Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Songming Ho

Jerome Joseph Turner

Tim Paek

Dmytro Rudchenko

Jason Anthony Grieves

Itai Almog

Parthasarathy Sundararajan

Taketoshi Yoshida

Kazuhide Oigo

Masahiro Ami

Kozo Miyano

In a mobile device, the strings that make up a current thread in application are stored in a buffer. A thread is a series of communications sent between a user of the mobile device and one or more other users, such as a series of text messages or a series of emails. When the user enters text to continue the current thread, characters of the entered text are compared against the strings stored in the buffer, and strings that have the entered text as a prefix are selected and displayed to the user as string predictions in a soft input panel. Alternatively, the strings in the buffer may be used to increase the probabilities of matching strings in a dictionary or model that is used to select string predictions.

String predictions from buffer

In a mobile device, the text entered by users is analyzed to determine a set of responses commonly entered by users into text applications such as SMS applications in response to received messages. This set of responses is used to provide suggested responses to a user for a currently received message in a soft input panel based on the text of the currently received message. The suggested responses are provided before any characters are provided by the user. After the user provides one or more characters, the suggested responses in the soft input panel are updated. The number of suggested responses displayed to the user in the soft input panel is limited to a total confidence value to reduce user distraction and to allow for easier selection. An undo feature for inadvertent selections of suggested responses is also provided.

String prediction

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Yokohama, Japan

Songming Ho