The iPhone keyboard features a horizontal bar positioned directly above the letters, known as the Predictive Text or “Quick Type” bar. This bar constantly analyses what you are typing and offers three suggested words it thinks you will use next. While Apple designed this to speed up typing, many users find it visually distracting, or they accidentally tap the suggestions, inserting unwanted words into their messages. Furthermore, hiding this prediction bar reclaims a small but valuable amount of screen real estate on smaller iPhones. If you prefer to type without AI assistance, you can easily disable the Quick Type bar.
How to Hide the Prediction Bar
You can turn off predictive text directly from the keyboard itself, without needing to dig deep into the iOS Settings app.
- Open any application where the keyboard is active (e.g., Messages, Notes, or Safari).
- Look at the bottom-left corner of the keyboard. Tap and hold the Smiley Face icon (or the Globe icon, if you have multiple languages installed).
- A small menu will pop up. Tap on Keyboard Settings.
- You will be taken directly to the main Keyboard settings menu.
- Scroll down to the “All Keyboards” section.
- Locate the toggle switch labelled Predictive.
- Tap the toggle to turn it off (the switch will turn from green to grey).
The Result
Return to your messaging app. You will immediately notice that the grey bar containing the three suggested words has completely disappeared. The top row of your keyboard will now be the numbers/symbols row, giving you a cleaner, less cluttered interface.
Note: Disabling Predictive Text does not disable Auto-Correction. Your iPhone will still fix obvious typos (like changing “teh” to “the”), but it will no longer try to guess your next word before you type it. If you want to disable Auto-Correction as well, you can find its toggle switch directly above the ‘Predictive’ switch in the Keyboard Settings menu.