If you are tired of Google trying to write your emails or documents for you, here’s how to turn this feature off.
ByBarbara Krasnoff, a reviews editor who manages how-tos. She’s worked as an editor and writer for almost 40 years. Previously, she was a senior reviews editor for Computerworld.
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When you’re composing a document or email in Google Docs or Gmail, you may have noticed that the application often tries to finish sentences for you. As I was writing this, Google suggested “when I started writing this” instead of my preferred “when I started to type.” That’s because of Google’s Smart Compose feature, which tries to anticipate your thought processes and add what it thinks you’re going to type next.
Once a suggestion appears (in slightly lighter type), you have two choices: if you like it, you can hit the tab on your keyboard (or, on a mobile device, swipe across the word), and it’s there. If you don’t like the suggestion, just keep typing, and it disappears.
You may find this convenient. For example, if you’re writing a quick email, it could help you finish even faster. You might even appreciate suggestions that come up with better words than you might have thought of. But if you’re writing a personal email or an article for a publication (like, say, The Verge), it could start to be irritating.
When I was writing the passage I mentioned above, Smart Compose offered no less than six suggestions for what was a fairly short sentence. For some of us, this constant appearance of suggestions could interfere with (Smart Compose wanted me to say “interrupt”) our train of thought.
If that’s the case, you can turn Smart Compose off. Here’s how to do it in Google Docs and Gmail. (Thanks to Ryan Freebern, senior engineering manager here at Vox Media, for the suggestion.)
In the browser version of Google Docs, select Tools from the top menu and then Preferences.
Under the General tab, you’ll see a number of options. Uncheck Show Smart Compose suggestions.
If you want, you can also uncheck Show Smart Reply suggestions, which will prevent Docs from suggesting replies below comments.
Select the Settings cog and click on See all settings.
Under the General tab, scroll down to Smart Compose and select Writing suggestions off.
Below that, you can also turn off (or on) Smart Compose personalization, the ability to personalize the suggestions based on your writing style, and Smart Reply, which shows suggestions for replies.
Tap the three parallel lines in the upper-left corner, select Settings.
Choose the Google account you want to affect.
Scroll down to Smart Compose in email and uncheck it.
You can also uncheck Smart Reply in email, Smart Compose in Chat, and Smart Reply in Chat.
