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Definition: predictive text


Anticipating the word being entered when only a few letters are typed, or anticipating the next word in the sentence. Predictive text differs from the autocomplete function in email programs and Web browsers. They only fill in known addresses that were previously used. Predictive text works with regular words and grammar.

It Can Really Predict - If You Let It
Predictive text applications may request access to a user's social media, email addresses and other proprietary information so they can better estimate more of the words a person uses every day. See autocomplete and predictive notification.




Word Completion
Enormously helpful on tiny keyboards, predictive text saves many keystrokes. On this Android memo app, tapping "Tomato" completes the word and adds a blank space.








Sentence Completion
More sophisticated than completing words is completing sentences. These examples from the SwiftKey Android app (top) and BlackBerry 10 smartphone (bottom) anticipate the next word. Inserting the text takes a single tap or swipe.