When you are typing an email or text message on your Android device, do you see some text options appear just above your keyboard?
It is possible that as you type, you will see a selection of word suggestions just above the on-screen keyboard near the bottom of your screen. This is the predictive text feature. The feature can speed up typing for you. It’s great to have a feature like this if you tend to type the same thing over and over. Modern Android phones let you change the keyboard’s predictive text settings.
Sometimes it’s hard to know where to go to change your settings, so here’s how to manage predictive text and auto-correct on your Android phone. This article shows you how to enable or disable predictive text on Android.
Table of Contents
What is Predictive Text?
Predictive text is an input technique used in mobile devices to suggest words that the user might want to use or type in a text box. As a rule, predictive text systems contain linguistic parameters that offer initial predictions that are then reprogrammed according to the user’s preferences. This makes up the two types of predictive text systems:
- Auto-correct
- Auto-complete or auto-fill
Though the predictive text was originally developed in order to assist those with disabilities, the feature has since developed into a very useful tool for those who want to send text messages faster with the multi-tap keypad.
The predictive text feature comes up with word suggestions for you to choose from as you type. Based on the typed words in the previous sentences, the predictive text uses artificial intelligence to guess the next word as you type it.
Then you have the option of selecting the word you are interested in from the list of suggestions. You may continue typing if the desired word does not come up.
As a general rule, predictive text entry is a useful feature if you want or need to type a message faster because it will suggest words that you could use to finish your message.
Uses of Predictive Text
Predictive text is used for the following:
- Predictive text is used to eliminate grammatical and spelling mistakes.
- Predictive text is used to utilize fewer letters to guess the next world.
- Predictive text is used to facilitate faster typing and make sentences easier to complete.
- Predictive text can also include your custom personal dictionary and remove certain words from your word list.
How to Enable Predictive Text on Android
- Tap Settings
- Tap System
- Tap Languages and input
- Tap On-screen keyboard
- Tap Gboard
- Tap Text correction
- For auto-complete or auto-fill: Enable show suggestion strip and next-word suggestions
- For auto-correct: Enable auto-correction
After you turn on auto-complete, your Android phone will offer predictive text suggestions. And after you turn on auto-correct, your Android phone will correct any spelling mistakes that you make.
How to Disable Predictive Text on Android
- Tap Settings
- Tap System
- Tap Languages and input
- Tap On-screen keyboard
- Tap Gboard
- Tap Text correction
- For auto-complete or auto-fill: Disable show suggestion strip. This will automatically disable the next-word suggestions tool.
- For auto-correct: Disable auto-correction
After you turn off auto-complete, your Android phone will stop offering predictive text suggestions. And after you turn off auto-correct, your Android phone will stop correcting any spelling mistakes that you make.
Limitations of Predictive Text
Even though predictive text is a modern feature, it’s still not perfect. Sometimes it can’t recognize the words you’re typing or makes corrections all the time.
Rather than waiting for the system to automatically learn the word when you use it multiple times, you can manually add the word to your dictionary. You can also simply ignore the correction from the predictive text if that is your wish.
If you want, you can add words to your personal dictionary. This is useful if Android tends to automatically correct someone’s name or another word you use often. With this, Android won’t change the words you usually use.
You can add personalized text to your own dictionary on your Android phone by following the steps outlined below.
How To Add Personalized Text to Your Dictionary
- Tap Settings
- Tap System
- Tap Languages and input
- Tap Personal dictionary
- Tap +
- Type a word
- Type a shortcut (optional)
Personalized Dictionary in Multiple Languages
If you have multiple languages on your phone, you can also add personalized text per language.
- Tap Settings
- Tap System
- Tap Languages and input
- Tap On-screen keyboard
- Tap Gboard
- Tap Dictionary
- Tap Personal dictionary
- Choose a language
Final Words: Predictive Text on Android
We’ve outlined how to turn on or off predictive text on your Android phone above. For those with very specific vocabulary, we’ve also outlined how to add custom text. Predictive text is just a small way to improve your Android typing experience.
As each one of us has different preferences, predictive text may work for some and not for others. In general, though, predictive text is pretty useful for composing sentences fast.
We hope this guide was helpful.
