There’s a really annoying problem with predictive text on Facebook right now, and if you’re here then the chances are you’re experiencing it. For some reason, Facebook is messing with the predictive keyboards of users’ Samsung, Google, and iOS devices. Instead of suggesting appropriate words, on Facebook their predictive text keyboards are suggesting irrelevant words, or actually deleting what they’re typing as they type it.
Unfortunately, there’s currently no way to turn off predictive text only on Facebook. To solve this issue (for now) the best thing you can do is turn off the predictive text setting on your device itself. As such, we’ll explain below how to do that for Android and iOS devices.
For any other information, or if you have further questions, please see our FAQ section at the end of this article.
Table of Contents
How to turn off predictive text on an Android phone/tablet
- On your Android device, open up any text based application so as to see your keyboard (text messages, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.)
- Tap the first text box you see, so that the keyboard on your Android device pops up.
- Now, above the numbers along the top of the alphabet part of the keyboard, you’ll see a few different icons for GIFs, emojis, etc. Tap the ‘Settings’ icon, shaped like a cog. This will take you directly to the Settings menu for your keyboard.
- Locate the setting menu for ‘Smart typing’ or ‘Text correction’ and tap on it.
- Locate ‘Predictive text’ and tap the slider from ON to OFF (blue to gray)
- Exit back out of the Settings menu for your phone’s keyboard, and finally check that predictive text has been effectively disabled.
- You can now use Facebook again without facing any issues with predictive text.
How to turn off predictive text on an iOS phone/tablet
- On your iOS device, open up any text based application so as to see your keyboard (text messages, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.)
- Tap the first text box you see, so that the keyboard on your iOS device pops up.
- Locate the Smiley Face Emoji icon in the bottom-left of the keyboard, and tap and hold it.
- When a pop-up menu appears, select ‘Keyboard Settings’ from the options.
- Locate the toggle labeled ‘Predictive’ and tap it to change it from ON to OFF (blue to gray).
- Exit back out of the Settings menu for your phone’s keyboard, and finally check that predictive text has been effectively disabled.
- You can now use Facebook again without facing any issues with predictive text.
And there you have it! Instructions for how to disable predictive text on either an Android or an iOS phone. Until Facebook patches the issue users are having with predictive text on the app, this is your next best option.
If you have any further questions, or would like more information, see our FAQs below.
FAQs
What is predictive text on Facebook?
If you use predictive text on your phone or tablet, for example by enabling it through the Google keyboard, then you might have noticed something rather annoying happening lately… Whilst your Samsung, iPhone, or Google keyboard tends to get the predictive suggestion correct, somehow Facebook has been overriding it and suggesting something entirely wrong.
In other words, we’ve seen people complaining that as they go to type “for example”, their Google keyboard might suggest “example” as soon as they’ve typed “for”. And yet, just as they go to tap on the word “example” which has been suggested by predictive text, Facebook throws in a totally irrelevant word which they end up tapping on instead.
Other users have complained of Facebook actually deleting the word they’re typing as they’re typing it, and suggesting something else entirely. So when we speak about ‘predictive text on Facebook’ we’re not talking about a specific predictive keyboard built by Facebook, but rather Facebook messing with predictive text settings already built into your current device’s keyboard.
Why would I want to turn predictive text on Facebook off?
Predictive text can be a super useful feature and is used by millions of people all over the world. Generally, as a rule, it is enabled by default on most smartphone and tablet keyboards, especially including Google and Samsung keyboards.
Predictive text is useful because it can speed up the process of writing out your comments, text messages, or posts. Once the device has spent some time getting used to your style of writing and the key phrases you tend to use quite often, it will start suggesting helpful words and phrases as you type, which you can quickly tap on.
However, the problem when on Facebook is that for whatever reason Facebook is disrupting the usefulness of predictive text, and making it clunky and unusable. As such, many have turned to disabling predictive text altogether, just to save themselves the hassle of dealing with this issue every time they use the Facebook app.
Can you turn predictive text off on Facebook only?
Unfortunately, there is no way to turn off predictive text on Facebook only, but leave it on for all other functions and apps across the phone. As it stands, the only solution to the problem of Facebook messing with predictive text on your phone’s keyboard is simply to turn off predictive text altogether. Let’s just hope Meta patches it’s Facebook app soon, and we can all get back to using predictive text like we always did!
Can I turn predictive text back on later?
Of course! Any settings which you adjust on your phone can always be readjusted later. In other words, if you choose to turn off predictive text now, so as to avoid the issues with Facebook, you can always turn it back on at a later date (hopefully once Facebook has been patched and the issue resolved!).
