atebits

“My” vs “Your”

January 23, 2009

Tiny tip for iPhone developers. When in doubt, the correct possessive pronoun for your apps is “my”, not “your”. It’s best to stay consistent and follow Apple’s lead.

I’ve only spotted two examples (I’m sure there are more):

• In Phone: “My Phone Number”
• In Settings/Mail, etc: “Always Bcc Myself”

Think about it this way, people use your apps from the perspective of their own brain. Your app should be an extension of the user, not some sort of “helper“.

That being said, it’s even better to stay as impersonal as possible. E.g. use “Messages” rather than “My Messages”. Tweetie only uses “My” once, for “My Profile”… only because I didn’t think the word “Profile” alone got the point across clearly enough.

(Thanks to Randy Reddig for making me actually think about this).