It seems that panoramic camera feature isn’t the only thing Apple is hiding inside its latest iOS 5 software. There’s also an autocorrect keyboard feature just like that found on Android devices, which suggests words as you type making it quicker and easier than ever to type on an iOS device.
The feature was discovered by iOS hacker Sonny Dickson, and just like the hidden panoramic feature, the autocorrect keyboard can be enabled without jailbreaking. Here’s how to do it:
- Download iBackupBot
- Backup your iOS device using iTunes
- Open the iBackupBot applications and find your latest backup, then open it
- Navigate to Library/Preferences/com.apple.keyboard.plist and open up the file, then add the following code:
<key>KeyboardAutocorrectionLists</key> <string>Yes</string> - Now save the changes you have made and restore your device using the backup you just edited and the iBackupBot software. You must use this application — you cannot restore using iTunes
Now you’re all done. You should now have the autocorrect feature shown in the screenshot above.
Did it work for you?
[via 9to5Mac]
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
58 responses to “iOS 5 Has A Secret Autocorrect Keyboard Feature Just Like Android”
Steal idea’s harder newbs.
How does it make typing any quicker? At best it makes it clunky and unusable like the rest of Android.
Good artists borrow, great artists steal.
-Pablo Picaso
Doesn’t work. It doesn’t save
Same! I did the panorama tweak, but this doesn’t save the code!
Help!
The change doesnt save unless you buy the app.
This seems like semi-jailbreaking and has all the disadvantages of jailbreaking (needing special software and routines to upgrade and restore) without all the other benefits of jailbreaking. SInce I no longer jailbreak since the iOS now meets most of my requirements, making jailbreaking not quite worth it, I don’t think it is worth it to wake up an experimental keyboard tool. Same for the panorama software, especially since there are apps for that.
Doesn’t work. It sent an error message:
Found non-key inside <dict> at line 6
Line 6: <key>KeyboardAutocorrectionLists</key> <string>Yes</string></dict>
Just learn to type & spell…
Because it suggests a range of corrections. In my opinion, it’s pretty obvious how it makes typing quicker
I agree – additionally you will learn to type and spell.
I got it to work by entering the code immediately below the last “<key>” entry and not at the end. See below:
<plist version=”1.0″>
<dict>
<key>BuddySetupDone</key>
<true>
<key>KeyboardAutocorrectionLists</key>
<string>YES</string>
</true></dict>
</plist>
</key>
Didn’t work for me and I have a copy of the software.
Alan
Not worth potentially corrupting your backups for. When its ready for prime time apple will put make it available until then Im not going to pretend like Im a coder and screw around with the phone.
Right because changing a value in a file in your backup with an app made for it is likely to corrupt your backup and it’s not like you could just make a new backup if that happened… Right?
Do I need a sarcasm tag?
Ok, just to be clear, who was this stolen from?
I hope you aren’t going to say Android. Why? Because it was available of several keyboards for Windows Mobile before Android even existed, not to mention all the feature phones with T9 that did this…
I seriously don’t think that can call implementing such a common feature/concept stealing, if it was ever stole that was a long time ago when it was a new idea.
Just saying…
99% of folks are either not smart enough that they should be doing this or gutsy enough to even try it because they are smart enough to know they aren’t smart enough.
and MH is right. if it is there then it is likely Apple will flip the switches themselves when the time is right. Like say after they get the battery bug sorted out.
it’s very possible that the Apple store will agree with you that it is still tampering with your software and thus voids your warranty.
So when you come in with something not working and they notice either of these tricks turned on they will hand you back your phone, tell you to restore it and not repeat that trick etc.
This is just a true/false flag. How on earth is it going to corrupt your back up??
Second, you can always in the worst case just restore your iPhone. Most of the people reading this, able to actually download the program and make this change are probably smart enough to sort out their backups.
restore your phone and voila! no issues
yes it is quicker. I had this on my Droid phone. The software I had Swiftype would even look into your emails and sms messages to use your past spellings and sentence structures to make the predictions more accurate. I could easily write faster my my droid than I can on my iPhone 4S. Can’t wait to see this available on the iphone.
I am glad this is the second idea they stole from Android (notifications being the first)
Several people on 9to5 have already reported this corrupting their backups. So yeah
Some of us have lives where we dont want to wait 25 minutes to restore and use our phone because we are important enough where people need to get in contact with us. So jacking up our phone on a weekly basis resulting in a restore isnt ideal.
Clunky and usable? But if APPLE was the one who implemented it, it’s perfect…
I have iPhone 4s but I’ll giving it to my wife as I will get the galaxy nexus in Verizon…
How can a company please an imoron and istupid???
restore takes 5 minutes? and i ran jailbroken for a year without ever needing to restore so either you haven’t tried and formed your conclusion without trial – ignorance – or you messed up your phone by installing a cydia package you didn’t understand – stupidity – either way your fault.
Okay – after seeing Tibbs1949’s comment, I tried again and here is my entire file which got it working for me:
<plist version=”1.0″><dict><key>BuddySetupDone</key><true><key>KeyboardAutocorrectionLists</key><string>YES</string></true></dict></plist>
Trying again – formatting went wrong on this page!
<plist version=”1.0″>
<dict>
<key>BuddySetupDone</key>
<true>
<key>KeyboardAutocorrectionLists</key>
<string>YES</string>
</true></dict>
</plist>
OMG – it’s terrible. Don’t bother. Makes typing a complete nightmare.
Alan’s right. It sucks because you have to either tap every word to accept it or choose one from the suggestions list. You can’t just type. It doesn’t actually auto-correct at all, it auto-suggests.