Microsoft will stop finishing your sentences in Word and Outlook

Microsoft is switching off text predictions by default in Word and Outlook after acknowledging that unwanted suggestions can interrupt rather than assist some users. The change is coming to Word for Windows, the web, iOS, and Android, as well as classic Outlook for Windows and Outlook for Mac. The feature will remain available …

[Paul Herber]

Microsoft will stop finishing your sentences in Word and Outlook for the weekend is sunny with the potential for drizzle or heavy rain and sleet from Friday afternoon until Monday morning.

[JimboSmith]

Microsoft will stop finishing your sentences in Word and Outlook for the weekend is sunny with the potential for drizzle or heavy rain and sleet from Friday afternoon until Monday morning.

Have an upvote because that really made me laugh out loud.

"text predictions helps you write documents and emails more efficiently by suggesting words and phrases as you type.

Not to me they didn’t they were a giant effing distraction which drove me up the wall when they were introduced. Someone gave me a workaround to stop it from happening but actually finally turning that off in the settings was a blessed relief. I left feedback for Microsoft when asked and said turning it on by default was not the smartest thing they’ve ever done and then said there was some pretty stiff competition from other dumb Microsoft ideas for the “Not the Smartest Thing” they’d ever done award

[cyberdemon]

Could it be

That LLM predictive text in real-time is both horrendously expensive and horrendously useless

[Neil Barnes]

Re: Could it be

To be fair, even locally managed text completion is a distracting pain in the backside.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Could it be

That is my gut reaction as well, they need that precious amount of local compute to do the work to turn your keystrokes into meta data rather than store and transmit the raw data back to the mothership.

[mgb2]

Now give us a user option to not show reactions in Teams meetings. I'm trying to look at the slide, not be distracted by 100 hearts and applauding hands floating up the screen.

[IGotOut]

But...but...but...TikTok has it and look how successful that is! They need to copy the success.

[EdSaxby]

I would be delighted if Teams added "a familiar hand gesture" for those of us who wish to record a reaction for sycophantic behaviour.

[Anonymous Coward]

I use the avatar feature in Teams, some of the gestures seem rather childish and not suitable for meetings.

The only decent and appropriate gesture for meetings was a yawning one - which has been removed.

[JimboSmith]

I don’t mind Teams putting a squiggly line underneath a misspelled/autocorrected word (red/green respectively). The new horror that they have unleashed is the entire word being highlighted when you move onto it. That for me at any rate makes it harder to see what the text is and I’ve disconnected the autocorrect as a result.

[PCScreenOnly]

There is it I can find it again, but it does also stop any animations

[PCScreenOnly]

Auto replace

I want that disabled or better still, options of what NOT to change

<3

(turkey)

And others

[The Man Who Fell To Earth]

But but

How will the brown-nosers brown-nose in Teams meetings?

[Hubert Cumberdale]

It wouldn't have come from my telemetry – it's all disabled, and also blocked at the router for good measure. And all my "connected experiences" are also disabled. Working on a document live while someone else is also working on it is a nightmare. I much prefer my workflows linear.

[David 132]

Well, this, as I've often pointed out, is a problem with telemetry-driven development. All the serious users disable telemetry, meaning that the only feedback [Microsoft / Mozilla / Apple / whoever] get is from the drooling simpletons, or those who don't know how or why to disable telemetry.

"This new animated AI assistant that pops up every 20 seconds with helpful suggestions is proving really popular! 100% of our telemetry says users didn't switch it off!"

[that one in the corner]

So you're saying that all the intelligent users knowingly hide from Microsoft the fact that they dislike UI features and have switched them off? Therefore creating the impression of satisfaction with the junk-du-jour that you describe.

If you know that telemetry is being used this way, and leading to a worse experience for you, isn't switching it off knowingly shooting yourself in the foot?

[David 132]

No, you've misunderstood me. I am saying that the "serious" users (not the best term here, but it'll suffice) tend to resent being spied on, so the first thing they do is turn off all the telemetry and patronizing "did you know?" tip-type things. The Venn diagram of "expert users" and "people who are concerned about privacy & believe what they run on their computer is their own business and nobody else's" is an almost perfect circle.

Which, as you have pointed out, is a problem, akin I suppose to the fallacy of "I never vote because politicians don't do what I want".

[doublelayer]

There appears to be a large subset of users who just don't try changing things they dislike. When I first found this feature on a work machine with Office, I had it disabled in seconds, well a bit longer as I needed to do a web search to find where the switch was. It was that or get odd glances for my irritated glaring at the screen every time I was writing an email. Later, a friend also mentioned that she didn't like this, and I helped her get it turned off, but she had put up with it for a few months first.

I wonder how much of that is our fault (IT and software in general) for instilling a learned helplessness attitude in users and how much is users just being passive in a way I would not. I think the former factor is real, because we often have reasons to tell users to put up with whatever the system is doing rather than insist on it bending to their desires, but I'm not sure it's enough to explain all of it.

[Neil Barnes]

Well, the last thing 'they' want is an educated population/workforce. If they can't write properly without needing their hands held, soon they won't be able to read, either, and then we're back in the dark ages at the mercy of the organised religion tech bros.

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

Oh finally "Opt In"

This is one of the most annoying features. You HOVER over a squiggly line while you read, and then the popup comes along, the "loading" animation, and suggestions what to do. Of course below the squiggy-line word, right at the next sentences I am trying to read. Workflow blocked, readflow blocked.

And there is not option WITHIN MS-Office, you have to disable that crap in Windows 11 panel. Which sometimes resets itself for "too annoy me and million others" reasons. And sometimes, for a few versions of Office365 variant of those that setting is even ignored.

Now for the next please: When detecting "Windows NON-HOME" assume advanced user and stop those millions of "we have a feature here" "whatever there" helper boxes which waste the users time, every time either a different machine is used or the computer is renewed.

(Edit: This applies to my work laptops of course, the main from where I work, and two more from customers which I have to use for their network)

[Throatwarbler Mangrove]

Worst. "Feature." Ever.

Autocomplete completely disrupts my thought process when I'm trying to compose something, and it's the first feature to get turned off on any new installation. I'd sort of forgotten it even existed.

[Anonymous Custard]

Re: Worst. "Feature." Ever.

Oh come on, auto-confuse does at least occasionally raise a laugh at how abysmally it guesses sometimes (especially on technical stuff).

Although admittedly not enough to keep it turned on for very long where the kill switch exists.

[macsimski]

ohh.

I hate it when a computer tries to finish my

[Anonymous Custard]

Re: ohh.

Sandwiches?

[Long John Silver]

To be, or not to be?

I am stuck deciding what should follow.

[Anonymous Coward]

Duck autocorrect. Can't stand it.

[Anonymous Coward]

The boy stood on the burning deck, his pocket full of crackers.

A spark went down his trouser legs and blew off both his…

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Conkers

[Fr. Ted Crilly]

The boy stood on the burning deck, his feet were bleeding hot, he gave a cough and his feet flew off and floated all about... Tony Hancock

[Lee D]

Autocomplete

Relevant Emma Thompson:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/H_Ff3fQ_fVI

[FifeM]

Autocorrection

I heard that the man who designed the autocorrect function died recently. The funnel is tomato.