Windows 10 Mobile Keyboard Woes

[vincentwansink]

So I used to be quite happy with the keyboard on Windows phone 8.1, particularly after we got swipe capability but it seems to me the keyboard on Windows 10 mobile is quite the downgrade. Am I wrong?

I'm talking specifically about predictive text. I typically have to replace about 30% of the words in my text messages before I send. And the keyboard doesn't learn either!! How many times am I going to have to replace www with "we". It's very annoying. I'm pretty sure the keyboard on Windows phone 8.1 was much better at predicting the words I'm trying to type.

Anyway, I used to use SwiftKey on my old Android and that was a really great keyboard. Microsoft acquired SwiftKey earlier this year I believe and Satya Nadella tweeted a few days ago about SwiftKey's new neural network keyboard for Android, but still I've heard nothing about either opening up the API to allow third party keyboards on W10M or integrating the SwiftKey technology into the default keyboard.

Here's a link to his tweet: https://twitter.com/SwiftKey/status/776451570019897344

Is anybody else as frustrated about this as I am?

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

I wholeheartedly agree. The Swype function on W10M is a pain for me to use a lot of the time.

 

[Dan Harris]

Have you tried resetting the text predicitions and dictionary on the phone? I've read that it can help but haven't tried it myself.

Will try and dig out where that setting is.

 

[vincentwansink]

I've been looking for such settings but I don't think there's a way to do what you suggest. If you figure out a way, let me know.

 

[billy269]

I agree 100%. Way worse now.

 

[Ariel Takom]

Wow, all of you have complete different experience than me. For me, the keyboard has been the same, if not better, than it was on WP8.1. I communicate with my contacts using 2 languages (English and Malay), but I only set my keyboard to English (GB). After manually typing out the Malay words, the keyboard starts to learn these words and when I swipe them, it automatically types the malay words for me (keyboard still in English (GB)).

My only complain is that the keyboard is a bit too small for my fingers. When I manually type, I use to accidentally press the wrong key.

 

[abhishek singh21]

the keyboard is too small, it feels better on big devices 5"+

 

[Keith Wallace]

Oh, this keyboard is a raging mess. Swipe-based texting is horribly inaccurate, and if you like typing words with double letters, get ready for tap-based texting that doesn't think it exists (double-tapping a letter likes to give you the letter you tap and one adjacent, just to mess with you). I don't even care about the predictive stuff's quality, the fact that we have 2 primary methods of input, and both are utter garbage, is ridiculous. It's the worst part of W10M, and a massive pain to deal with, thanks to their terrible word selection method.

I have an LG G2 as a secondary device. If I make a typo in the middle of the word, I tap the middle of the word, and the cursor goes there. On my 950, I have to tap the word, then use the little circle to navigate or drag the cursor and hope I stop it in the right spot (I say this only because I have pretty large fingers, so seeing the cursor properly is sometimes tough for me).

So, you get a trashy keyboard that is prone to typos, no matter how you do it. To make matters worse, it's a keyboard that makes fixing typos a gigantic pain. It's insane that they made something so bad after the 8.1 was decent (other than a few word issues, like getting the swipe-based entering of "probably" to go through).

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I can definitely say the swype or word flow is not as good as it used to be on 8.1. Words like refineries or experiences are impossible to swype - I have to type them out
I swype so and it comes out do
It - di
We- ee
etc

 

[wgs84]

Yeah, some words are downright impossible to swipe on the W10m keyboard. For the life of me, I cannot swipe the word "three". Ever. It's also difficult on Google Keyboard on Android, but not impossible. One thing that I do really like about the W10m keyboard though is that caret function.

 

[Myrkur]

Swiping in English is okay-ish, but in Polish it's a mess. So much worse than in 8.1.

 

[vincentwansink]

Wow, all of you have complete different experience than me. For me, the keyboard has been the same, if not better, than it was on WP8.1. I communicate with my contacts using 2 languages (English and Malay), but I only set my keyboard to English (GB). After manually typing out the Malay words, the keyboard starts to learn these words and when I swipe them, it automatically types the malay words for me (keyboard still in English (GB)).

My only complain is that the keyboard is a bit too small for my fingers. When I manually type, I use to accidentally press the wrong key.

"the keyboard starts to learn these words". How did you get your keyboard to learn?

 

[vincentwansink]

I like the caret function too, but I just don't understand how the swiping could get worse. Did they start over from scratch? Why didn't they just re-use the code (or at least the logic) from 8.1?

 

[greedo_greedy]

I have the same good experience as Ariel Takom.

I am from the Philippines and have my keyboard set as US and add Filipino words individually.

Admittedly there is a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, you will be typing/swiping like a pro in no time.

"the keyboard starts to learn these words"
You can actually "teach" the keyboard. Try typing a word not in the dictionary, highlight it and you will see the word with a "+" sign before it in the suggestions line.

After pressing the "+" it is already added to the dictionary and you can now swipe it.

It is also worth pointing out that you can reset your dictionary.
This will benefit those who wish to start from scratch.

Go to Settings > Privacy > Speech, inking, & typing > Get to know me or Stop getting to know me.

Press Stop getting to know me and it should reset your keyboard.

 

[speccy]

The Wordflow keyboard in Windows 10 Mobile is sh1t. Under Win8.1 it was as good as any Android keyboard, but under 10, it's terrible Though I have recently switched back to the Anniversary Update instead of the Insider rings, and I seem to have less issues with the keyboard, though I may be imagining it of course.

 

[EspHack]

all I can say is the 8.1 swype kb was so good it almost seemed unreal to me, so fast and so eerily accurate, and it beat some guiness records too, I had ZERO complains about it other than the censored words

now after w10m it just seemed like the entire OS was such a trainwreck that the poor kb couldnt even function properly, after a hundred or so cumulatives it became usable, and after anniversary apparently it deleted everything and I had to add my special words again and so on, but still to this day its not even close to the original 8.1 kb

maybe thats another consumer thing that is no longer a focus point? businesses and pros are going to use continuum right?

oh and to think that w10 tablets and other touchscreen w10 devices STILL dont even have "wordflow" while ms is happy to port it to iOS is just incomprehensible, typing on a 8" 10" tablet requires an insane amount of patience, it doesnt learn anything and it just keeps correcting wrongly and if you disable auto correct its just as bad since you have to constantly backspace to fix words yourself, because it misses like 60% of touches, the touch kb on w10 feels like that same on-screen-kb app we had since vista only redesigned with "modern" styling

 

[KwisatzHaderach]

If you think the English word flow kb is a mess just be glad you're not using the German version! Capitalizing (every noun in German is capitalized, most of them share the same word with a verb or adjective) it's seriously broken and why ffs do I always (!!!) get a capitalized "Ja" ("Yes") even mid sentence?! Also there seem to be allot of nonsense words like "Kochi" that I get when trying to type words like "ich" ("I")! Kochi sometimes concede and go back to typing to spare me the amusement of my partners in conversation.

 

[jsooney]

Same here. Swipe on WP8.1 was amazingly good, WP10 is pathetically bad. I can only assume they started from scratch.

 

[vincentwansink]

"the keyboard starts to learn these words"
You can actually "teach" the keyboard. Try typing a word not in the dictionary, highlight it and you will see the word with a "+" sign before it in the suggestions line.

After pressing the "+" it is already added to the dictionary and you can now swipe it.

Ya, but adding words to the dictionary is not teaching the keyboard. I'm talking about having the keyboard learn what words I use more often. Like for example if I swipe "we" and the keyboard assumes I mean "www", but I change it to "we" then I expect the keyboard to remember for future reference that I most likely want "we", not "www".

By the way, I'm not sure why you bother adding your Tagalog words to your English dictionary. Why don't you just install a Tagalog keyboard and switch between them when necessary? That's what I do with my Dutch keyboard. When you want to switch between languages, just swipe left or right on the space bar. That feature of the keyboard is actually quite nice.

 

[vincentwansink]

I just noticed in the feedback hub that there are plenty of people complaining about the keyboard there too. Added my upvotes where applicable. Maybe somebody at Microsoft will actually make this a priority issue.