The invisible problem

Scott Jenson present The Invisible Problem:

[..]“Everyone can edit text on their phones, right? What’s the problem?”

Text editing on mobile isn’t ok. It’s actually much worse than you think, an invisible problem no one appreciates. I wrote this post so you can understand why it’s so important.[…]

This is a very thoughfull presentation on how (badly) text editing is implemented on mobile devices (mobile phones).

Personally I hate the whole text editing experience on mobile. Both Android (I haven’t used it in a while) and iOS. So much I never reply to emails on the phone, and the most I did was Twitter until its API was shut down

A few tidbits:

Apple’s magnifier is even more chaotic, vanishing in iOS13 and returning in iOS15.

One of the key element that allow to move in the text with a finger was the magnifier. And it disppeared from iOS for a couple of years. Yes I really missed it.

Also, it is worth mentionning that the autocarrot 🥕 is definitely another hurdle into writing on a phone.

The conclusion is simple: text editing UX needs to be addressed by the two dominant mobile platforms, Google Android and Apple iOS. And the only reason it won’t is that it is a slow and long winded effort that will only benefit the users¹. Unless it’s so decisive that it would drain users en masse, but that’s unlikely to happen as users habits die hard and now it’s likely too late to shift.

More open mobile platforms (those based on Free Software) could address it on their side, but that wouldn’t spread it to the users. It might just help the dominant player to prototype it, for free.