Apple has an undisclosed multilingual gray list of tens of thousands of words and phrases that its iOS keyboard will not autocomplete or swipe-type, a researcher said on Friday.

The list is not a ban. iPhone users can still type what they like when drafting emails and texts. But the words on the list will not be suggested to users via autocomplete or swipe-typing in most cases, opening a window into how Apple manages the tradeoff between preventing its devices from offering offensive or politically charged suggestions to users and anticipating what they are trying to say.

Hundreds of millions of people worldwide use iPhones, so Apple's choices about which words its keyboard suggests could quietly shape how they communicate. Apple has not publicly disclosed the list, the researcher said.

The flagged words and phrases are overwhelmingly vulgar or offensive or related to drugs, sex or violence, according to independent researcher Derik Kauffman, who discovered the list recently. But other phrases are just politically salient, like "dictator Trump" and "sleepy Joe."

In an email, Apple did not comment directly on Kauffman's findings, including the size or composition of its list, or its reasons for flagging certain political terms. It said that iPhone users always had the option to type specific words or phrases and could always override any predictive text suggestions. Apple said its keyboard was set up to avoid offering suggestions that might be inappropriate or offensive.

Other phrases excluded from iOS's predictive text features include "right wing conspiracy" as well as "Tibetan independence" and "United Ireland," according to Kauffman.

Source link