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Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey

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Re: Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey

#41

Post by Closi »

neilv wrote: post #7

The author later speculates on why: > I actually was thinking along the lines of "interesting coincidence" but now I actually believe it is not a coincidence and they really did do this just to prevent people discussing welding Bing and "AI" into the FUCKING KEYBOARD

Alternative theory - When the iOS application was discontinued and they had removed it from the app store in October, they redirected their support site to just the android version FAQ's and have forgotten to switch it back.

Thus iOS support is just at:

https://support.swiftkey.com/hc/en-us/categories/200371942-i...

As a further note, Microsoft support is centralised at support.microsoft.com and it appears that they are currently adding all these help topics there too:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/swiftkey

IMO this falls into "don't attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"

Re: Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey

#42

Post by Langdal »

Daneel_ wrote: post #29

Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly does swiftkey offer over the usual keyboard? A quick google seems to bring up "better predictive text" and "better multi-language support" - is that it?

The iOS standard keyboard does not support swiping if your language is Norwegian.

Re: Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey

#43

Post by Closi »

ilt wrote: post #17
elashri wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and then when they finally release an update it's because of a fucking Bing button To be honest and as a heavy user of SwiftKey on iOS, they updated the app and released a fix before all the AI hype in the last couple of months. They might have this in mind as part of their vision from that point, but it is not to say that

Exactly. And kudos to them for not removing the Swiftkey either during that time, even if they were not updating it anymore. It was a nice, functional piece of software albeit with some bugs.

Worth noting that they did announce they were discontinuing it and removed it from the app store in October, then brought it back quickly after.

Re: Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey

#44

Post by yellowapple »

quaintdev wrote: post #16
pffft8888 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the person is complaining about people complaining. I find it ironic.

Why do we feel this need to disect everything

Probably for the same reason people feel the need to complain about people complaining... and then complain about people complaining about people complaining, and so on.

Re: Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey

#45

Post by DoreenMichele »

necovek wrote: post #32
DoreenMichele wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know anything about the author, but some people spend a lot of time online because they are handicapped and can't get out much. Such people can be pretty miserable, sometimes all the time, thus prone to venting. They would stop if you could fix their broken body and broken lives.

You start with a caveat, then make a set of unfounded assumptions, lead to an unfounded conclusion and equally unfounded resolution. While you use qualifiers like "some" and "can" throughout, I don't really see any substance to the comment. Basically, a single person existing that does match your comment makes your comment true, without any hint at how pervasive this might be.

Fifteen to twenty percent of people self identify as handicapped.

There used to be -- and may still be -- hash tags and such on Twitter to help such people find each other.

I'm very seriously handicapped and don't get out much. It's why I spend so much time online.

It's called testimony -- giving a voice for a topic I have a lot of firsthand knowledge of. I have no idea why you are attacking it so aggressively.

Re: Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey

#46

Post by pmoriarty »

Daneel_ wrote: post #29

Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly does swiftkey offer over the usual keyboard? A quick google seems to bring up "better predictive text" and "better multi-language support" - is that it?

It has a lot of themes and layouts, various typing-related songs, like if you want auto-capitalization or auto-spacing on our off, but the main thing I got it for originally was it was geared towards swiping to type,which I found to be a lot faster than Garrity letter-at-a-time typing... I don't know if it was an early pioneer at that or what, but it seems like most other keyboards let you do that now, so it's advantage (if it ever had one is less than it used to be).

But, in any case, I do like how it can predict a word as you type, so you don't have to type the full word out before releasing your finger and it will toe out the rest, and it does a good job of predicting phrases I types a lot, so for those I don't even have to type them out fully... I just have to type the first word or so and then tap on the predicted words to fill in the rest (or however many words of the prediction I want)... it can be a time saver.

Re: Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey

#47

Post by jeroenhd »

Daneel_ wrote: post #29

Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly does swiftkey offer over the usual keyboard? A quick google seems to bring up "better predictive text" and "better multi-language support" - is that it?

The predictive text combined with the predictive autocomplete are so good that they changed the way I type on my phone. I don't even need to hit the right letters anymore, the need for precisions has disappeared almost completely. This has massively sped up typing on my phone. There's also a wide variety of customisations (including an easy height slider and several input modes that you can adjust to any device) that many competing keyboards lack.

This is very obvious when I need to type on someone else's device or when I try other keyboards. They do similar things, each in their own way, but just don't do it quite so well as SwiftKey does it.

Since Microsoft bought the app I've stopped logging into it with an account (so reinstalls and new phones mean I need to retrain the keyboard) and have taken away the internet permission so it can't do any creepy stuff like send telemetry. Somehow Bing found itself into the keyboard, probably an automatic update I forgot to turn off in the Play store.

The addition of Bing is just one more sad step in the development of the app I probably use most on my phone. I switched to SwiftKey exactly because I didn't trust Google's Gboard and now all this Cortana 2.0 crap is making the keyboard just as bad as the one I dropped years ago.

Re: Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey

#48

Post by yellowapple »

Closi wrote: post #41
neilv wrote: post #7

The author later speculates on why: > I actually was thinking along the lines of "interesting coincidence" but now I actually believe it is not a coincidence and they really did do this just to prevent people discussing welding Bing and "AI" into the FUCKING KEYBOARD

Alternative theory - When the iOS application was discontinued and they had removed it from the app store in October, they redirected their support site to just the android version FAQ's and have forgotten to switch it back. Thus iOS support is just at: https://support.swiftkey.com/hc/en-us/categories/200371942-i... As a further note, Microsoft support is centralised at support.microsoft.com and it appears that they…

Do either of those links point to a way to give feedback or otherwise actually discuss the addition of Bing-related features?

Re: Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey

#49

Post by pmoriarty »

jeroenhd wrote: post #47
Daneel_ wrote: post #29

Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly does swiftkey offer over the usual keyboard? A quick google seems to bring up "better predictive text" and "better multi-language support" - is that it?

The predictive text combined with the predictive autocomplete are so good that they changed the way I type on my phone. I don't even need to hit the right letters anymore, the need for precisions has disappeared almost completely. This has massively sped up typing on my phone. There's also a wide variety of customisations (including an easy height slider and several input modes that you can adjust to any device) that…

I'm actually looking forward to trying out GPT4 through Bing... but wish I didn't have to sacrifice my privacy to do it.
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