For any android device you use, you should have encountered the wonders of the autosuggestion which is characteristic of the Android keyboard. While this can speed up your messaging, it can also interfere with the message you want to pass when a word like ‘thank you’ ends up as ‘thanksgiving’ on the receiver’s device. However, this does not have to always be your situation. You can set up your android keyboard to get accurate autosuggestions, and it really does not involve rocket science.
Another thing that makes typing on the Android Gboard a bit frustrating is the tendency for the keyboard to auto-correct words it perceives to be misspelled. The Android keyboard operates with its dictionary and the language you have preselected so you need to modify the auto-correct and other settings to choose the type of words and emojis you get to see so that you can get accurate autosuggestions.
Most android phone users just go ahead to backspace the autocorrected word in order to get their desired message correctly, while others don’t even realize until the message has been sent and then they have to undo or send an apology. No need to go through all that troubles if you can get accurate autosuggestions.
How to get accurate auto-suggestions
- Open any app that you type with, like your WhatsApp or Gmail.
- Tap where you can enter text but do not type in any character.
- At the top of the keyboard, you will see some icons. If there is no icon at the top of your keyboard then there should be an arrow pointing rightwards. Tap on it to reveal the other icons.
- Tap on the Settings icon (usually a round icon with rough edges).
- Navigate to Text correction and tap on it. It will give you a dropdown list of several options which generally inform your typing experience on your android phone.
Depending on your smartphone type, the steps to get to Text correction might be different.
- Open your device's Settings > Scroll down to the bottom and select System
- Tap on Languages & input > tap on Virtual Keyboards > Select Gboard (or whichever is your active keyboard)
- This will take you to the keyboard's settings > Tap on Text correction
Once you have gotten to Text correction;
- Navigate down to Show emoji suggestions and turn it on. When this feature is on, your keyboard will suggest a matching emoji whenever you type a word; like suggesting a happy emoji when you type the word ‘happy’.
- Navigate to Show sticker suggestions and turn it on. This feature also suggests matching stickers.
- To turn on/ off predictive text on Android, navigate to Next-word suggestions. You can turn it on depending on your preference. This feature helps to suggest the next likely words when you type in a word. It is quite helpful and does not get in the way as you can easily go ahead to type your preferred word if it is not among the options. (for instance, when you type ‘how’, your keyboard could suggest ‘are’ or ‘do’ or other words that usually follow ‘how’ in your previous messages.
- Navigate down to Auto-correction. Turn it off if you want the keyboard to stop correcting words perceived to be wrong.
- Navigate to Block offensive words and ensure that it is turned on. This feature does not restrict what you choose to type, but it prevents the keyboard from suggesting offensive words, foul or vulgar language.
One of the ways to get accurate autosuggestions on your android keyboard is to set it to give you the exact words you need, or take out some words from the suggestion list. If you have the Gboard (simply means Google Keyboard) installed in your phone then you can apply these steps.
How to delete words from your keyboard autosuggestion list
- On your Android phone or tablet, open any app that you type with, like your WhatsApp or Gmail.
- Tap to enter text. Type the word you want to add, at the top of the keyboard, you’ll see suggestions.
- If you see the word you don’t want to be suggested to you subsequently, Tap on it and hold it and drag it into the trash icon that appears on top of it.
How to add words to get accurate autosuggestions
- Open any app that you type with, like your WhatsApp or Gmail.
- Tap to enter text. Type the word you want to add, at the top of the keyboard, you’ll see suggestions.
- If the word you want to add is among the suggestions, then you don’t have to do anything.
- If the word you want to add is not in the suggestions, then type it in full and tap on the space button.
- The word will immediately underline red since it is not in your dictionary.
- Tap the word underlined in red.
- Tap Add to dictionary.
- Next time you are typing on any of your applications, this word will now be among your lists of autosuggestions.
How to add a language to your keyboard to get accurate autosuggestions
If you usually type in just one language, then you have likely set up your android keyboard to that language when you bought the phone. But if you regularly use words from another language, you can add the language keyboard to your options in order to get accurate autosuggestions in that language as well.
- Open any app that you type with, like your WhatsApp or Gmail.
- Tap where you can enter text but do not type in any character.
- At the top of the keyboard, you will see some icons. If there is no icon at the top of your keyboard then there should be an arrow pointing rightwards. Tap on it to reveal the other icons.
- Tap on the Settings icon (usually a round icon with rough edges).
- Tap on Languages > Tap on Add Keyboard > Navigate to the desired language and tap on it to add. Ensure that you choose a keyboard that is compatible with your current keyboard arrangement (QWERTY or AZERTY).
After setting this up, your phone will give you suggestions in both languages and will not underline or autocorrect words from the second language. This will generally result in a better typing experience on your Android keyboard.
