This tutorial shows you how to disable keyboard autocorrection on your iPhone or iPad so that your device no longer changes words automatically while typing.
Why turn off auto-correct?
With auto-correct, any word you misspell is automatically fixed. For example, if you type ‘this is greay‘ your iPhone will automatically correct it to ‘this is great.’
Though the auto-correction feature is indispensable for speed typists, it can be quite a nuisance if your choice of words, writing style, or vocabulary exceeds iOS’s built-in dictionary.
If you type in more than one language, you can easily set up multilingual typing on your iPhone or iPad. However, the problem is Apple’s autocorrection is only available in some languages. So, when you try to type a word in any other unsupported language, it will automatically change it to a known word based on your current iOS keyboard language.
With that in mind, this tutorial will help you quickly turn off suggested corrections for common misspellings throughout iOS with just a few taps.
How to turn off auto-correction on iPhone and iPad
- Open the Settings app and tap General.
- Select Keyboard.
- Switch off Auto-Correction.
From now on, your iPhone keyboard won’t automatically try to correct words it thinks you misspelled.
Related settings to consider
Spell checker
To disable iOS’s built-in spell checker, flip the Check Spelling switch underneath the English heading in Settings > General > Keyboard to the off position.
Auto-correction and predictive text
The Predictive feature, available for select languages, prompts the keyboard to predict your next word based on what you’ve typed, and gets smarter as you use it. If you keep Auto-Correction enabled and turn off predictive text (Settings > General > Keyboard > Predictive), your device may still try to suggest corrections for misspelled words. To completely turn off all auto-corrections for everything you type, disable both the Auto-Correction and Check Spelling features using the instructions provided above.
Use Text Replacement
If you frequently use a word or phrase that you don’t want auto-corrected, create a shortcut using the Text Replacement feature by going to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement > plus icon (+) but leave the Shortcut field blank.
Hear auto-correction
Want your iPhone to speak the correction before you’ve accepted it? Go to Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content > Typing Feedback and set the Speak Auto-Text button to the on position.
Turn off auto-correct in third-party iPhone keyboards
The above setting only affects the built-in iOS keyboard. If you use third-party keyboards like SwiftKey or Gboard, you will find the option to turn off autocorrection inside their in-app settings.
SwiftKey
- Open the SwiftKey app and tap Settings.
- Turn off the switch for Autocorrect.
Google Gboard
- Open the Gboard app and tap Keyboard settings.
- Turn off Auto-correction.
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