Most of us are all too familiar with autocorrect snafus. Sometimes embarrassing, often hilarious, but frequently frustrating, the text-prediction function that comes with touchscreen keyboards can often be a pain to manipulate.
But according to the creators of Fleksy, a new keyboard replacement app for iOS, autocorrect fails can soon be a thing of the past.
Originally designed for use by individuals who are blind or visually impaired, Fleksy is said to have "probably the most powerful text prediction engine" around.
So powerful, in fact, that Fleksy claims to be able to decipher a garbled word containing all the wrong letters and turn it into exactly the right word you meant to type. A user could even hide the keyboard completely and still tap out words with -- apparently -- near-perfect autocorrection.
Goodbye "Promotional kitten basket"!
"The objective…[is] to make typing easier," Ioannis Verdelis, one of Fleksy's co-founders, told TechCrunch.
Named one of the top 10 iPhone and iPad apps this week by the Guardian, Fleksy has been getting rave reviews for its "smartness" and intuitive technology.
However, despite the positive assessments of its features, some say that Fleksy may not reach as wide of an audience as it is hoping for.
"On Apple’s mobile platform, you can’t replace your keyboard as you can on Android, so the odds are that most iOS users won’t actually use this unless they really are blind or have poor vision. But it’s an interesting idea," wrote Sarah Perez for TechCrunch, adding also that the Fleksy user experience required "some practice."
Buzzfeed's John Herrman also notes that Fleksy's assertive autocorrect system may actually become as annoying as the predictive keyboards we are currently familiar with.
"It's very similar in operation to a run-of-the-mill iOS or Android autocorrect engine… if Apple or Google were to make its autocorrect systems more assertive -- that is, have it guess at a lower threshold of certainty -- it would look a lot like this. And, as with Fleksy, you would get enough misses that you'd probably want to switch back to something less aggressive," he said.
The iOS app is currently free to try through the Apple Store. Versions for Android and Windows Phone are reportedly in the works.
For some of the funniest autocorrect snafus, click through this (at times NSFW) slideshow that feature's the website Damn You Auto Correct's top 25 most outrageous texting fails from 2011:
