"Have you really been typing for the past 10 minutes?" my friend Nick BWed me the other day. I am known for sending some lengthy messages from time to time, but I definitely had not been typing for 10 minutes straight. I had received isolated reports about people "stuck" in typing status according to BitWise, but this time I actually had a pretty good idea of what caused it.
This bug has been around since grouped conversation view was introduced over a year ago, though luckily it is pretty benign as far as bugs go. Here's how to make it happen: have at least one conversation open while in grouped conversation view. Begin typing to one person, and while typing, hit tab or ~ to switch to a different conversation. The first person will continue to see you typing until you actually go back to that conversation and start and stop typing again. Definitely not fatal, but also rather "random" and difficult to track down (until now).
Try it now, because in the upcoming 1.0.3 release, this bug has been squashed. I'm actually amused by how long this one survived; it could possibly by the longest running bug BitWise has ever had. In a way, I'm almost sad to see it go... ;)
Than leave it in. ;-) It is not a real bug.
It is also confusing for some if they see you start typing and stopping again. Looks like you changed your mind and deletet it perhaps. You would need a third state for interrupted writing. :-)
It's definitely a real bug, and it's definitely been fixed.
I think keeping the number of states smaller is less confusing than having more states, so while an interrupted or "text entered" state could be useful, it would be just another symbol and another state for people to process.
I think people need to not read into the typing states. I hate the idea that I'd have to explain myself because someone got offended at my typing state.
"Eva, why'd you stop typing? Just say what you wanted to say!"
Shaddap.