Tech

Google Docs is getting autocorrect starting this week

Hopefully, it's not ducking terrible.

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Google Docs is getting autocorrect for all users, including those customers using G Suite corporate accounts. The new feature is still rolling out as we speak so you may not see it quite yet.

Duck, ducked, ducking — Autocorrect in Google Docs works exactly as you’d expect it to. As you’re typing, misspelled words will automatically be corrected, with a grey underline denoting the change. You can hit backspace to undo the change or hover over it and select “Undo.” Incredible stuff, I know.

Google

If you find that the autocorrect is making too many changes you don’t want — such as constantly correcting vulgar language like it's your mother — Google says there is an option to turn it off. You can do that by visiting Tools > Preferences and unchecking “Automatically correct spelling.”

Google Docs is also getting Smart Compose, but it's limited to G Suite users for now. Smart Compose is a feature that Google first introduced in Gmail which suggests a word or phrase you might use to complete the sentence you're typing. The suggested word or phrase appears in grey, and you press tab to accept it. Google says Smart Compose, “saves you time by cutting back on repetitive writing.”

I personally never use Smart Compose, or Google's suggested email replies because their word choices tend to be pretty formal, which makes it feel inauthentic and awkward. It'll be much more interesting once Google's AI can actually mimic my own style. But either way, it was reported back in 2018 that more than 10 percent of emails sent through Gmail used the suggested replies so apparently that's a popular way of banging through email.