Android · Accessibility
Manage Languages, Input & Keyboard on Android
Languages & input settings control your device's system language, additional keyboard languages, and features like autocorrect, voice typing, and text-to-speech. You can add multiple keyboard languages and switch between them without changing your phone's overall display language.
How to open Languages & Input / Keyboard
- Open Settings → System → Languages & input.
- Tap 'On-screen keyboard' → your keyboard app → 'Languages' to add or remove typing languages.
- Adjust autocorrect, prediction, and voice typing preferences from the same keyboard settings menu.
- Switch between installed languages while typing by holding the spacebar or tapping the language key.
What you should know
- Additional keyboard languages can be added independently of the device's main system language.
- Autocorrect, next-word prediction, and glide typing can each be toggled individually within keyboard settings.
- Voice typing lets you dictate text directly into most text fields as an alternative to typing.
- A physical keyboard, when connected, has its own separate layout setting distinct from the on-screen keyboard.
Voice typing and dictation support and accuracy vary significantly by language — a language that works flawlessly for typing may have much weaker voice recognition.
Why it matters
Typing is one of the most repeated actions on any phone, so a well-configured keyboard with the right languages and prediction settings meaningfully speeds up daily texting, emailing, and searching. For multilingual users especially, being able to add and quickly switch between keyboard languages avoids the frustration of constant autocorrect fights in the wrong language. These settings are also foundational for accessibility, since voice typing and text-to-speech depend on them working correctly for anyone who relies on dictation instead of typing.
Best practices
- Add every language you regularly type in up front, rather than switching your whole system language back and forth.
- Turn off autocorrect for languages where it consistently guesses wrong, rather than fighting it every message.
- Use the spacebar-hold gesture or language key to switch quickly instead of navigating back into Settings each time.
- Test voice typing in each of your added languages, since accuracy can vary noticeably between them.
Common problems and fixes
- Autocorrect keeps changing words into the wrong language.
- Remove unused keyboard languages, or manually switch to the correct one before typing in a specific language.
- A newly added keyboard language doesn't appear as an option while typing.
- Confirm it was added under the specific keyboard app's own language settings, not just the device's general system language.
- Voice typing produces garbled or inaccurate results.
- Check that the correct dictation language is selected, and try in a quieter environment, since accuracy varies more by language than most people expect.
- Switching keyboard languages via spacebar gesture doesn't work.
- Confirm the language switch key or gesture is enabled under the keyboard app's settings, since it isn't always on by default.
Tips and tricks
- Download an offline voice typing language pack before traveling somewhere with unreliable data coverage.
- Enable the dedicated language-switch key on the keyboard for a faster one-tap swap between languages instead of the spacebar-hold gesture.
Frequently asked questions
Can I type in a different language without changing my phone's overall display language?
Yes, add the language under your keyboard app's own language settings, which is entirely separate from the device's system display language.
Why does autocorrect keep suggesting the wrong words?
This often happens when too many keyboard languages are enabled at once, causing predictions to blend between them; removing unused languages usually helps.
Does voice typing work offline?
Some languages support offline voice typing after downloading a language pack, though online dictation is generally more accurate.
Related settings
- Accessibility SettingsAndroid's Accessibility settings include TalkBack screen reading, magnification, color and contrast adjustments, and Switch Access for people who use adaptive hardware.
- Google Account SyncAccount sync keeps Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, Photos, and other Google app data updated automatically across your devices, tied to your signed-in Google Account.
- Date & TimeDate & time settings control whether your device sets the clock and time zone automatically from the network or your location, or lets you set them manually. Getting this right keeps alarms, calendar events, and timestamped messages accurate, especially while traveling across time zones.
More Accessibility guides for Android
- TalkBackTalkBack is Android's built-in screen reader, describing what's on screen out loud and letting you navigate the entire phone using gestures and audio feedback instead of relying on sight.
- MagnificationMagnification lets low-vision users zoom into any part of the screen using a shortcut gesture or button, temporarily or persistently enlarging content system-wide, independent of any single app's own zoom controls.
- Live CaptionLive Caption automatically generates real-time captions for videos, podcasts, voice messages, and calls playing on the device — entirely on-device, without needing an internet connection or the media having built-in subtitles.
- Select to SpeakSelect to Speak lets you tap or draw a box around text, images, or entire screens to have Android read the content aloud using text-to-speech. It works inside apps, on the web, and even on images with detectable text.
- Color Correction & InversionColor Correction shifts the device's color palette to compensate for common types of color blindness (deuteranomaly, protanomaly, tritanomaly), while the related Color Inversion setting flips light and dark values for users who prefer high-contrast or low-glare screens.
- Accessibility ShortcutThe Accessibility Shortcut lets you trigger a chosen accessibility feature, such as TalkBack, Magnification, or Select to Speak, from anywhere using a button combination, gesture, or on-screen icon, without navigating through Settings.