Text prediction tools are designed to speed up your writing, suggesting words and phrases you may want to use before you’ve finished typing a sentence. They're available in some versions of Microsoft software, but they no longer appear by default in Outlook and Word.
Microsoft announced the decision in a blog post on Sept. 1, where it said it wanted to “provide a more consistent and user-controlled writing experience across Microsoft 365 applications.” It also said it wanted to reduce “unwanted interruptions for those who prefer to write without suggestions appearing automatically.”
This appears to be part of Microsoft's latest attempt to improve its tools by listening to user feedback, such as when it removed Copilot tools from Notepad and Snipping Tool earlier this year. If that’s the case, Microsoft didn’t cite customer feedback as a basis for this decision.
You can still use predictive text if you manually enable the feature. If you have the latest update installed on either, you may need to make some tweaks to regain access.
This affects desktop versions of both tools on Mac and Windows, as well as their web editions. It may also impact your mobile version on Android or iOS, although some already have the tool disabled by default.
There are a few complaints across social media about the default predictive text in these tools, but it doesn’t appear to be a widely cited problem. Microsoft has offered a way to turn the tool off for a long time, and it's likely that anyone who disliked it would have done so soon after launch.
To turn the tool back on through desktop, head to **Settings **in Word and Outlook and look for a toggle under **Advanced **labeled "Show text predictions while typing." Tick this on, and press OK for them to appear across your future versions. For mobile, it’s the same method, but look for an option called Text Predictions.