Stop the Period Automatically Typing in iOS

Double tapping the spacebar on an iPhone or iPad inserts a period at the end of a sentence and starts another, a helpful shortcut feature that can really improve typing on the virtual keyboards of iOS, but not everyone likes the double-space to type a period behavior. If you don’t want the iPhone or iPad to automatically type periods at the end of a word or sentence, you can adjust the setting in iOS to turn this capability off.

How to Stop Typing Period Automatically on iPhone and iPad

This settings adjustment to disable the period double-space shortcut applies to all versions of iOS:

1. Open Settings app on the iPhone or iPad



2. Tap “General” in the settings
3. Tap “Keyboard” and then look for ‘”.” Shortcut’ and flip that setting to OFF to stop automatically typing periods with a double-space

With this period shortcut setting turned OFF, a period will no longer be inserted if you double-tap the spacebar, leaving you to manually insert all punctuation when typing in iOS.

This applies to all iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, and the setting will impact not only the onscreen virtual keyboard, but also any external keyboard that has been connected through the Smart connector or via Bluetooth to iPad or to iPhone.

Some users really like this typing feature as it can make typing on the iPhone or iPad keyboard a bit faster, but other users may find it leads to typos, while some others may just prefer to manually type out all letters through the keyboard. There are also some users who may not realize this is an intentional feature and who end up wondering “why is my iPhone / iPad typing periods automatically?” when they are not actively hitting the period button on the keyboard.

As with all settings, you can always turn the period shortcut off, and then if you decide you like it, you can turn it back on again too simply by returning to Keyboard settings and toggling the switch again.

Note this keyboard setting has been around for a very long time, and though the setting itself may look slightly different depending on your version of iOS, the functionality remains in all iOS versions. For example here’s the setting in an earlier iOS release:

Regardless of the appearance of Settings app, you can toggle this period setting off and on as needed.

Thanks for the question and tip idea Kevin