How To Get Rid Of Autocorrect

Here's a common problem we all face. You're typing a text message on your iPhone, and the built-in auto-correction feature changes a word, and it doesn't make any sense. Before you catch the error, the text is sent. The good news is that you can prevent this from happening by tweaking the settings for your keyboard.

You can turn off the auto-correction feature completely; control auto capitalization, predictive text, and other options; or create text replacements to convert an entire word or a series of letters into something else, such as your name or address. Just make sure you're running the latest version of iOS or iPadOS. Here's how it all works.

Turn Off Autocorrect

On your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > General > Keyboard. Let's address the elephant in the room right off the bat. To stop your text from being changed or auto-corrected to something else, turn off the switch for Auto-Correction.

Now when you open a text message and start typing, it will no longer change words that aren't in the keyboard's dictionary, such as proper names. Instead of trying to change these words, your phone will simply flag them as possible misspellings.

If you do make a mistake, you can still request help from your keyboard. Tap on the misspelled word, and a list of alternative spellings and words pop up. Tap the correct spelling if you wish to replace the word you typed. If you'd rather not see the red lines indicating a possibly misspelled word, return to the keyboard settings screen and turn off the switch for Check Spelling.

Turn Off Predictive Text

Predictive text offers suggestions for your current word and the next word, but it doesn't force its suggestions on you. The predictive feature also displays the word you're typing in quotes along with its other suggestions, so you can easily choose that word if it's correct.

If you don't want your phone predicting what you might be about to type, navigate to the Keyboard settings screen, and turn off the switch next to Predictive. However, we recommend keeping this feature on, especially if you disable Auto-Correction and Check Spelling.

Text Replacement

If you decide not to disable Auto-Correction and Check Spelling, you can add words and phrases to your keyboard's dictionary so they won't be flagged. Open to the keyboard settings screen and tap Text Replacement, then select the + icon. Now, type the word or phrase you want to add into the Phrase box. Leave the Shortcut box empty and tap Save. Now when you type the added text, it will no longer be flagged as incorrect.

Instead of having to type a certain word or phrase every time, you can create a shortcut, and it will be automatically converted. From the keyboard settings screen, tap Text Replacement and select the + icon. Type in the phrase, then add the corresponding shortcut.

For example, you can add your full name in the phrase field and use your initials as the shortcut. When you want your full name to appear in a text or email, just type the shortcut. To delete a shortcut from the list, swipe it to the left and tap Delete.

Any saved words or shortcuts are added across all your Apple devices as long as iCloud syncing is enabled. You will find them available to you in built-in apps such as Mail, Notes, Reminders, Contacts, and Safari, as well as in third-party apps such as Facebook and Twitter.

Voice Recognition

You can often avoid typing altogether by speaking your words. Make sure the option Enable Dictation is turned on. At your text message, tap the microphone icon and then start speaking. Remember to include punctuation marks as you speak. The voice recognition is fairly accurate, so it should be able to capture most of your words correctly.

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More Keyboard Settings to Change

You can further customize your keyboard from the settings screen. While many of them are useful features, you can disable them by turning their switch off.

Auto-Capitalization will capitalize the first letter of a word after you type a period. It also allows you to double-tap the spacebar to enter a period.
Enable Caps Lock keeps the uppercase keyboard alive if you double-tap the Shift key.
Smart Punctuation automatically converts certain punctuation marks to make them look better, such as turning straight quotation marks into curly ones or a double dash into an em dash.

On an iPad, the option for Enable Key Flicks is a quick way to type an alternate character. Flick down on a specific key on the keyboard, and the character that appears at the top of the key is entered. For example, flicking down on the A key enters a @, flicking down on the D key enters a $, and flicking down on the X key enters a -. Flicking down on any of the keys at the top enters a number. Unless you keep entering the wrong key by flicking instead of tapping, you'll want to keep this enabled.

Slide to Type for an iPhone or Slide on Floating Keyboard to Type on an iPad lets you slide your finger along different keys to form a word. Often a quicker way to create a word, this option shouldn't interfere with your regular typing whether you use it or not. So you can typically leave it enabled.

Delete Slide-to-Type by Word deletes the entire previous word that you entered by sliding. If you find that the sliding feature sometimes results in incorrect words that you need to modify, you may want to turn off this option to more easily correct them.

On an iPhone, Character Preview displays a larger preview of each character you tap on the keyboard as a way to confirm that you pressed the right key. For some people, this option may be annoying or distracting. For others, it's a helpful way to more clearly tell if you're tapping the correct key. The option for "." Shortcut automatically inserts a period if you double-tap the spacebar, an effective way to end one sentence and start a new one.

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