Android devices sometimes makes some strange suggestions for misspelled words. I know that I have sent off plenty of messages that were supposed to contain shorthand words that instead ended up making no sense. This motivated me to disable the auto-correction feature. It’s kind of tough, because it comes in handy at times, but in the end it does more harm than good.
Enable or Disable Spell Check
- From the Home screen, select the app drawer, then select “Settings“.
- Tap “System“. (Skip this step on some versions)
- Select “Language & keyboard“.
- Select “Virtual keyboard“.
- Choose the keyboard you are using. It’s normally named “Android“, “Google“, “gboard“, “Swype“, etc.
- Select “Text correction“.
- Enable or disable the options you want:
- Auto-correction
- Auto capitalization
- Double-space period
- Show suggestion strip
- Next-word suggestions
This post applies to Android OS Oreo.
Bill Renaud says
If the Word Suggestion feature is changing words when you type messages, then you may be using the feature incorrectly. In short, NEVER tap the space key after each word. Use the Word Suggestion bar right above the keyboard to enter each word, even if you had to completely spell out the word. You might have to clear the Word Suggestion History using the gear icon in the keyboard. Enter a space only after a punctuation symbol (comma, period, etc.).
Geoffrey says
Mitch you have been a God send…I have been online for a couple of hours till I came across your solution to turn spell check back on….wow!…thx is all I can say.
U and your child look in a beautiful mood…great to see
Geoff in Oz
Michael Daniel says
I am on Android 8 and found how to turn it off for texting. Go to your text screen like you are going to send someone a text message. At the bottom of the keyboard is a gear just like settings on the home screen. Tap the gear and you will find the options that you need to turn off autocorrect.
Mitch Bartlett says
The Galaxy A8 has a different build of Android 8. That’s why the settings are different. Straight Android 8 has the setting in the location specified in the post.
Brian O says
No help at all. These settings do not exist in Android 8.0. After much searching, I found the controls here for Samsung Galaxy A8 92018):
Settings>language and input>On-screen keyboard>Samsung keyboard>smart typing
Here you can choose input method and toggle predictive text. Well-hidden.
Stan says
I have android 8 on Samsung s7. I can’t find these settings since the last update. I believe this thing would be better used for target practice
Kent Keller says
Android programmers. If you are out there, please listen. We all hate the auto-correction. Please get rid of it.
AzzKickr says
Same here. Disabled everything; keeps correcting … :(
Kent Keller says
I guessit is the thought that counts. Disabled everything, messager still insistrs on “correcting” everthing. Annoying to the max.