The reason I think it won't get much better is that the size of smart phones will not change. It is size that's really the issue for text editing. No space for a real keyboard, no space for a real display.
Maybe we can look at it as an opportunity for inventing a fundamentally different approach to text editing on mobile?
In another topic on HN people are discussing how software gets more bloated over time, because throwing more powerful hardware at a problem is easier than optimizing the software.
As mobile devices aren't likely to get much bigger or get equipped with a mouse and keyboard anytime soon -- in other words, we don't seem to have a hw solution -- isn't it the perfect moment to try something novel and different?
Sure, it isn't a given someone will come up with a great, new approach soon enough. Still seems worth it looking at this as an opportunity.
There are novel approach ideas. I have many of them, and even saw a few implemented. The problem is, any sufficiently comfortable text entering/editing experience requires a non zero amount of training, which, considering the consumption devices smartphones are, discouraging for the average user. I believe in the end TTS with LLMs win and speaking in public to text will be accepted as a norm. Because it is literally the easiest possible experience bar brain implants.
Current mobile keyboards and screens are pretty much fine -- I have no issues with text input on a phone or with reading.
The problems are with editing only -- precise cursor positioning, precise selection, and then access to basic cut/copy/paste/undo operations that doesn't mess everything up.
My hunch is that we need a button on mobile keyboards to switch to a kind of "edit gesture mode". Some kind of swipe area to move the cursor, some kind of swipe area/mode to extend/contract a selection, some method to handle scrolling as necessary, some kind of magnifying zoom to select tiny things like narrow punctuation, and separate larger button areas for cut/copy/paste/undo. Maybe instead of swipes there are gestures in a kind of dedicated trackpad-type area of the screen, I don't know.
But I definitely think there's a ton of area for experimentation that hasn't been explored yet. The hold-spacebar-to-turn-keyboard-into-trackpad-to-move-cursor mode was a first step the iPhone took towards this, but I think it can go 20x further.
I think it's something that only Apple and Google are capable of developing right now though. I don't think there are enough API's exposed for third-party keyboards to directly control things like text selection, zoom, scrolling, cut/copy/paste/undo, and the like.
I remember the first Android phone. It was small, and had a real keyboard. It's not that it can't be done, it's that it's cheaper to not have one, and they can get away with it because of the lowest common denominator consumer.
Meh. I remember thinking "but why?" when the "high res" screen phones came out. It did the job, and I didn't really see the point in a higher resolution back then. Honestly, if I had the choice, I'd go back to that device in a heartbeat, low-res and all.
