iPhone keyboard settings: autocorrect, contacts, group chats, caller ID

Typing and messaging settings are scattered across Settings, Contacts, Phone and Messages. This guide gathers the five changes people search for most: autocorrect, adding or switching keyboards, editing a contact name, naming a group chat and changing your caller ID. Menu names move a little between iOS 18 and iOS 26, so use the search field in Settings if yours looks different.

How to turn off or change autocorrect

Turning it off entirely means typos stay, which many people dislike after a day. A better fix is to teach the keyboard the words it gets wrong. Open Settings › General › Keyboard › Text Replacement, tap the plus button, type the word as the Phrase, leave Shortcut blank and tap Save. The phone then stops replacing that word.

If the keyboard keeps suggesting odd words, it has learned something wrong from your typing. Open Settings › General › Transfer or Reset iPhone › Reset, tap Reset Keyboard Dictionary and enter your passcode. This clears only the words the keyboard learned, not your Text Replacements. To undo a single correction while typing, tap the corrected word, which is underlined, and pick your original spelling.

How to add or switch the keyboard on iPhone

While typing, tap the globe key to switch keyboards, or touch and hold it to choose one from a list. To remove a keyboard, open Keyboards, tap Edit and tap the red minus next to it. Be careful with Allow Full Access: it lets the keyboard send what you type to its maker, which can include passwords. Use it only for companies you trust. Android users can read about changing the keyboard on Android for the equivalent steps.

How to change a contact name on iPhone

The new name shows in Phone, Messages and everywhere else. You can also start from a conversation: tap the name at the top of the chat, tap the contact card, then Edit. If the name changes back, the contact probably comes from a Gmail or Outlook account that syncs over it. Edit it in that account, or save the contact to iCloud. If Messages shows a different name, the person shares their own Name and Photo, and Messages will ask you to Update or Don't Update. If names show as numbers, see contacts that show numbers instead of names.

How to change a group chat name

Everyone in the group sees a notice that you changed the name. You can only name iMessage and RCS groups, not plain SMS group texts. If the option is missing, someone in the group probably uses a phone that cannot join an iMessage group, so the whole conversation falls back to SMS or MMS. Start a new group with only iPhone users if you need a name, or check iMessage problems.

How to change or hide your caller ID

Caller ID has two parts: whether people see your number, and what name they see. To hide your number, open Settings › Apps › Phone › Show My Caller ID and turn it off. For a single call, dial *67 before the number. Some carriers, including Verizon, control this on their side, so the switch may be missing. Then use *67 each time, or change it in your carrier's app.

The name people see on their screen comes from your carrier, not the iPhone. Ask your carrier to update your caller ID name, which is called CNAM, and allow a few days for it to reach other networks. You cannot show a different phone number on normal calls. For iMessage and FaceTime, choose between your number and your email in Settings › Apps › Messages › Send & Receive. If someone keeps calling you, read about blocking a number on iPhone.

If your iPhone keyboard settings will not save

• Restart the iPhone and install the latest iOS update.
• Check that iCloud Contacts is on if a contact edit disappears: Settings › your name › iCloud.
• Test Messages with one friend to see if iMessage and SMS both work.
• If you share an Apple Account with someone else, changes can sync to their device too.

Typing settings worth checking

Settings › General › Keyboard has more than autocorrect. Auto-Capitalization starts sentences with a capital letter, Smart Punctuation turns straight quotes into curly ones, Check Spelling underlines mistakes and the period shortcut types a period when you double-tap the space bar. Text Replacement turns a short code into a longer phrase, such as your email address. If the keyboard feels wrong after a change, flip these one at a time rather than resetting everything.

Sound and feel are in a different place: Settings › Sounds & Haptics › Keyboard Feedback. You can turn typing clicks and haptic taps on or off there. If the keyboard is slow, laggy or missing entirely in an app, restart the phone, remove any third-party keyboard you do not use and test with the standard Apple keyboard.

Messages settings that affect your contacts

A few Messages options change how people see you and how you see them. Share Name and Photo, in Settings › Apps › Messages, controls whether contacts see your name and picture. Send as SMS lets the phone fall back to a normal text when iMessage fails. Unknown & Spam filters messages from people who are not in your contacts, which keeps junk out but can also hide a real message from a new number, such as a delivery driver. If you miss a text from an unknown number, check that filter first.

The contact card also decides how a call or message looks. A contact with a nickname, a company name or a custom ringtone shows up differently from one with only a number. Keeping your contacts tidy, and saving them to iCloud rather than several accounts, avoids duplicates and name changes that seem to undo themselves.

Dictation, languages and one-handed typing

If you type in more than one language, add each keyboard as described above and use the globe key to switch. The emoji keyboard is added the same way, and Dictation, which lets you speak instead of typing, has its own switch under Settings › General › Keyboard › Enable Dictation. When it is on, a microphone key appears on the keyboard. If you have a large phone and type with one thumb, touch and hold the globe or emoji key and choose the one-handed keyboard layout, which shifts the keys to the left or right side of the screen.

These options are separate from autocorrect, so you can leave autocorrect on and still change how and what you type. Changes to a keyboard apply to every app, except apps that draw their own keyboard, such as some banking or password apps.