Weird iOS 11 bug robs users of the letter ‘i’

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iOS 11 keyboard
Users temporarily can't take advantage of words with the letter 'i' in them.
Photo: Apple

Many people who upgraded to the latest version of iOS 11 find themselves unable to type the letter “i” due to a software bug.

For some reason in iOS 11.1, the letter “i” sometimes gets autocorrected to the letter “a” and a strange symbol, which usually appears as a question mark inside a box. Luckily, there’s a workaround while Apple scrambles to push out a software fix.

The letters can be manually replaced, but this is inconsistent. The bug also can be difficult to spot, particularly if you’re rapidly tapping out messages. The fault does not affect every user, although it has been reported on a number of iPhone and iPad models.

The iOS 11.1 bug also affects numerous apps, including Apple’s iMessage service (presumably now called aMessage) and Twitter (which we won’t amend, for obvious reasons.)

How to solve this weird iOS 11.1 bug

If you run into the problem, you can fix it by setting up a manual text replacement. To do this, go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text replacement. Then tap the + button, and, under Phrase, type an uppercase “I.” For Shortcut, type a lowercase “i.”

That should solve the glitch until Apple issues a fix. The company already acknowledged the problem.

Have you experienced this weird iOS 11 glitch? Let us know in the comments below.

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