“On my way!” vs. “omw”
On our way to analyzing Apple’s default
Disclaimer: I am not associated with Apple. This article explores the implications of one of their defaults for its cultural relevance and usability. As such, the possibility remains that there are specific reasons for this default that I’m not aware of.
Apple’s default auto text replacement of omw to “On my way!” may seem innocuous, but this feature actually invokes an existential crisis for many members of the internet generation.
It certainly did for me when I tried saving this very piece of writing on my MacBook Pro, only to have — you guessed it — the “omw” automatically replaced by the overly eager, earnest, and insistent “On my way!”
Comedian and The Daily Show correspondent Jaboukie Young-White recently tweeted the following:
It must be noted that he was not alone in his despair.
In my mini online proto-ethnography, I found that many iPhone users reported similar concerns. Some finally felt the weight of having their plight truly seen, while others pondered the source of their frustration. Here are some of the tweets I found that expressed solidarity in the struggle:
Similar messages and articles online discuss the same issue. Here’s just a sample from Reddit and Cult of Mac, which has a whole piece dedicated to lamenting the automatic text replacement of omw:
For the internet generation, punctuation is incredibly meaningful. What the above users are implicitly and explicitly saying is that the impression that “On my way!” gives off doesn’t match the mental model of the vibe users want to express.
An “omw” is a laid back and blasé message, but “On my way!” with its peppy exclamation point implies something completely different. You probably don’t want to sound like an overly enthusiastic and giddy cheerleader or an intense and potentially even alarming employee, but texting “On my way!” will help ensure you do.
This problem has become so culturally meaningful that it has spawned a meme that has stood the test of internet time (and by that I mean it’s been relevant for over a year):
For the internet generation, punctuation is incredibly meaningful.
Let’s return to Jaboukie’s tweet. While many expressed solidarity with his experience, others felt compelled to tell Jaboukie that the settings for this default could be changed:
And…they’re right. Users can go to General settings > Keyboard > Text Replacement to delete this default. I may or may not have done this after reading these tweets myself.
Defaulting on Defaults
But why is this the default in the first place? A default is meant to reflect the designer’s assumptions about the needs, expectations, and preferences of the majority of the system’s target users. Good defaults are contextually relevant. When a user first buys an iPhone, the do not disturb setting, which cuts down on notifications, is turned off because the assumption is that users will want to actually get phone calls and text messages that the device supports.
One of the reasons why defaults are so important is because they are rarely changed. Jared Spool, prolific UX designer and former employee of Microsoft who worked there during the early days of Microsoft Office Suite, found through his research that
less than 5% of users changed their default settings.
This experiment was repeated many times throughout the years, with consistent results. Only a tiny percentage of users change the original configuration of a technology. This means that
the default, for most people, completely determines how that technology is going to be used.
Sometimes, defaults can even have life or death implications. In countries like Spain, Portugal, and Austria, the default is that residents are organ donors unless they explicitly choose otherwise. In the United States, the policy instead operates on an “opt-in” basis: if you want to donate your organs, you have to actively check a box on the DMV questionnaire saying so. While 95% of U.S. adults support organ donation, only 58% are signed up as donors. By contrast, in Austria, which has the opposite “opt-out” consent policy, over 99% of the population is registered. Spain, which has the same policy, has set records for the highest organ donation rates in the world. While there are plenty of other variables that influence the success of organ donation systems, studies show that “opt-out” consent policies do lead to a statistically significant increase in the number of transplants. What this means is that a mere default could actually make the difference between someone getting a life-saving organ transplant or not.
The bottom line is whether it’s due to cognitive load or an assumption that the defaults were carefully considered by the company or institution (spoiler alert, this is not always the case), people rarely bother to change the default settings.
The responsibility is thus on the design team to make sure that defaults are relevant to the users’ experience. And making users sound extra as hell against their will by replacing the unassuming and broadly applicable “omw” to the potentially crazed-sounding “On my way!” is probably not the way to do this.
