Live data from Hacker News

Fix the iOS keyboard before the timer hits zero or I'm switching back to Android

ios-countdown.win

61–70 of 826 posts

Re: Fix the iOS keyboard before the timer hits zero or I'm switching back to Android

#61
post #7

> I caved to the blue bubble pressure Had me until then. Zero respect for this, frankly.

Can you elaborate? Is this a glassmorphism reference?

In most countries, the most used messenger app is Whatsapp or Wechat or LINE or KakaoTalk or whatever.

In the USA, the most common messenger is iMessage. Unfortunately, unlike all the other apps I named, there's no Android app for it. Instead, if you try to iMessage an android recipient, suddenly iMessage turns into your phone's SMS app (not really sure why, feels like that should be a separate app), and half the features go away.

You can no longer remove people from group chats (if any 1 of them has an android), you get strange messages sometimes, you don't get typing indicators. If they use RCS, and then go on a vacation to a country without RCS, suddenly your chat can break in very strange ways.

As a result, it's very common in the US for people to be ostracized from iPhone friend groups due to not having an iPhone.

When you use dating apps, if eventually you trade numbers and your partner is a green bubble, that's usually enough to end any chances at a relationship. Your family will remove you from the family group chat after the first low-resolution group photo.

A company made a solution to this called Beeper Mini, allowing people to have blue bubbles while using android phones, and Apple of course immediately shut it down because Apple wants the iOS club in the US to have this tangible social benefit, of you being able to have a wider dating pool, being able to talk to your family, and so on. https://www.macrumors.com/2023/12/10/apple-confirms-it-shut-...

It's a truly bizarre state of affairs.

Re: Fix the iOS keyboard before the timer hits zero or I'm switching back to Android

#62
post #6

As a lifelong Android user (in the EU, where Apple hegemony is not as strong) I always saw Apple as the "pay more for more polished ecosystem UX" option. So it always surprises me when things that are trivial on Android/Linux are sticking points on iOS/macOS. Worse, it seems that proprietary means you can't do anything to fix them yourself.

Long-time iOS user here. My motivation for iPhone has always been "you pay more for fewer features and customization, but the UX is more polished." For the past 5-ish years, the UX has consistently gotten considerably worse. Not just the usual things like the horrible keyboard and atrocious Siri capabilities, it's all the stuff that used to just work . Nothing deal-breaking by itself, but all together feels like deat…

Also add Liquid Glass, it strains the eyes.

Even siri got worse, when I say call now it does some location based search, and calls sonebody, when near home it is a doctor, when on the other side of the river it is a flower shop, at othe rplaces other random non-contacts, with a contact having the sting it used for search, as her nickname is always part of the called person… It used to work flawlessly as expected…

I would be fine with Siri actually if if could handle simple fixed phrase based task, no AI, as it could a few years ago.

Re: Fix the iOS keyboard before the timer hits zero or I'm switching back to Android

#65

Terrorizing Apple with a countdown threat is probably not going to accomplish much. You could try installing Gboard ( https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/gboard-the-google-keyboard/id1... ), or SwiftKey ( https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/microsoft-swiftkey-ai-keyboard... )...and there are probably other options. It may be even more obvious, but there are settings in general/keyboard that you can toggle. I noticed a bit of a s…

I recently tested Swiftkey after Typewise is sadly abandoned. It's sooooo much better than the stock keyboard. Not only is the auto-correct working incredibly well (garbage like witjoit is correctly transformed to without, which Apple Keyboard can't), Swiftkey also manages multi-language typing astonishingly well. Last but not least, I can customize it. I am also not signed in to my account, so no settings or whatever is stored on Microsoft servers.

Re: Fix the iOS keyboard before the timer hits zero or I'm switching back to Android

#66
post #6

As a lifelong Android user (in the EU, where Apple hegemony is not as strong) I always saw Apple as the "pay more for more polished ecosystem UX" option. So it always surprises me when things that are trivial on Android/Linux are sticking points on iOS/macOS. Worse, it seems that proprietary means you can't do anything to fix them yourself.

In the US Apple is the "Use it or your social group will not want to interact with you" option. Outside of tech circles (where apparently people easily get their entire family and friend network on signal), people want to use imessage and only want to use imessage. Android phones can't support imessage because they are poor low quality phones that cannot handle imessage. So you need a high quality phone like iphone s…

[deleted]

Re: Fix the iOS keyboard before the timer hits zero or I'm switching back to Android

#67

I was once blown away by iPhone 8 editing capabilities. The keyboard seemed to work OK (minus swipe-to-type, but that wasn't great on Android either), and using 3D Touch to move cursor and select text was the most pleasant text editing experience, even better than on the desktop (arrow keys and vim hjkl). And then it was all removed in a software update.

3D Touch was a useless gimmick for most users because it wasn’t discoverable. The move cursor feature didn’t disappear btw. It’s now in the space bar.

Re: Fix the iOS keyboard before the timer hits zero or I'm switching back to Android

#68
post #61
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate? Is this a glassmorphism reference?

In most countries, the most used messenger app is Whatsapp or Wechat or LINE or KakaoTalk or whatever. In the USA, the most common messenger is iMessage. Unfortunately, unlike all the other apps I named, there's no Android app for it. Instead, if you try to iMessage an android recipient, suddenly iMessage turns into your phone's SMS app (not really sure why, feels like that should be a separate app), and half the fea…

I’m honestly not sure which is more dystopian: the American blue/green bubble divide, or the situation in Spain where my doctor sends blood test results over WhatsApp, delivery drivers call me on WhatsApp, and couriers ask me to share my live location because they can’t find my building. Nearly all day-to-day communication is funnelled through a single Meta-owned channel.

Re: Fix the iOS keyboard before the timer hits zero or I'm switching back to Android

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing you can't fix is that every iPhone and iPad invisibly resizes the keyboard keys as you type. :(

This is actually a necessary feature for a touchscreen keyboard to feel usable, and it's been in iOS since day one. The problem is that it has gotten not only much worse over time at predicting which tap zones to enlarge, but it also feels more aggressive. For example, tapping the shift button on the iOS keyboard enlarges the Enter/Return key's touch area so much that I am unable to immediately tap the microphone ico…

I disagree that it's necessary and I wish I could disable it. They even have it enabled on iPads, which are a tad larger than the original iPhone, and which can be used with the official stylus.
Post reply on HN