How to Turn off Autocorrect on Android

Get rid of that annoying predictive text

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Updated on December 21, 2020

Switching from iOS

What To Know

Go to Settings > System > Languages & input > Virtual keyboard. Pick the keyboard. Tap Text correction, and toggle Auto-correction off.
Some settings may be specific to other keyboards. The general idea will stay the same, though.

This article explains how to turn auto-correct off on Android using the default Gboard keyboard, but it will apply to other keyboards too. The instructions in this article apply to Android 8.0 and up, but they should work similarly on Android 7.0 and earlier with minor differences.

How to Turn off Autocorrect on Android

Open the Settings app.
Tap System > Languages & input > Virtual keyboard.
You'll see a list of all installed keyboards, including default installations. Tap Gboard, or the keyboard for which you want to turn off autocorrect.
Tap Text correction.
Scroll down to the Corrections section, and tap Auto-correction to toggle it off.

When autocorrect is off, the default Android keyboard (Gboard) still offers correction suggestions at the top of the keyboard. It doesn't swap a predicted correction when you add a space after a word. Instead, it leaves the word the way you typed it.

The Advantages of Turning off Autocorrect

There are a couple of use cases that favor deactivating autocorrect. If you type a lot of proper names or use the latest vernacular that the Android built-in dictionary hasn't caught up with yet, autocorrect might do more harm than good.

Turning off autocorrect also helps if you're bilingual and frequently switch between languages while typing.

How to Turn Off Autocorrect on Samsung

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