Predictive Texting – A Blessing Or A Curse?

Most mobile phones in this day and age have an option for predictive texting – a system whereby using the alphanumeric keypad on your phone, you can tap in messages one key press at a time, as opposed to the older way of hitting the “2” key twice to get a letter B, and so forth.

This is a beneficial innovation in many ways, but as is the nature with all predictions, predictive texting can be inaccurate.

If your phone has an alphanumeric keypad, take it out and have a look at it.

As you will notice, the keys each have more than one letter corresponding to them, and predictive texting works by taking the most likely meaning for your combination of key strokes and allowing you to change it if inaccurate.

This would be fine, if people never sent a text in a hurry or without checking.

Thus it is that you can be trying to drive home in thick fog, and send a message to your friends or family saying “Slightly delayed.

Stuck in dog!”. The looks you will get when you do arrive will be quite something to behold.

As, I’m sure, were the looks that one man got when he sent a text to tell his wife he was sat outside a cafe sipping wine – only for the phone to interpret this as “ripping wind”.

Another thing to look out for with predictive texting is that it often does not recognise proper names.

So, if you happen to be travelling with a friend named Anna, bear in mind that if you send a text to tell someone this, it may come out as “Will be there soon, am sat on a bus with bomb“.

And that’s never a good place to be.