How to disable autocorrect and predictive text on an iPhone

Predictive text and autocorrect, as we all know, are two features fundamental to our experience of typing on a touchscreen smartphone. Also synonymous with this mode of communication are the meme-worthy corrections that autocorrect often throws up.

Generally, autocorrect works well if your language follows predictable patterns and you use commonly used phrases. Autocorrect and predictive text can however, make incorrect predictions when using colloquial terms and phrases. And as such, you may want to turn it off on your phones. Especially on iPhones, on which the feature has been widely hailed for long, but has had it hiccups all the same.

What’s the difference between autocorrect and predictive text?

Before we take a look at just how to turn off autocorrect and predictive text on your iPhones though, it would perhaps be a good idea to take a look at just what the features do and how they work.

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Autocorrect is the term used to describe the system that, as the name indicates, automatically corrects what it perceives to be typos. Predictive text on the other hand, looks at what you’re typing and then attempts to predict what you’ll be typing next. For example, if I type “Happy” it’s logical that the next word is likely to be “birthday.”

Autocorrect can be a pain to use if you type quickly and accurately, or often use phrases that the system is not familiar with. Predictive text, on the other hand, can be useful as the predictions appear above or alongside what you’re typing. You would of course want to turn it off if you don’t ever use the feature and/or could use the little bit of vertical real estate you gain without the predictive text row.

How to turn off predictive text and autocorrect on an iPhone

On your iPhone, open the Settings app, then head to General > Keyboard.

Here, look for ‘Auto-Correction’ and ‘Predictive Text’ and tap the toggle switch next to them to turn off the feature. Tapping the switches again (so they turn green) enables the feature.

You can disable other predictive feature that you don’t like in the same menu. For example you could disable smart punctuation, which adds punctuation based on your sentence structure, disable character preview if you don’t need a pop-up of the character you’re tapping on, and so on.

Since you intend to disable predictive text and autocorrect, we’d also recommend that you disable ‘Slide to type’ as this will prevent accidental swipes and predictive text.

How to switch keyboards on an iPhone

Predictive text and autocorrect is quite useful for the majority of users, and one reason you might be struggling with it is because you might have the wrong keyboard selected. You can check by heading to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards.

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Here, check that you have the right keyboard for your region — English (India) — for us Indians. If you’re on the wrong keyboard, you can add one by tapping ‘Add New Keyboard’ and searching for the one you’d prefer.

Switching to the right keyboard might actually end up being more useful to you than disabling autocorrect entirely. As you can see, disabling autocorrect and predictive text is quite simple on the iPhone. Do remember to try switching keyboards in case the issue you’re facing is because of that.