As you type text on the iPad keyboard, you see predictions for your next word, emoji that could take the place of your word, and other suggestions based on your recent activity and information from your apps (not available for all languages). In Messages, for example, when you type something like:

  • “I’m at” followed by a space, your current location appears as an option

  • “My number is” followed by a space, your phone number appears as an option

Accept or reject a predictive text suggestion

  • To accept a suggested word or emoji while typing, tap it; to accept the highlighted suggestion, enter a space or punctuation.

    When you tap a suggested word, a space appears after the word. If you enter a comma, period, or other punctuation, the space is deleted.

  • To reject the suggestions, tap your original word (shown as the predictive text option with quotation marks).

    A Mail message showing the first few words of a new message, with predictive text suggestions for completing the next word.

Turn off predictive text

  • With an onscreen keyboard: Touch and hold the Next Keyboard, Emoji key or the Switch Keyboard keytap Keyboard Settings, then turn off Predictive.

  • With an external keyboard: Go to Settings  > General > Keyboard, then turn off Predictive.

When you turn off predictive text, iPad may still try to suggest corrections for misspelled words. To accept a correction, enter a space or punctuation, or tap Return. To reject a correction, tap the “x.” If you reject the same suggestion a few times, iPad stops suggesting it.