As more employees send corporate email on smartphones, that means more work communication has the potential to be derailed by those gadgets’ sometimes-tricky autocorrect features.
One extreme case of autocorrect drastically changing the meaning of a message occurred recently at a school in Georgia.
The West Hall middle and high schools in Oakwood, GA, were put on lockdown after a nearby resident received a threatening text message. The person called police after getting a text that read “gunman be at west hall today.”
Police traced the message and identified the sender, who it turned out was simply trying to tell a friend he planned on visiting the high school that day, the Gainesville Times reports. However, his phone’s autocorrect feature changed “gunna” into “gunman.” He also sent the message to the wrong number, adding to the confusion.
Stories like this can be a good reminder for users to always read over their emails and other messages before they’re sent. Read our earlier post for more tips to give users on preventing email errors.