How to turn off auto-correction in android
Sebastian Wright
Published Mar 29, 2026
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I love the autocorrect feature on my Android phone. Most of the time. Looking back through recent text messages, I see a series of follow-up corrections I’ve had to send out. My phone changed a friend’s name from “Lati” to “Latin.” I once got “carry” when I meant “Carrie.” These are small issues, but they’re still a little annoying.
Autocorrect has also saved me from many a misspelling, but not everyone adores the know-it-all feature. While Google has built a decent autocorrect system for its mobile operating system, it doesn’t always get it right. This is where autocorrect frustrations stem from. It doesn’t necessarily know unusual names or alternative spellings, and sometimes it jumps to erroneous conclusions about what you’re writing.
While many people find autocorrect helpful, you don’t have to keep living with it if it just isn’t working for you. We’ll look at how Android autocorrect functions, how to turn it off if necessary, and also how you can make it better.
How Android autocorrect works
Autocorrect automatically adjusts words as you’re typing, hopefully correcting misspellings along the way. It’s a system that keeps learning as you go.
Google’s standard keyboard that runs on Android is known as Gboard. Gboard uses a dictionary and adds to it as you use your gadget. According to Google, “Gboard saves the words you type to help you with spelling.” This means autocorrect should get smarter as you use it. If you’re having frustrations at first, give it a little time to learn your habits.
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How to turn off autocorrect for Android
Despite the occasional autocorrect snafu, I’ve found the feature more helpful than not, and so I choose to leave it on. My husband, however, has long struggled with autocorrect on his Android phone and finally made the decision to shut it off.
Keep in mind that different manufacturers and versions of the Android operating system may change where you need to look for settings on your phone or tablet. We’re also assuming you’re using Google’s popular Gboard keyboard.
From any app that uses the keyboard, tap on a typing area to pull up Gboard. Tap on the gear icon along the top, then tap on “Text correction.” Here, you will discover a wealth of very specific settings ranging from blocking offensive words to making emoji suggestions. Scroll down to the Corrections section and tap on the toggle switch for Auto-correction to turn it off.
Turning off autocorrect doesn’t mean losing spellcheck. The spellcheck on-and-off toggle switch is found in the same keyboard settings where you turned off autocorrect. You can leave spellcheck on and continue to let Google lookout for misspellings.
If you do turn off autocorrect and end up missing it, just follow the instructions to return to the keyboard settings and turn it back on.
If you use a third-party keyboard, you should be able to access the autocorrect setting in a similar fashion. For example, I sometimes use SwiftKey. I tapped on the plus sign at the top and then on the gear icon to reach the Autocorrect setting.
How to improve autocorrect for Android
Turning off autocorrect may feel too drastic for you. If that’s the case, then you can instead explore how to make it work better for your needs. One of the best ways to do this is by beefing up the dictionary it uses. You can help it get smarter by adding words you use, including names or unusual words it might not know.
Add words to your dictionary: There are a couple of methods for doing this. If you see a word underlined in red as you type, you can tap on it and then tap on “Add to dictionary.”
You can also tackle a whole bunch of words in one go by tapping on the gear icon above the keyboard and then on Dictionary. Tap on “Personal dictionary” and then on the plus sign in the corner. Type in the word you want to to add and then on the arrow in the corner to go back. You should see the new word in your dictionary.
Remove suggested words: You can add words, but you can also take them away. This is handy if the dictionary has learned a misspelled word, or if it constantly autocorrects certain words to ones you don’t want. When typing, hold down on the suggested word at the top of the keyboard. A trash can icon will appear. Drag and drop the word onto the trash can.
I tested this out by opening Gmail and typing a sentence starting with “That was so wei.” When I left off the “rd” of “weird,” Android autocorrected it for me. I then tried it again, but this time, I tapped the word “weird” from the suggestions, held it down and dragged it to the trash icon. When I tried the sentence again, it no longer autocorrected to “weird.”
Autocorrect isn’t perfect, so it’s all about if you find it more useful than annoying. You may find you’re happier with it turned off.
@howtogeek
Updated Sep 22, 2017, 9:51 am EST | 1 min read
When typing on an Android device, your spelling is checked automatically and replacement words are suggested. If you don’t select a word in the list of suggestions, a default word is used to replace what the system thinks is a misspelled word.
However, what if the word is not misspelled? The auto-correction feature in Android can be useful at times, but it may also be a hindrance. It’s easy to adjust the aggressiveness of the feature or to turn it completely off, and we’ll show you how on a Nexus 7, which runs a stock Android system, using the standard Google keyboard.
Swipe down from the right side of the status bar at the top of the screen. Touch the “Settings” button.
On the “Settings” screen, touch “Language & input” in the “Personal” section.
In the “Keyboard & Input Methods” section of the “Language & input” screen, touch the Quick Settings icon to the right of the Google Keyboard.
The “Google Keyboard Settings” screen displays. Touch the “Auto-correction” option.
On the “Auto-correction” dialog box, select how aggressive you want the system to be when it checks and automatically corrects your spelling and typos. To completely turn off the auto-correction feature, touch the radio button to the right of “Off.” You are automatically returned to the “Google Keyboard Settings” screen.
Press the “Back” button on your device three times to return to the Home screen. If you’ve turned the feature off, the system will no longer automatically correct your typing. So, remember that you’ll have to correct your own spelling mistakes and typos.
In this article, you would learn how to turn off autocorrect and predictive tex on Android t if it’s becoming problematic for you on your Android phone.
Just like any feature on a smartphone, autocorrect and predictive text have their ups and downs. They can help you correct your misspelled words, or they can ruin the entire conversation for you. The reason these features exist on your phone is to help you make fewer errors while typing. But, if they do more harm than good, you may want to turn off autocorrect on Anroid.
How to turn off autocorrect on Android
Especially if you type with mixed languages, autocorrect may always put you in trouble by twisting what your sentence means. If you’re in this shoe, follow the simple steps below to disable autocorrect on Android, and gain full control over your text.
- Open your device’s Settings.
- Scroll down to the bottom and select System, then tap on Languages & input.(Note: depending on your Android version or custom UI, you may find Languages & input in the main Settings page instead.)
- After that, tap on Virtual Keyboards.
- Select Gboard(or your active keyboard) on the list. This should take you to the keyboard’s settings.
- Tap on Text correction in this section.
- In the “Corrections” section, tap on Auto-correction to disable autocorrect.
How to turn off predictive text in Android
Similarly to autocorrect, the predictive text uses AI to guess your next word while typing, based on your typing history. This feature is very useful if you’re the only one who types on your phone. But other people can easily get what you typed last if they type on your phone, making it an unsafe feature to use if you care about your privacy. Here’s how to turn off predictive text on Android
- Follow the same steps as directed above.
- Tap on Text correction.
- Now toggle off Next-word suggestions (or Predictive text) to disable the feature.
What other text corrections are available on Android phone?
Android keyboards have been developed to a stage where they can help you construct good sentences easily, even when you’re a novice. These features can compose a complete sentence for you with the aid of predictions learned your texts, making it feel like they read your mind. Here’s a list of other text-correction options available on Android.
Auto space after punctuation.
If you’re the type that always forgets to use the space bar after you typing comma or any punctuation in your sentence, this feature will help you do so. With this, you can type freely without worrying about using the space bar frequently when you type punctuation.
Auto capitalization.
Just like “auto space after punctuation”, this feature helps you capitalize the first word of each sentence. It can also help you with the names of people of places if you forget to capitalize them.
Double-space period.
Save yourself from the stress and type faster! This feature helps you insert a period (full stop) and space when you double-tap the space bar. Normally, you would only have done that by first tapping the full stop, then the space bar to end a sentence.
All this features can be enabled or disabled from Settings > System > Languages & input > Virtual Keyboard > Gboard > Text corrections.
We all know that the amount of typing we do on our smartphones is increasing day-by-day and in such a scenario, the autocorrect feature on Android is a blessing at times. While writing a professional mail, autocorrect feature on Android must have saved you from the embarrassment of spelling mistakes.
Although autocorrect feature is not perfect and at times it corrects the words to something we did not mean to write. In such cases, it is you, who have to decide whether you want to turn on autocorrect on Android phone or turn off autocorrect on your Android phone.
In this article, we have listed the steps of both so that you can decide and then follow them accordingly. Let’s see how we can disable autocorrect on Android as well as turn on autocorrect on Android phones.
How To Turn Off Autocorrect On Android Devices
Everyone knows Gboard is Google’s own keyboard app and is installed on majorly all Android devices. The below-mentioned steps educate our users about how they can turn off autocorrect on Android for their Gboard app.
For this follow the steps below:
- Open the Setting page on your Android device.
- From the Settings page, click on System.
- From the System page, look for Language and input.
- Here click on Virtual keyboard.
- From the Virtual keyboard page, click on Gboard.
- Once you are on the Settings page for Gboard, click on Text correction.
- In order to disable autocorrect on Android devices Toggle-off the option named Auto-correction under Corrections.
After the autocorrect on Android has been disabled you will no longer receive suggestions for autocorrection.
Now that we know how to turn off autocorrect on Android devices, we can easily perform the required steps whenever needed.
However, if you find auto-correction useful and want it on your keyboard, you should also know how to turn on autocorrect on Android.
How to Turn On Autocorrect on Android
Mentioned below are the steps of how you can turn on autocorrect on Android, simply follow then if you want to enable autocorrect on Android.
If you change your mind later, you can re-enable the autocorrect feature at any time.
- Open the Setting page on your Android device.
- From the Settings page, click on System.
- From the System page, look for Language and input.
- Here click on Virtual keyboard.
- From the Virtual keyboard page, click on Gboard.
- Once you are on the Settings page for Gboard, click on Text correction.
- In order to turn on autocorrect on Android devices Toggle-on the option named Auto-correction under Corrections.
These were the steps if you have Gboard on your Android device and you wish to disable autocorrect on your Android device. However, there are many other third-party keyboards that people use according to their convenience. One thing to remember is that irrespective of the keyboard you have on your Android device, it will appear under the Virtual keyboard section. From here you will have to see how to turn off the autocorrect on Android. For example, if you have a Swift keyboard, you should find the settings to disable autocorrect on Android under Typing > Typing & Autocorrect and finally Autocorrect.
By: Waseem Patwegar
As you must have noticed, the keyboard on your Android device automatically corrects words as you type them. In case you find this annoying, you can simply disable or Turn Off Auto Correct on Android Phone or tablet.
Turn OFF Auto Correct On Android Phone or Tablet
As mentioned above, the Auto Correct feature checks words as you type them using the Keyboard on your Android Phone and instantly suggests replacement words.
In case you do not select the suggested word and the Auto Correct feature thinks that a particular word is being misspelled, it automatically replaces your word with what it thinks is a correct replacement for the word.
However, the Auto Correct feature on Android Phone does not always work as intended and it can end up replacing words even if they have been correctly spelled.
In such cases, the Auto Correct feature in Android phones can be really annoying and interfere with your typing.
Hence, we are providing below the steps to adjust Auto Correct Settings and also the steps to completely turn OFF Auto Correct on Android Phone or tablet.
Turn OFF Auto Correct on Android Phone (Stock Android)
Follow the steps below to completely disable or Turn Off Auto Correct on Android Phone or Tablet using Google Keyboard.
1. Open Settings on your Android Phone or Tablet.
2. On the Settings screen, tap on the Language and Input option.
3. On the Language and Input screen, tap on Google Keyboard .
4. On the Google Keyboard Settings screen, tap on Text Correction .
5. On the Text Correction screen, tap on Auto-Correction .
6. On the pop-up that appears, tap on the OFF option to completely turn off Auto Correct on your Android Phone or Tablet (See image below)
Turn OFF Auto Correct on Samsung Galaxy Phone
The Auto Correct feature on Samsung Galaxy Phones is known as Auto Replace and you can follow the steps below to Turn OFF Auto Correct on Samsung Galaxy Phones.
1. Open Settings on your Samsung Galaxy Phone or Tablet.
2. On the Settings screen, tap on the Language and Input option.
3. On the Language and Input Screen, tap on Samsung Keyboard .
4. On the Samsung Keyboard screen, tap on the Auto Replace option located under Smart Typing section (See image below).
5. On the next screen, turn off Auto Replace by moving the toggle to OFF Position (See image below).
Adjust Auto Correct Settings
Instead of completely turning OFF Auto Correct, you can try setting Auto Correct to Modest Level on your Android Phone and see if you can make use of it.
1. Tap on Settings > Language and Input > Google Keyboard .
2. Next, tap on Text Correction > Auto Correction.
3. On the pop-up, tap on Modest option to set Auto-correct settings to Modest Level on your Android Phone or Tablet.
Tip: Google Keyboard also allows you to manually Add your own words, so that you can include Words that are not found in a regular dictionary (Pet Names and other words specific to your style of conversation).
Since mobile is widely used for all the messaging purpose now, many people may find some difficulty in typing the messages. Mainly talking about the keyboard of Android Mobile phones, many people may find the Autocorrection feature bit annoying.
Many of the mobile users won’t type all the messages in English, but they might type it in there own regional language as they speak, but the typing’s are always in English. In this case, the Auto Correction feature will automatically correct the word, thinking that the user typed it wrong. But actually we typed it as like we need it. Here we need to disable the autocorrect feature on the android keyboard.
Let’s check how to Turn Off Autocorrect option on Android Device. It’s easy to do it from the phone settings itself. So follow the steps below to disable the auto-correction.
Step 1: Go to Settings and click on the Language & Input option.
Step 2: In the Language & Input details window, which appears next, check for the current keyboard you are using. If you installed multiple keyboards on your mobile like Gboard, Indic Keyboard etc. You can see all the keyboards listed, so first find out the Current active keyboard you are using. You can find the current keyboard in the ‘Current Keyboard’ section.
Step 3: After finding the Current Keyboard, Click on that Keyboard which is available Below, here in my case it is ‘Gboard’. Click on it to see the options.
Step 4: In the next window, you can see the options available for the Keyboard. Here, we need to go to Preference and Text Correction to make our job.
Step 5: First click on the Preference, here you can see so many options to turn off and turn on as per our need, to Show number row on the keyboard, we have Number Row option,
For emoji switch, we have the option to turn it off or on. Also, there are other options like Sound on keypress, Vibrate on keypress, Popup on keypress etc. You can choose what option you need. In my case, I turned off all the features, to make the keyboard simple.
Step 6: Now go back and click on the Text Correction option. In the next window, you can see all the options, like, Show Suggestion strip, Block offensive words, show emoji suggestions, suggest contact names, personalized suggestions, auto correction, auto-capitalization, double space period etc.
First, we have to turn off the Autocorrecting Option. And the remaining option, you can keep it on or turn off as per your need. If you need complete free typing experience, I suggest to turn off all the options as like I did.
After that close everything and come back to your messaging apps may be WhatsApp, you can experience free typing now, without the auto-correction.
Like most features on your smartphone, autocorrect can have its uses — especially if you’re a sloppy typist — as well as its frustrations.
After all, no algorithm can perfectly understand what you’re trying to type at any given moment. Everyone has their own autocorrect story, where their phone or tablet has changed their writing after the fact and totally screwed up a conversation.
If you often find yourself caught up in these autocorrect mistakes, it might be a good idea to turn off autocorrect. Luckily, if you’re using an Android device, you can turn off autocorrect with just a few taps.
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How to turn off autocorrect on an Android device
1. Open the Settings app and tap “Language and input.” Depending on your device, the “Language and input” option might be hidden in a menu called “System” or “General Management.”
2. In this section, tap “Virtual keyboard.”
3. You’ll be presented with a list of your installed keyboards. Gboard is likely the one you’ll want to pick here, as it’s the default keyboard for nearly every app. Tap it.
4. Tap “Text correction.”
5. Scroll down to “Corrections,” and tap “Auto-correction” to turn off autocorrect.
The autocorrect function on your Android device will be deactivated. This will also deactivate predictive text, so your phone or tablet won’t try to predict what you’re typing and offer suggestions.
Initially, at the time of phone purchase there may be several inbuilt settings saved in the phone such as the auto-correction feature. In most of Android devices, this feature remain enabled and if you want to turn off the auto-correction feature, then you can do it by modifying the settings.
So, be ready to learn – how to disable auto-correction in Android phone/tablet. The reason behind disabling this auto-correction feature may be that you want to send a misspelled SMS or taking the spelling test of someone on your phone.
How To Turn Off Auto-Correction in Android
Now, here’s some of the simple steps that will take you toward the solution of this problem. I’ve made these steps including with the screenshots that’s why you can apply them on your device easily.
STEP 1: Open your Android’s Settings and tap on Language & Input.
STEP 2: In the next screen, under Keyboard & input Methods tap on Android Keyboard as shown in following picture.
STEP 3: Now, in the next screen, you’ll have to tap on Auto-Correction.
STEP 4: At last, in the next popup box, check the Off button and you’re done!
That’s all! Now, the auto-correction feature is turned off and any punctuation and space bar will not correct words automatically until you change the settings.
Here is the complete guide of how to turn off autocorrect on latest Android versions. This auto check spelling or auto-correct features available in almost all smartphones and by default it’s on in your devices. When you typing any message in your android device, it checked to spell automatically, and if error then suggests the correct words below. It helps users to underline spelling errors in red and suggest corrections if any error when typing the message.
Below you can see a perfect solution to turn off or disable autocorrect on Android lollipop devices such as Samsung Galaxy J7 & J5, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, HTC Desire, and other latest android lollipop 5.1.1 and Marshmallow 6.0 devices.
Read Also:
How to Turn Off Autocorrect on Google keyboard: Latest Android Devices
Check below-given steps to turn autocorrect on or off in the latest Android 10, 9 Pie, 8.1 Oreo, Nougat 7.1.2, Marshmallow 6.0, and Lollipop 5.1.2 devices.
Disable Autocorrect on Android 10
Step 1: Go to Settings.
Step 2: Tap on System.
Step 3: Tap on Language & input.
Step 4: Tap on the Virtual keyboard.
Step 5: Tap on Gboard
Step 6: Tap on Text correction.
Step 7: Toggle on or off Auto-correction.
Turn off autocorrect Android 9 Pie
Settings > System > Language & input > Virtual keyboard > Gboard > Text correction > Auto-correction
Enable or disable predictive text in Android Pie 9.0
Settings > System > Language & input > Virtual keyboard > Gboard > Search > Predictive Content search
Turn off Autocorrect in android Oreo 8.0 & 8.1
Settings > System > Language & input > virtual keyboard > Gboard >Text correction > Correction > Auto-correction
How to turn off Predictive text on android Oreo 8.1 & 8.0
Settings > System > Language & input > virtual keyboard > Gboard > Search > predictive search
For Android 5.1.2 Lollipop and Marshmallow 6.0
You can see above screenshot when you typing any message or chat with friends when turn on autocorrect on your android phone and tablet. Follow below-given steps to turn off autocorrect on android lollipop 5.1.1 using language & input settings.
Step 1: Open Settings on your android lollipop device
Step 2: Scroll down until system section, tap on Language and input
Step 3: Under Keyboard and input methods, tap on Samsung keyboard
Step 4: Tap on auto check spelling under Smart typing
By default on your android phone or tablet turn on autocorrect/auto check spelling feature. When you type a message and if an error in spelling then you can see the red underline on the error and suggest corrections.
Step 5: Turn off the toggle button of auto check spelling
Now typing any message on your android device, you can see the no spelling error seen if you have to write the wrong spelling in your message. It’s quite simple to turn off autocorrect on android lollipop.
Did you find the above process of turn off autocorrect on android lollipop 5.1.2 is helpful? Don’t hesitate to let me know, would be a pleasure to help you and connect with us for daily latest updates of android phone or tablet!
