Lying in bed late at night, unable to chat with your crush? The input method can help you beautify your text;

Chatting happily with friends and want to plan an outing for the weekend? Just type in the weather and make a quick decision;

Tired of searching through documents and files for work? Press the equals sign and easily access information results

Imagine, all these fun and useful features are integrated into one input method.

Recently, Sogou Input Method's version 12.0 was released, featuring these and many more functions. With the support of Tencent Hunyuan's large model technology, Sogou Input Method has introduced a series of new features, including AI Search and AI Quick Check.

In simple terms, it uses the shortest path to allow users to quickly obtain information and knowledge within the input method, realizing "input as search".

In an era where everything can be redone by AI, Sogou Input Method is infinitely expanding the boundaries of a small input box.

Since the PC era, input methods have been essential "infrastructure software" for electronic products.

However, even as technology continues to iterate, from the PC era to the mobile internet era, and now to the current AI era, input methods have not seen many "surprising" functional iterations. This seems to have become the default rule in the input method industry: input is just input.

But the AI Search and AI Quick Check functions introduced in Sogou Input Method version 12.0 have broken the shackles of people's original perceptions of input methods.

On mobile devices, users often need to retrieve information through third-party applications in many scenarios when interacting with information. I believe most people can feel that switching between apps and copying and pasting on mobile phones and other mobile devices is a mentally exhausting process.

But now, the AI Search function introduced by Sogou Input Method will greatly reduce the cumbersome process for users.

For example, the current World Cup qualifiers are in full swing, and China's national football team playing against Japan is a hot topic right now.

Interested users only need to type keywords like "World Cup national football team group ranking" into the input box, click the "magnifying glass", and they can immediately obtain detailed information about the national football team's performance in this World Cup group stage.

When users are passionately discussing the topic of the national football team's match against Japan, they no longer need to search for related information on other apps.

Currently, Sogou Input Method version 12.0 already supports cross-platform, cross-application, and cross-device search capabilities. With the support of Tencent Hunyuan's large model, it can help users improve the efficiency and quality of knowledge and information conversion to a deeper level.

Especially in the information acquisition and conversion process, it provides users with effective assistance, greatly saving users' time spent on information search.

For users, the new Sogou Input Method is not just a "tool person" for typing; it is more like an "AI assistant" that can search, help write, and type.

We can see that Sogou Input Method has also redefined the "input box" as a "search box".

It is not easy for any product to cross its inherent boundaries. But what is even harder than abandoning inherent perceptions is truly understanding one's users.

As a finance blogger, I need to stay updated on the latest gold prices, stock market conditions, etc., and this update by Sogou Input Method directly addresses this area. When I type related words like "gold price" or "stock market" into the input box, the latest updates will appear directly in the candidate box.

It is understood that Sogou Input Method has already launched over 20 such quick commands, including weather, gold price, stock market, exchange rate, etc.

At the same time, for an input method, the difficulty is not just making typing smooth for users but how to genuinely participate in every round of the user's conversation. When a user's mood cannot be fully expressed in words, how can the user quickly select an emoji that matches their current mood?

For example, on a Friday when the workweek is about to end, when a user types "Weekend's here," they are surely expressing more than just a time information.

Meanwhile, users' usage scenarios on PC are often more serious, such as handling work conversations or editing documents. Therefore, users often need to input information quickly on PC, and constantly switching between webpages and various documents can significantly reduce efficiency.

This time, Sogou Input Method is also helping users immediately address these needs in PC usage scenarios. After typing a keyword into the input box, users can press "=" to access the AI Search function. This can immediately help users address information search needs in chatting and writing scenarios.

This also directly saves users from the cumbersome process of switching back and forth between webpages and documents.

If users encounter information they do not fully understand while editing a document, they can directly use the word highlighting function to allow Sogou Input Method to provide translation, summary, and explanation capabilities.

These seemingly "minor" features are actually genuine needs of users in the information interaction process.

The ever-expanding boundaries in the input box

Wherever there is a screen that requires typing, an input method is needed.

Relevant data shows that Sogou Input Method has reached 600 million monthly active users.

But even so, Sogou Input Method has almost made all its core functions, including AI Search and AI Quick Check, freely available to users.

Providing the smoothest experience and the benefits of AI technology to meet the needs of these 600 million users is also the main goal of this Sogou Input Method upgrade.

Indeed, the input method industry has been constrained by too much imagination in its past development. Even users themselves have become accustomed to switching back and forth between multiple apps to search for and input information.

However, over the past decade, Sogou Input Method has continuously improved the product experience, ultimately realizing an expression entry that integrates search, writing assistance, and typing.

AI Search has also become a very important area of competition among major companies in the AI era. Undoubtedly, conversational scenarios are often one of the strongest scenarios for users' information search needs.

Erase the original boundaries and constantly break free from the original constraints.

Continuously exploring new boundaries and creating more value for users is something that every internet product should consider more deeply.