I once shook my phone because I was annoyed by autocorrect repeatedly messing up. The shaking undid more than half the text I had written. I couldn't find a way to redo.

Huh? It usually pops up a message asking if you want to undo, which you need to tap. I'm pretty darn sure this is how the feature has worked since it was introduced.

Probably, but you do not necessarily expect half your text to disappear when you click accept right?

When a message pops up asking me if I want to undo my typing and I click yes, I do in fact expect the text I typed to disappear.

He's complaining that Undo is overly agressive, given that there's no (obvious) redo function.

The question that was asked was obviously hyperbolic as the undo function doesn’t just delete half of what you typed.

You are right. I hadn't used this in a long time. Did it always pop up the dialog? I could have sworn it didn't.

As I said, I'm pretty darn sure it has always popped up a dialog. Certainly, the dialog has existed for a very long time, I recall seeing it on my first gen iPad, when I was in High School. (I graduated college three years ago.)

"I'll show him to shake me..."

Just shake it backwards of course.

Shake once more, it'll offer to redo.

I tried it and got an “Undo Typing” confirmation. Did you?

You get that and then accepting it deletes a large portion of the text.

That's what Undo Typing does...

He's complaining that Undo is overly agressive, given that there's no (obvious) redo function.

Android is even worse in this regard. There really is no way to undo changes in text fields! I'm generally a happy android user, but I find it absolutely infuriating that this hasn't been implemented. Text editing on phones is fiddly, and I've lost quite a few comments/messages due to this issue.

I have one of the few Android phones with a physical keyboard and I have the dollar sign key mapped to ctrl. I was pleased to discover ctrl-z works the way it should. This doesn't help the vast majority of users, I know, but it's one more thing I love about having a physical keyboard on my phone.

No need for a physical keyboard -- if you have Hacker's Keyboard installed it comes with a Ctrl key, and Ctrl-Z works as expected.

The Klaus Weidener Hacker's Keyboard?

I'm not the parent, but yes. It's basically the keyboard if you want to ssh or run a Linux distro in userspace.

flow typing wasn't possible last time I used it, however.

Oh nice! Mine has left-shift and right-shift, I mapped right-shift to ctrl long ago (so I can use screen when ssh'ing from my phone) but never thought to try - undo (and redo, ctrl+y) both work here too.

> I have one of the few Android phones with a physical keyboard

What phone? Do you recommend it?

Sorry for missing this, but as other commenters noted, I'm using the Key2.

I can't recommend it for everyone, but since you're reading HN here's the hacker pros/cons:

Pros:

* Every physical alphabet key can be mapped to two app/action shortcuts (long press/short press)

* Good construction, satisfying to use

* Great battery life

* Great security and permissions management

* Unlocked version is more or less bloatware-free (bundled BlackBerry software is there but is either useful or easy to disable/ignore)

Cons:

* Due to hardening, not all apps are available (I do miss Ruboto)

* Due to hardening, root is not currently possible (I'd like to root my device but I appreciate the security of BB-hardened Android)

* Camera isn't up to iPhone standards (I don't care as much about this and find it kinda nifty that the camera app allows fine control over shutter speed, etc even though I rarely take photos)

* Some of the BlackBerry-specific features are pretty poorly documented (there's a hover gesture that's only available while the phone is charging which shows the charge level as a line extending around the edge of the screen. It's difficult to Google and not very useful, but I got it disabled.)

All in all, I'm happier with it than I've been with a phone in a long time. It's got two SIM slots if you care about that kind of thing. It hits a particular sweet spot for me. Ymmv.

BlackBerry KeyOne or Key2. I have the KeyOne and would recommend the Key2. Typing is not any faster than on glass, but it's purposeful and generally error-free, which is a much better experience in my opinion. Also, you don't need to look at the keys.

Not having to stare at the screen to type is such a huge thing for me, also I've completely disabled auto-correct.

I'm really sad that it feels like we're dwindling down on physical keyboard phones.

It must be a KeyTwo - Currency as control key isn't an available option on my KeyOne. Agreed about error-free typing, as well as it's usefulness for SSH.

I use right shift as the Control key on my KeyOne. The Key2 has the quick-switch key in place of right shift, so the extra options were moved to the currency key.

> What phone? Do you recommend it?

I have a Cosmo Communicator. No comment yet on recommendation (or not). F(x)tec is another one.

This is the main reason why I use Hacker's Keyboard[0] when writing notes, because it has a full on functional keyboard with all modifier keys. Especially CTRL-Z and Arrows keys.

[0]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pocketwork...

And when you shake it, in russian language it asks “Don’t apply typing of text” with buttons “Don’t apply” and “Cancel”. Years before its title was “Don’t apply (Input)” with same buttons.

Maybe because in russian Undo == Cancel and they had no courage to make it “Undo”: “Yes” - “No”.

The gesture is now a two-finger swipe back. For some reason Apple couldn’t be bothered to add an “undo” to the cursor dialogue though.

I think it's a three-finger swipe, isn't it? Though while trying it out, I did discover that a three-finger tap now shows another menu that makes undo/redo a little easier.

OMG! Thanks!

ah, you’re correct!

And so this thread has highlighted the issue nicely

Let's not pretend this is a matter of how Apple "couldn't be bothered". Everything like this is an affirmative choice. All such choices (or their alternatives, like what is being asked for here) have both costs and benefits.

How do we really know this was a deliberate choice? There isn't enough information to discard the "Apple couldn't be bothered" hypothesis in this instance.

Starting with iOS 13, it’s a three finger left swipe. To redo, it’s a three finger right swipe.

Thanks for the two-finger tip, just lost a whole block of text in slack ;)

Slack has the worst text editor under iOS 13. I can't tell you how many times I've been frustrated by the keyboard disappearing when I want to select and copy or paste text... If the keyboard stayed open like in every other sensible app, I wouldn't have such frustrations editing text, but leaving text edit mode, Apple makes it impossible to edit text with touch at that point...

Did you google on a separate device or was it able to preserve the undo stack even through app switching etc?

Yeah, luckily I had also an Android flagship device with me. Didn't indeed dare to switch apps at that point!