Economic Observer reporter Qian Yujuan

While technology companies are busy teaching input methods to write poetry, draw, and even predict the future, users only want to accurately type and express themselves, but this simple idea has become a luxury.

Entering 2026, the veteran champion Sogou Input Method celebrates its 20th birthday. The Economic Observer learned that Tencent is brewing a transformation internally, using AI to redo the input method. This is not only an optimization of functions, but also aimed at promoting comprehensive upgrades in AI voice, AI typing, AI translation and other aspects.

However, an absurd contrast is happening: input methods are trying to predict intentions more and more "smartly", but processing user instructions more and more "clumsily".

There are many discussions about "input methods becoming dumb" on major social media platforms and complaint channels. Users roast that in the past, you can associate phrases by typing the first letter, but now you may find completely irrelevant words when you input them in full spelling. For example, when entering "nanyong (difficult to use)", the first thing that comes to mind is "men's", and "congyoudaozuo (from right to left)" appears first as "scallion oil knife holder". The problems of inaccurate word association, speech recognition errors, and excessive ad pop ups are consuming users' patience with input methods.

This is not because big companies have reduced their investment in input method applications. On the contrary, in the era where AI has become standard, mainstream input methods are entering an "arms race": Tencent's Sogou input method, WeChat input method, Baidu input method, iFlytek input method, and ByteDance's Doubao input method are all eager to embed the latest AI capabilities such as voice, multimodal, and generative technology into their input methods.

Efficiency Paradox

A senior text worker who has been using Sogou input method for 17 years reluctantly uninstalled Sogou input method at the end of 2025.

When he wants to input the word "yes", Sogou Input Method frequently recommends "thing", which is usually not among the candidate words on the homepage. Users need to flip through the pages to find a common word. In addition to inaccurate association of commonly used words, Sogou input method often misjudges the mood particle "ya" as "pressure" or "ya", and even after multiple corrections, the input method seems to not remember the user's usage habits.

The term 'stupid' in users' accounts does not mean that input methods lack fancy AI functions. Nowadays, input methods can help people write poetry, polish copy, and even predict the next sentence, but they seem to have forgotten their 'duty'.

Another user expressed dissatisfaction with the pop-up ads on the Sogou input method, saying, "As soon as I opened the input method, an ad popped up, seriously affecting the user experience." Not only Sogou, but many users have also reported that ads and information frequently appear on product interfaces such as Baidu input method.

Some users have also reported that the voice recognition function of Sogou Input Method has regressed: the text converted from voice input now needs to be repeatedly modified several times, and sometimes the modification time is even longer than typing directly.

Many users rushed into the live broadcast room of Sogou Input Method to make online requests. The product manager of this tool focuses on "listening to advice" and has set up a "Ask Me, Answer" column to answer users' questions. They also respond to users' questions through comments, private messages, and other means. According to sources related to Sogou Input Method, the team responds to an average of over 1000 user messages per week.

On January 6th, a person related to Sogou Input Method stated that internal discussions were ongoing that day, and users' expectations for input method products were "more accurate", which is also a basic skill. Sogou Input Method and Tencent attach great importance to user feedback on their products. The team receives thousands of requests every week, and in response to common issues such as typing bugs raised by users, the customer service and technical teams are focusing on optimizing and adjusting them.

Regarding the advertising issue that has been widely criticized by users, Sogou Input Method has stated that it is considering launching a new version that can remove advertisements in the first quarter of 2026.

When asked about the user's desire for the product to be non generalized, Baidu Input Method stated that different users have varying preferences for features and interfaces, and will provide personalized features and interfaces based on their preferences and usage habits as much as possible, while strictly ensuring the user's experience in inputting the main process.

Several input method professionals from companies such as Sogou and Baidu have mentioned that user feedback is an important part of their product iteration. A user posted a barrage in the Sogou input method product manager's live broadcast room asking, "Can you add a 'round' after uppercase numbers?" This request was recorded by the anchor and feedback was sent to the product department. After 4 working days, the feature was optimized and launched.

Baidu Input Method has also adopted users' suggestions on "combining facial expressions to enrich expression"; IFlytek Input Rule will upgrade its intelligent agent platform in 2025, attempting to hand over the definition of AI assistants to users and allowing them to customize keyboard functions that suit specific scenarios.

Striving for the Super Entrance

Why do input method manufacturers persist in doing addition and even make their products bloated when they see user complaints?

The answer lies in the traffic anxiety of the AI era.

The report "Insights into China's Third Party Input Method Industry in 2025" released by MobTech Research Institute points out that the Chinese third-party input method market presents a typical "oligopoly pattern". As of July 2025, the total market share of top input method manufacturers such as Sogou, iFlytek, Baidu, and WeChat is as high as 84.4%.

In the era of stock competition, input methods are no longer just typing tools, but are seen as the first entry point for AI models.

When it comes to the future development goals of the product, the Sogou Input Method team is very clear: it may be the super entrance for AI, and people using input methods to call agents will become the key direction for Sogou Input Method to anchor in the future.

Baidu Input Method told Economic Observer that the team hopes that the input method will not only "type out words", but also become a trustworthy intelligent entry point for users' daily expressions.

The input method has found the best application entry point for AI big models. ?An engineer specializing in the research and development of voice input products explained the core logic behind the use of input methods in AI functionality experience: Chinese people use input methods on various smart terminals for nearly a quarter of their daily time, facilitating information exchange and search interaction. Users have a high stickiness to input method tools. If manufacturers embed the ability of large models into input methods, they can not only accurately perceive user preferences through context, but also use various types of information actively input by people to train AI to understand humans better.

The product engineer mentioned above stated that the current competition among input method tools is driven by the struggle of AI model application capabilities among several major manufacturers. Whoever can better utilize the understanding and generation capabilities of large models in typing scenarios, occupying the input method as the entry point for contextual data information, has the weapon to make AI smarter. ?

So, a competition around AI quietly erupted among input method manufacturers in 2025:

In addition to Sogou Input Method, which is currently undergoing a comprehensive AI process, Tencent has deeply collaborated with WeChat Input Method on hybrid big models, attempting to achieve seamless intelligent input within the social ecosystem.

Relying on the ERNIE Bot model, Baidu wants to make the input method gradually become an expression and collaboration tool for efficient service of C-end users driven by AI.

IFlytek continues to strengthen its advantages in the field of speech, playing the ace of "offline speech recognition" and attempting to solve personalized needs through AI keyboards.

Even though the old input method has occupied more than 80% of the market share, ByteDance still chooses to join the battlefield in the second half of 2025. Its subsidiary Doubao will test its input method in September 2025, focusing on voice input and end-to-end intelligence. More than a month later, the product will be launched on the Android App Store.

The reporter learned from a management official of Alibaba Cloud that the Qianwen APP is also developing input methods, attempting to seize the key entry point of contextual input, which enhances the ability of AI models.

The intelligent development of input methods cannot be separated from the support of AI algorithms. However, although current AI algorithms have made progress in speech recognition, natural language processing, and other areas, they still have limitations in understanding human intentions. Taking word association as an example, AI algorithms are trained on a large amount of text data to predict the words that users may want to input. However, in practical applications, users' language habits, contexts, and other factors vary greatly. Once there is a lot of noise in the training data, such as typos, grammar errors, etc., these low-quality data will affect the training effect of the algorithm, leading to inaccurate association.

This explains why input methods sometimes seem like "artificial intelligence": they try to teach you how to speak, but often guess your meaning incorrectly.

Ma Zhankai, known as the "father of Sogou input method", described in an interview with the Economic Observer that input methods have evolved from pure text and speech to text tools to voice input and AI generation platforms.

The real input method is an agent, "in Ma Zhankai's view. The input method should be like an assistant to a person, for example, when typing or voice inputting" I want to ask Mr. Zhang ", the person does not need to explain whether it is" Gong Chang Zhang "or what his phone number is. AI can intelligently recognize the correct surname and even dial the phone number. He believes that this is the ability that AI should give input methods to become "smart".

The 'burden' of free tools

Users roast that input methods have become "stupid", which reflects that input methods ignore users' needs for basic input experience in the process of pursuing intelligent technology iteration, while advertising pop-up windows, privacy concerns and other slot points that are constantly criticized are related to the fate of each input method.

Firstly, there is the anxiety of commercialization. As a tool based product, input methods have long faced the vicious cycle of "high traffic, low value" in monetization.

The input method also faces the problem of difficult monetization in the entire Baidu ecosystem, as its advertising model, membership payment model, and commercial appeal are closely related.

Sogou Input Method, which holds the largest market share, although has monetization methods such as skins, ad pop-up notifications, and customized proprietary word libraries, the specific revenue figures contributed by this product cannot be seen in Tencent's financial report. Tencent's Q3 2025 financial report mentioned that Sogou Input Method ranks first in the AI user base of the input method industry.

Next is the 'red line' of user privacy. The aforementioned product engineer revealed that various manufacturers are weakening the commercialization ability of input methods, which is related to the direct involvement of this tool in user security and privacy.

As early as May 1, 2021, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued a notice stating that multiple input method products such as iFlytek, Sogou, and QQ Input Method had problems such as "violating necessary principles by collecting personal information unrelated to the services they provide", and demanded rectification. Failure to complete the rectification within the deadline will be dealt with in accordance with the law; One month later, multiple input method applications were taken down due to not fully meeting the rectification requirements.

The input method products that have undergone rectification and re listing have made changes. For example, Sogou Input Method allows users to choose between "full experience mode" or "basic typing mode" before use. The former requires uploading pinyin, text, etc. to the cloud, while the latter does not collect any data. The core input function of iFlytek Input Method in the basic input mode has also been fully offline, ensuring the security of user data.

In terms of input methods, iFlytek stated that when users need AI functions, they can enable "input prediction enhancement" and "offline speech enhancement", providing AI Pinyin and offline speech input services through the input of a large model on the end side.

The aforementioned product engineer believes that data quality and privacy protection are important factors that constrain the performance improvement of input methods. In order to protect user privacy, input method manufacturers need to anonymize and desensitize data, which increases the complexity and difficulty of data processing to a certain extent. The intelligent association and other functions of input methods also rely heavily on the analysis and learning of user input data.

In the multimodal interaction mode of AI, users use voice, text, images and other input methods, which also puts forward higher requirements for input methods. The information conversion and collaborative processing between different modalities require highly complex algorithms and technical support, "said the product engineer mentioned above.