How to turn off auto capitalization in Google Docs for the web and mobile

Google is pretty smart. It’s not always wise, but it really is smart. its engineers employ many AI and machine learning tricks to improve the user experience, making it much easier for us as humans who can’t always spell things correctly or do everything flawlessly to get work done and be much more productive without concerning ourselves with whether or not the things we write meet a certain standard.

Take the beloved feature spell check, for example. It came in clutch many a time while I was growing up writing papers for school, and even as I transitioned into my career as a ghost writer who sent books to print. Now, as a journalist for Chrome Unboxed, I use it to write these very articles you’re reading and yes, it makes me sound much more professional than I really am.

What about lesser known or used features across Google’s ecosystem though? This isn’t something I would really ever use or see a need for, but some of you may appreciate today’s topic. Today, I’m going to be showing you how to toggle off the auto capitalization feature in Google Docs both on the web and on your mobile device. Disabling capitalization increases familiarity and friendliness, apparently, and some industry professionals may use it frequently, so this is for you!

Okay, so first and foremost, the easiest part of today’s tutorial is disabling auto capitalization on the web via Google Docs. To do this, all you have to do is visit the top toolbar of an open document and choose Tools > Preferences. From there, uncheck the first box called ‘Automatically capitalize words’.

Once complete, click the blue ‘OK’ button at the bottom right side of the dialogue box and start typing. Beginning a new sentence after a punctuation mark will no longer automatically capitalize the first letter of a sentence on your behalf – you know, if you’re into that kind of thing.

I just want the steps!

1. Open a new Google Doc
2. Click Tools at the top of the document
3. Select ‘Preferences’ from the Tools list
4. Uncheck the first option called ‘Automatically capitalize words’.
5. This should also prevent auto capitalization of proper nouns as well!

Disable auto capitalization on Google Docs for the web

On mobile, however, this is quite different. On Android and iOS, this setting is controlled by your phone, and the Google Docs app for mobile does not contain a direct setting to manage capitalization!

Let’s discuss Apple devices first as it’s much easier here than it is on Android, ironically enough. To disable this setting, head over to the ‘Settings’ app on your iPhone or iPad. From there, tap ‘General’, and go to ‘Keyboard’. Under the ‘All keyboards’ section, slide the toggle for ‘Auto-Capitalization’ to the left or simply tap it.

I just want the steps!

1. Open the ‘Settings’ app
2. Tap ‘General’
3. Go to ‘Keyboard’ and then ‘All Keyboards’
4. Toggle ‘Auto-Capitalization’ off

Disable auto capitalization on iOS

On Android, you’ll also go to the ‘Settings’ app, but here, you’ll tap ‘System’. There’s a ‘Languages & Input’ setting here that you can choose. Tap ‘On-screen keyboard’ and then ‘Gboard’. Lastly, tap ‘Text correction’ and scroll down. The ‘Auto-capitalization’ setting will be buried in here. I know, it’s a lot more steps, but instead of just working in Docs, it will work whichever way you direct it to across all of your apps and the entire operating system, and that’s a benefit!

I just want the steps!

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap ‘System’
3. Tap ‘Languages & Input’
4. Choose ‘On-screen keyboard’
5. Tap your currently active keyboard (likely ‘Gboard’)
6. Select ‘Text correction’ and scroll down
7. Toggle ‘Auto capitalization’ off

Disable auto capitalization on Android