Asklemmy @lemmy.ml lolcatnip @reddthat.com 5 mo. ago

Gboard: Why do I get "didn't" when I swipe "don't"?

When I swipe "don't" in Gboard, at least 30% of the time it decides I mean "didn't". I just tested it, and the accuracy was shockingly bad. I'd understand if the strokes were very similar, but "didn't" has a whole extra stroke in it compared to "don't". WTF, Google?

36 comments

Gboard used to be flawless for swipe typing, but in the last year or so I've noticed the autocorrect become far less reliable and actually prone to replacing the word I wanted with something else. They must have made some change within the last couple of years.
- It's so bad now, like I saw "what" a lot but it takes like 5 tries each time with words I never use
  
  Erst erst erst Edgar wyse scary what erst
  
  Ridiculous
- I've noticed a similar decrease in quality. I have no evidence but I'm guessing they threw gen ai in gboard. Do yourself and the planet a favor, try using a non gen ai keyboard. I'm using futoboard and it's pretty decent
- I've experienced similar. I also feel like at the same time the voice to text accuracy has gone down as well.
- iOS has the same problem, autocorrect is so bad now
Do it again, but drag the suggestion upwards until a trash icon appears. Maybe one time you used that swipe path and accidentally/deliberately clicked "didn't" and now it thinks you sometimes want that instead.

I have to do this all the time, I'm considering nuking it's memory
- Til you can do this, thanks!!!
- I don't see any way to do that with swipe input. The wrong word just appears at the cursor, skipping the suggestion box entirely.
  
  It adds the weird to the box cut should also show a "correction" list on top of the keyboard.
  
  Maybe it's different if you use floating or split keyboard mode?
Hell I'm still trying to figure out why the spell checker changes "i'll" to "i'LLC" every time I type it. Auto-correct on phones is just worthless and I spend far more time correcting it than I do trying to correct actual mistakes.
- the most annoying shit is when I type three letters that are almost a word (thw for example) and it decides "ah yes, let me correct this to THW"
  
  or maybe correct it to an actual word?
  
  thank god i can delete stuff from the autocorrect dictionary
  
  Is there a way to do that??? I can't find anything other than adding new words to a personal dictionary, but I do have an older version of android.
- Maybe deleting it would work.
  
  (You have to hold the word and start dragging it)
- Permanently Deleted
I have felt that the Gboard accuracy decreased drastically a couple years ago. It used to be perfect for me.
- I uninstalled gboard yesterday. So frustrating how bad it is. a) My fingers definitely didn't touch those letters. b) you're not even giving me suggestions of things I actually could have swiped. c) Those aren't fucking words.
  
  iOS keyboard isn't better, but it also isn't worse.
Gboard was never really good at picking up strokes. Honestly, nothing ever managed to come close to the accuracy of Swype & Dragon, which is why I'm still using it even 5 years after being discontinued. You can get the apk easily, but unfortunately it won't survive much longer when google enforces a new API version on Android.

Though I've heard of modded versions that should still work... Here's to hoping. That app has been with me for 14 years.
I hate fucking gboard. I use it, but I hate it. It ballooned from 13MB to more than a hundred now, but I was still using it, with Rethink to block its internet access, but new versions started lagging if they can't connect. So I had to revert to the version that came with my phone, it's small and at least works even if it's cut off from the internet. Fuck you Google for enshittifying a core part of the OS.
Gboard sucks. I have been using swift key for years. No matters how much keyboard apps I try I always come back to it.
I can't even get Gboard to capitalize "i" FFS, you expect it to do something even more complicated!? The state of keyboards are so bad today. I remember when you could vaguely type or swipe in Swype or Swiftkey and it would get your word correct most of the time, now they all fucking suck, Swiftkey just happens to suck slightly less than GBoard.
- For it to do that, "Auto-Correct" in the Gboard settings has to be on. You can also kind of accidentally kill a feature like this by having a single lowercase i added to the dictionary. If you have, just remove it like someone showed above. Note: there is no list of words in the options anywhere where you can see the list, you can do it while typing anywhere though. Just type a single I, press space, then backspace, then drag the single "i" entry from the suggestions to the trash that appears when you hold the i.
  
  side note: I have typed this comment using Gboard glide, and I had to correct a total of 2 words. Everything else was recognized as intended.
I'm so tired of swiping about and getting Scott
Heliboard also constantly thinks I mean Tue when typing the. I have never used the word Tue.
dont didn't dont didn't

dunno, works fine on heliboard, which is odd, because the glide typing library is extracted from gboard
Because autocorrect is evil and is intent on making us all look stupid
Agh Gboard. Sorry I don't have a better answer but if anybody knows a privacy-friendly android keyboard that's got quick GIF access and this swipe-typing, that'd make my day and I'd gladly spend the time re-training my thumbs.
- Heliboard? https://github.com/Helium314/HeliBoard
  
  futo keyboard is 100% local and has ai prediction
  
  yes! i love heliboard, its also alot better than florisboard that i used to use
Same! Like 90% of the time! It started within the last month.
- It happens to me as well. If I go slower it recognizes words more accurately.
I tried it on mine, but couldn't get it to happen. It's possible that Gboard might be trying to make a grammatical correction. Not to imply that you don't know how to write, but something that needs to be asked from a troubleshooting perspective: Are you sure you're using the correct word for the sentence?

Also, and this might be an annoying step to take but, does it continue after clearing the Gboard app settings completely? I think Gboard will also make "habitual" corrections based on your usage, so it could also be possible that it thinks you frequently delete "don't" and replace it with "didn't", and is trying to preemptively correct it.
It seems to accept swiping "dindt" as didn't. Avoid getting to close to the "d" between the "n" and "t" and "don't" gets detected fine.
MaYbE iT nEeDs Ai...
I was gonna test it but I can't glide type on this app for some reason

You've viewed 36 comments.