What is the name for when you're writing a post and it suggests users if you type a name? (twitter/slack)

Question

In twitter this happens when you input the '@' symbol and it then suggests users as you type more characters.

In Slack this also happens but without needing the '@' symbol.

So far I have heard of 'incremental searching' and 'search-as-you-type', but these refer to search boxes and not inline within a text area/post box.

What is this feature called and are there any resources out there that can help me create this feature myself?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I believe it is usually referred to as (username) autocompletion (not to be confused with form autocompletion).

A quick search gives me typeahead.js which is made and used by Twitter.

Some more examples:

• https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/278921/add-auto-completion-for-username-in-comments-when-typing
• https://github.com/blog/1283-github-for-mac-username-autocompletion