Predictive text can be incredibly useful at correcting typos or working out what you want to say next. But what about the times when it autocorrects the exact thing you want to say? Here’s how to turn it off on Android.
Turn off predictive text in Android
1. Open the Settings menu on your phone or tablet and select Languages & Input.
2. Tap Virtual keyboard under Keyboard and input methods.
3. Select Android Keyboard.
4. Select Text correction.
5. Slide off the toggle next to Next-word suggestions.
These steps can differ if you’re not using the Android Keyboard. On a Samsung Galaxy phone, for example, look under General Management, Language and Input, On-screen keyboard, Samsung Keyboard, Smart typing, then turn off Predictive Text.
Turn off autocorrect in Android
1. Open the Settings menu on your phone or tablet and select Languages & Input.
2. Tap Virtual keyboard under Keyboard and input methods.
3. Select Android Keyboard.
4. Select Text correction.
5. Slide off the toggle next to Auto-correction.
Text correction options
Another option in the ‘Text correction’ menu is your ‘Personal dictionary’, found under the ‘Dictionary’ area of settings. You can add words to this, and it’s useful if Android tends to auto-correct someone’s name or another word you use regularly.
When you add a word, you can also enter a shortcut to type that word – that’s invaluable when you have long or complex words.
Yet more options include toggles for showing correction suggestions; personalised suggestions (which shows words you type a lot or are learned from other Google services); and showing contact names as suggestions.
Gesture/Glide typing
If you back up a level from the ‘Text correction’ menu, you’ll find the ‘Glide typing’ menu. This is essentially unchanged from ‘Gesture typing’ inolder In that, you can disable the ability to type words by swiping across the keyboard, turn off the gesture trail and turn off automatically adding spaces between words when you swipe over the spacebar.
Advanced settings
In the ‘Advanced’ menu, you can set the delay time for a long key press – such as when you hold down ‘T’ to get the number 5 – and the vibration duration for a keypress. Here you can also prevent usage stats being sent to Google.
