I’m moving more of my mobile note‑taking into Obsidian and relying on it for fast list capture on iPhone. As part of that, I use Microsoft SwiftKey as my keyboard, which I’ve trained heavily over time for my personal shorthand, phrases, and note‑taking patterns.
I’ve also been a long‑time Drafts user on iOS, and there I’ve gotten used to a very keyboard‑friendly editing experience where the editor cooperates closely with the system/third‑party keyboard’s prediction across new lines in lists. That behavior has become a core part of how I capture notes on mobile.
In my note‑taking workflow, when I am typing a bulleted list, the keyboard’s prediction for the “next” word or phrase will often remain available after I press Return to start the next bullet. This lets me move through a series of predictable list items using only the prediction bar and the Return key. In practice, this is what lets me capture bulleted notes on mobile at essentially the speed of thought, because I can step through expected items without re‑typing or re‑triggering the same phrases on every new line.
Because Obsidian is so focused on linking, this kind of behavior also helps me capture and link notes at the speed of thought: over time the keyboard learns common [[Link Title]] patterns and phrases, so being able to accept those predictions line after line makes it much easier to quickly drop in repeated links and link‑friendly phrasing during fast capture sessions.
In Obsidian Mobile on iOS, the behavior is slightly different: when I reach the end of a bullet, see the predicted text, and press Return to start a new bullet, the prediction is cleared or replaced. That means I need to re‑enter or re‑coax the same word/phrase on each new bullet instead of being able to accept the prediction line after line, which introduces friction into an otherwise very fast capture workflow. This seems to affect predictive text in general on iOS, and is especially noticeable with third‑party keyboards like SwiftKey.
Currently, my workaround is to capture on iOS in Drafts using [[double square brackets]] for links, then move those notes into Obsidian later. Being able to rely on keyboard predictions in Obsidian’s own editor in the same way would let me capture and link notes at the speed of thought directly in Obsidian, instead of splitting the workflow between two apps.
Feature request
It would be extremely helpful if Obsidian’s mobile editor on iOS could preserve or better cooperate with predictive text (including third‑party keyboards like SwiftKey) across line breaks in list items, so that:
- When pressing Return at the end of a bulleted item, the prediction bar can keep offering the same “next” word or phrase on the new line when the context is similar.
- The editor avoids resetting the input context in a way that discards viable predictions during continuous list entry in bulleted lists.
From a workflow perspective, this would make high‑speed list capture on mobile much smoother, especially for users who rely on long‑trained keyboards and shorthand when taking notes in the field. Reducing this small bit of friction during repetitive list entry would make Obsidian feel even more responsive to users’ existing typing and linking habits on iOS and improve the overall mobile note‑taking experience.