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Comment by bsaul | Hacker News Reader

To me, the greatest inconvenience of iOS 11 is the keyboard lag on the iPad. I really don't know what happened, but it made the OS completely unusable on an iPad Air. For a damn keyboard. I tried turning some autocomplete options off, but it didn't change a lot.

I'm the author of a B2B app running on iPad only, but those kind of things makes me really think about going cross-platform for my next major release. I don't see myself recommending my (pro) users a platform where an OS release makes typing text in a text field unusable.

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I developed and maintain an app for education with HTML5 interactive books. The app runs on Android, Chrome OS, Mac, Windows, and iOS.

Of all the platforms, iOS is the only one causing problems with the webview and we are starting to seriously consider moving out of iOS in the next years since we can influence the device the schools/parents are buying.

For example we have one bug where the keyboard stops responding. Apparently this was solved in WKWebView, but we are forced to use the old UIWebView because of other bugs with WKWebView Apple hasn't solved.

iOS's keyboard is the worst thing about the entire platform IMO. The first thing I do on any new device is replace it with the Google Keyboard. Text entry is one area where Android really outshines iOS.

This is clearly a matter of preference. After using the iOS keyboard for years, I hate typing on Android.

Obviously it's a matter of preference, but I agree with the OP that the Google Keyboard (GBoard, it's on iOS) is far superior to the Apple keyboard. Unfortunately it's been a little unreliable since iOS 11 came out.

I regularly have issues with gboard where it won't accept the first 5-10 keypresses when I open it. It's especially bad within Google's own apps.

"on Android" is rather vague - which keyboard?

The input lag on all androids, and really all keyboards I've tried, is horrible and doesn't seem to exist on ios. I mean, it's probably not zero on ios either, but it's much less.

And "upgraded" androids are much worse : you select a textfield, takes seconds to place a cursor in it, and multiple seconds to reflow the screen and show the keyboard.

I don't know which devices you have used, but that's simply not true in my experience.

Mind you, I have sworn off Samsung, since their TouchWiz has indeed been a laggy mess in the past. But in my experience over the years with HTC, Sony, Moto, or most recently Nokia, text input is fine. (And definitely less laggy than on my - admittedly old - iPad 3.)

I get no lag at all on my Pixel XL. Typing on that phone is way more pleasant and ergonomic than it is on my iPhone and a lot of the features like autocomplete work better, especially in a multilingual setting.

Are you peck typing on Android? Sometimes that can be slow, but using Swype like typing is much faster even without lag.

Speaking only from personal experience, the only thing about the stock Android keyboard that I prefer over the stock iOS keyboard is swipe typing. It's phenomenal. I've had plenty of issues just trying to get the actual key that I want to press on Android.

Again, personal experience only.

It's their way of making you upgrade to a 2017 model. Not an accident or a bug.

There's a famous quote :

"never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity"

Sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice

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