‘I love you poo’… When autocorrect gets you wrong, leaves you red-faced

Almost everyone has had an embarrassing story of how autocorrect conveyed an unintended message.

Text replacement, better known as autocorrect, is an automatic data validation function commonly found in word processors and text editing interfaces for smartphones and tablet computers.

Athough autocorrect is built to serve as a helper, it has betrayed the best of us and left many looking like illiterates who are unable to spell.

Earlier versions of Android and Nokia devices used the T9 dictionary which had a function of suggesting alternative words as opposed to changing the word outrightly.

Alfred Emeka, a student union executive of a popular tertiary insitution shared with TheCable Lifestyle his embarassment when he was corrected by autocorrect.

Emeka said he intended to write “Honorable Speaker” in a text message but autocorrect took it upon itself to change it to “Honorary Speaker.”

He was forced to ditch the chat and immediately put a call through to the individual on the other end of the chat – and explain.

Many Nigerians and smartphone users around the world, find themselves in this boat, especially when in a hurry to type a message.

James Salawu, a student and iphone user, narrated his unfirtunate ordeal in the hands of autocorrect.

He said: “I called another dude ‘baby’ when it should have written ‘Baba’. It was very traumatising. I typed ‘boo’ and it changed to ‘poo’. Another time I typed ‘me’ and it somehow turned to ‘meow’ after I hit send.”

The embarrassing scenarios have become commonplace to the point that a website – damnyouautocorrect – has been opened to share experiences of affected persons.

Here are some hilarious examples of autocorrect errors.