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The case against conversational interfaces

(julian.digital)
279 points nnx | 5 comments | 01 Apr 25 02:14 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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eviks ◴[01 Apr 25 07:57 UTC] No.43544010[source]▶
> but we’ve never found a mobile equivalent for keyboard shortcuts. Guess why we still don’t have a truly mobile-first productivity app after almost 20 years since the introduction of the iPhone?

Has it even been tried? Is there an iPhone text editing app with fully customizable keyboard that allows for setting up modes/gestures/shortcuts, scriptable if necessary?

> A natural language prompt like “Hey Google, what’s the weather in San Francisco today?” just takes 10x longer than simply tapping the weather app on your homescreen.

That's not entirely fair, the natural language could just as well be side button + saying "Weather" with the same result, though you can make app availability even easier by just displaying weather results on the homescreen without tapping

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1. walterbell ◴[01 Apr 25 08:27 UTC] No.43544203[source]▶
Blackberry physical keyboard had many shortcuts, https://defkey.com/blackberry-10-classic-shortcuts

iPad physical keyboards also have shortcuts.

replies(1): >>43544302 #
2. eviks ◴[01 Apr 25 08:40 UTC] No.43544302[source]▶
These are both desktop equivalents using an actual desktop keyboard or a mini variant thereof
replies(1): >>43548546 #
3. walterbell ◴[01 Apr 25 16:16 UTC] No.43548546[source]▶
Why is Blackberry a desktop equivalent? It preceded iPhone by many years, with unique workflows that varied by model.
replies(1): >>43548666 #
4. eviks ◴[01 Apr 25 16:26 UTC] No.43548666{3}[source]▶
Because it's literally a physical=desktop keyboard, just smaller in size while almost all current mobile interfaces are touch based?(also, the question wasn't about uniqueness, but productivity levels of a desktop productivity app, think about code editors with extensions, keyboard and mouse gesture customization.

What did they have in their touch interfaces?

replies(1): >>43548837 #
5. walterbell ◴[01 Apr 25 16:40 UTC] No.43548837{4}[source]▶
For most of their existence, Blackberry had no touch interface. One appeared in later versions as they tried to compete with Android and iPhone. One example of a "mobile keyboard" shortcut was long pressing a physical key to launch a specific function.

It might be hard to understand now, but Blackberry power users could be much more productive with email/texting than any phone that exists today. But they were special purpose 2-way radio (initially, pager) devices that lacked the flexibility of modern apps with full internet data access.