Messages Now Auto-Selects International Keyboards For Specific Contacts
by Joe White
September 23, 2012
Apple has made a bunch of improvements to the Messages app in iOS 6, but this one, I think, is particularly clever. As first noted by MacStories, the iOS 6 Messages app now remembers the last international keyboard used for specific contacts, and auto-selects it when composing a message to any given contact.
Say, for example, you mostly communicate in English but have a couple of French friends. You're fortunate enough to have a decent knowledge of French, so when texting (or iMessaging) your Parisian buddies, you use their native language. Before iOS 6, you'd have to select the French international keyboard in the Settings app or touch "globe" icon, but now this isn't necessary. Instead, iOS 6 will remember that you last used the French keyboard when texting Pierre, and will auto-select it when you start composing a message to him in the built-in Messages app.
Federico Viticci of MacStories explains:
I tested this with various keyboards on iOS 6, and I can confirm it works. I tested on the latest version of iOS 5 to make sure as well — this is new to iOS 6 (and I hope it’s not a bug!); in my tests, it took 1-2 sent messages for iOS to “remember” the correct keyboard to use. Furthermore, Apple implemented this functionality in a way that it won’t affect the keyboard you have selected at a system-wide level: after I’ve sent a text to my girlfriend, I can open Tweetbot, and the keyboard will be in English just like I left it.What's your favorite new feature in iOS 6? Source: MacStories
