Abbreviations & Auto-Capitalization on iOS

My favorite interaction nuance on a platform that’s full of them

I’ve never been very good at typing on virtual keyboards. So every little bit of automated assistance is welcome—even if it occasionally results in unintended consequences.

Beyond auto-correct, the iOS keyboard feature that I rely on most is ‘Auto-Capitalization’. This little option (enabled by default) automatically capitalizes the next word after a period. Having properly-cased sentences is just more civilized.

However, after typing an abbreviation (ending in a period), you generally don’t want the next word capitalized… and iOS smartly obliges:

This is one of those quiet interaction design features that generally don’t make headlines. It’s probably not even noticed by the vast majority of iPhone users because it “just works”. But to me, this is interaction design at its best—understanding user intent to deliver a micro-feature that no user would ever think to ask for.