London - Researchers have revealed exactly what cellphone users type most – and say that “I love you” is the most popular three-word sentence.
The team at SwiftKey analysed web data along with anonymous data from their hugely popular alternative keyboard, which has been downloaded to more than 100 million devices, and also found phone users are extremely polite.
The single most commonly used one-word sentence in English is “thanks” and the most popular two-word phrase is “thank you”.
They use a machine learning algorithm to predict what a user will type, constantly refining its ability as it learns how users type. The firm has created an alternative keyboard which is among the most downloaded Android apps, and recently released a version for Apple handsets.
This allowed the firm to “scrape” its data to find out exactly what the most popular phrases and sentences are among its users.
The firm said: “We looked into our vaults and discovered the most commonly used three-word sentence in the English language is… ‘I love you.’
“It also turns out we’re a less cynical bunch than we probably assume. The single most commonly used one-word sentence in English is ‘thanks’ and the most popular two-word phrase is ‘thank you’.”
The original SwiftKey algorithm was created after scraping billions of word combinations from the web and is constantly improved and tweaked.
SwiftKey’s machine-learning software, dubbed “Fluency”, was also trained to learn the style of Shakespeare’s sonnets.
“As might be expected from an artificial intelligence, the result is full of mixed metaphors,” MIT student J. Nathan Matias said, writing in SwiftKey’s blog. “But it was a fantastic start, and I couldn’t wait to try it on other famous writers.”
As well as using SwiftKey’s engine, Matias built a visual interface to help in poetry creation and named this project “Swift-Speare”.
It produced the following sonnet:
When I in dreams behold thy fairest shade, Whose shade in dreams doth wake the sleeping morn,
The daytime shadow of my love betrayed
Lends hideous night to dreaming’s faded form; Were painted frowns to gild mere false rebuff,
Then shouldst my heart be patient as the sands,
For nature’s smile is ornament enough When thy gold lips unloose their drooping bands.
As clouds occlude the globe’s enshrouded fears, Which can by no astronomy be assail’d,
Thus thine appearance, tears in atmospheres, No fond perceptions, nor no gaze unveils.
Disperse the clouds which banish light from thee, For no tears be true until we truly see.
Using this interface, Matias was able to co-create poetry in the style of various authors including William Gibson and John Denham. – Daily Mail
WHAT WE TYPE MOST
The researchers revealed the most popular short sentences used by phone and tablet users:
1 word: Thanks
2 words: Thank you
3 words: I love you
4 words: What do you think
5 words: Thank you for your time
TOP TEN THREE-WORD PHRASES
1) I love you
2) Let me know
3) How are you
4) I don’t know
5) Thanks so much
6) How about you
7) See you then
8) Sorry about that
9) How’s it going
10) I miss you. – Source: Swiftkey