Oh No! Here’s Why Cooper Will Never Use Voice-To-Text Again

As a guy who has fat fingers and regularly has issues typing on a phone or tablet, I have always been a big fan of using voice-to-text.  Well, I was a big fan until the middle of last week.  Yeah, I will never rely on voice-to-text again after an incident I had last Wednesday.

It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so, like a lot of people in my industry, I was super busy.  The entire team at our Augusta studios had really pushed themselves so that we could actually kick back and enjoy the upcoming holiday.

Knowing they would not be open on Thanksgiving, I had ducked out of work for a few minutes to make a quick visit to one of our local grocery stores.  I needed to grab a prime rib, potatoes, vegetables, and a couple of other necessities.

As I was driving to the store, I occurred to me that I wanted to touch base with a business person.  We had something in the works and I wanted to make sure they did not think I was ignoring them.  After I pulled into a parking space at the store, I pulled my phone out of my pocket, and opened Outlook.  I dictated a quick message and, for a split second, thought about proofreading the message.  Figuring that the recipient would be able to translate any messed up or misspelled words, I decided I did not need to proof it and hit SEND.

Big mistake!

Within just a few seconds, I got an email back from the recipient.  The response I got back was, “I’m a XXXXXXXX? 😉 Have a good Thanksgiving.”  No, I am not going to tell you what it said.  Just believe me that it was pretty bad.

At first, I did not understand what the person meant.  Then, I looked at what I had sent.  There, buried in a paragraph of gibberish that made almost no sense, was the phrase “You’re a XXXXX”.

I was instantly sick to my stomach.  Had a really just an email that said THAT?!  Yep!

Fortunately, the person seemed to understand that it was a voice-to-text fail and that I did not mean to send what I did.

What I still do not understand is how my phone came up with that phrase.  Nothing I said sounded like those words and I never use that word, so it is not like it was pulling it from a list of commonly used words.  For example, I would not have been surprised if it was something about DJ equipment, video games, or radio transmitters.  In this case, though, it pulled words that I would never say.

So, that it why I will never use voice-to-text again.