This ducking keyboard can be so frustrating!

這該「使」的鍵盤實在令人受挫！

It can seem like autocorrect is working against you instead of helping you.

這自動選字的功能看似不是在幫助你，而是在跟你唱反調。

But the iPhone has had autocorrect for over ten years.

不過，其實 iPhone 的選字功能已經超過 10 年了。

Why does it still suck?

那為什麼依然如此地爛呢？

Whether you're on iPhone or Android, using the default keyboard, or a third-party app you deal with autocorrect every single day.

不管你是使用 iPhone 或是安卓系統的手機，使用原有的或是下載第三方的鍵盤都會面對自動選字的問題。

Usually, it works great, but sometimes it completely refuses to understand what you typed.

通常來說，這功能應該是很棒的，但它有時卻完全拒絕理解你所輸入的內容。

To figure out what's happening we have to understand how autocorrect works.

為了了解狀況，我們必須要了理解這個功能的運作模式。

When you type something on a phone, there's a lot of work going on in the background.

當你在使用手機打字時，其實手機的後台有大量的工作要運作。

The phone analyzes your input and compares it to stored dictionaries and language models.

手機會分析你所輸入的字詞並與已儲存的字典和語言模式作比對。

The phone then tries to correctly interpret the word or phrase you're trying to type.

手機會嘗試對你所輸入的字句作出正確的解讀。

So when you type "fopd" your phone changes it to "food" because "fopd" isn't a word, but it's only one letter away from "food."

因此當你輸入 fopd，手機會自動改成 food，因為並沒有 fopd 這個字，而且也剛好只差一個字母而已。

But not every example is this obvious.

不過也許不是每個例子都如此明顯。

The vowels U, I, and O are very close to each other, so a word like put, pit, and pot those, those were real challenges.

母音 U、I 和 O 在鍵盤上的位置都非常接近，所以像 put (擺放)、pit (使競爭) 和 pot (鍋子) 這幾個字，要分辨的確是有挑戰性。

That's Ken Kocienda, he's one of the people who developed autocorrect for Apple.

那位是 Ken Kocienda，他是其中一位發明蘋果的自動選字的人。

We spoke with Ken to find out what's happening inside of autocorrect.

我們和 Ken 訪談來找出自動選字是怎麼運作的。

My job was to come up with a way to make speedy and accurate typing possible on a sheet of glass.

我的職責是要讓用戶在螢幕上可以快速正確地輸入文字。

The hardest part isn't correcting spelling or grammar, it's interpreting what you meant to say from what you wrote.

最困難的地方不是修正拼法或文法，而是從你打的文字解讀你想說的意思。

And autocorrect is actually pretty good at this, but users tend to notice autocorrect only when it makes mistakes.

而自動選字在這方面還不錯，不過使用者只會在它弄錯字的時候才會發現這功能。

If it does what it's supposed to do 19 times, and then that 20th time it makes a mistake that is either distracting or embarrassing, that one mistake wipes out the positive feelings that people have for the 19 times where it just worked.

試想說如果前面已經執行了 19 次，然而在第 20 次的時候卻犯了一個會使人轉移注意力或尷尬的錯誤，那前面 19 次有效發揮功用為使用者帶來的好感，會因這一次的錯誤而摧毀掉。

This is especially obvious when autocorrect leads to unwanted changes.

這個功能在不想被修正的時候尤其顯著。

Sometimes it can feel like you're fighting against your keyboard.

有時候甚至覺得它在和你的鍵盤唱反調。

Mostly people complain about how autocorrect gets in the way of their swearing.

大部分的人使用起來都會想罵髒話。

The ducking keyboard.

這該「使」的鍵盤。

The iPhone keyboard will let you swear, it just wants to prevent you from accidentally sending a word that you didn't mean to send.

iPhone 的鍵盤會使你罵髒話，不過它也只是預防你不小心把不該說的話傳出去而已。

It might seem like you're always wrestling with autocorrect, but you can take control of your dictionary.

也許你總是很努力與自動選字功能角力，但其實你可以掌控自己手機內的辭典。

On iOS go into Settings, General, Keyboard, and then tap "Add Shortcut" or "Text Replacement."

在 iOS 系統上，你可以先到「設定」，然後點選「一般」，選「鍵盤」，再按「加入快捷鍵」或「替代文字」。

Here you can add a new word or a shortcut that fills in a word when you type a few letters.

你可以在這裡加上新的詞，或是只要輸入幾個字母的快捷輸入碼。

You can Google around to find out how to add words to the various versions of Android or third-party keyboards.

你們可以自行 Google 找出如何在安卓系統或是第三方的鍵盤上加入這些功能。

So, you might still think autocorrect sucks, but it's actually gotten a lot better since version one, and some developers have introduced new tools like swipe to type to make typing on a smartphone easier.

也許你依然覺得自動選字功能很爛，不過和第一代的相比已經進步有很大的進步了。有開發者採用新的功能像是以在屏幕上滑動來輸入文字，讓打字變得更便捷。

In the future, machine learning might create an autocorrect that's more accurate than ever, but whatever the technology is we can't lose sight of the original goal of autocorrect.

未來的機器學習也許可以發展更為準確的自動選字，但不論科技如何發展，我們也不能忽略自動選字功能的當初的目的。

The goal that I like to think about for the product is for it to have the software melt away.

我想我認為的目標是讓這軟體消失。

Autocorrection is not supposed to be glamorous, right?

自動選字功能不應是如此華麗的，對吧？

It's just supposed to be useful.

而是應該要實用。

Autocorrect is far from perfect, but our messages would look a lot worse without it.

自動選字功能並非完美，但如果沒有它，我們的文字訊息也許就不太能看了。