
  - dotancohen 1y ago
    I'll check out out, thank you.
    - W3zzy 1y ago
      Alas, I don't think it's available on iOS.
      - dotancohen 1y ago
        I use Android as my daily driver.
  - dotancohen 1y ago
    I just tried to use Heliboard. It has many rough edges, I'll file issues to see it they can be improved. For one thing, the voice typing is useless. It respects neither the language of the full keyboard nor the language shown in its interface. And that separate interface needs to be brought up separately, thus requiring many taps - exactly what I'm avoiding by using voice typing in the first place. Selecting text then pressing the Delete key does not delete that selection in Hebrew or Arabic. It does work in English. The swiping in English works fine - probably because that library is lifted directly from Gboard. So the idea is independence from propriety Gboard is not reality anyway. Swiping does not work in Hebrew or Arabic - which together with the lack of voice typing means that I can not use this keyboard at all. I do like the arrow keys and selection buttons in the toolbar. Gboard has that in a seperate pane, but in the toolbar is much more convenient.

hshdhdhj4444 1y ago

Same here. The iOS keyboard puts absolute gibberish in there in ways it never did for me before. The Apple AI predictive text seems strictly worse.

GrantS 1y ago

Wow, as others have said below, disabling the “Slide to Type” feature in Settings > General > Keyboard makes typing work well again on iOS. I cannot believe I put up with this awful typing experience for the past year/years. This should be broadcast more widely somehow. I’m sure many people have just assumed they got worse at typing. I am genuinely flabbergasted.

whycome 1y ago
HOLY shit. You just changed my life. You're absolutely right. It fixed the exact problem I could never quite pin down. I guess the keyboard was always a bit too eager to detect a swipe? This is absolutely nuts edit: i can type without looking again! i hate that this was the issue.