[zzo38computer]

If you are doing searching, then a variant can be that it does not need to predict what words you meant, but will search for all words that match the numbers you pushed.

For example, if you try to search for a title and one of the words in your search is entered "223", then either "ace" or "bad" can be in that position, and if there is a title with "ace" matching in that position and a title with "bad" matching in that position, both are displayed.

So, this variant is you enter the entire title (or a substring of the title) first before it predicts what words you meant. After it is entered then all results are displayed, with a number next to each one, and then you must push the number corresponding to the one that you want.

[wildzzz]

On Android, I always enjoy how the dial pad in the phone app will let you start typing in numbers and it tries to match into a name or number. My favorite one, 666, brings up "Mom" as the first result.

[akdor1154]

This feature is missing the final 20% in an infuriating way - it doesn't match characters with accents, so i can't use it to find my family.

[worthless-trash]

Check the living room, sometimes near the tv. Usually my family come home when they are super hungry, so you can just wait till then.

[arcanemachiner]

Maybe you could add an alternate name for each contact without the diacritics?

[GauntletWizard]

I'd take multitap any day over the terrible systems that we have now, with faux QWERTY keyboards displayed on screen (or worse, the whole alphabet in a line on Apple TV devices)

[ortusdux]

Some phone directories use this method. "Please dial the numbers that correspond to the the first 4 letters of the last name of the person you would like to reach."

[im3w1l]

This sounds like it would be mostly great but occasionally really awful if you get a lot of matches.