How to Add or Turn On a Dictionary in WhatsApp

How to add a dictionary in WhatsApp is the phone keyboard’s dictionary setting. WhatsApp has no dictionary switch in the chat. Turn on that keyboard’s spell check: Gboard or Samsung Keyboard on Android, and Check Spelling on iPhone. A word you want the keyboard to keep is the personal dictionary on that same keyboard.

How to add or turn on a dictionary in WhatsApp

Android: Gboard

1. Open a WhatsApp chat and tap the message box so a keyboard is on screen. WhatsApp settings have no dictionary switch.
2. On most Android phones the keyboard is Gboard. Open its settings from the gear or the features menu on the keyboard, then Text correction. Gboard moves that icon. The phone Settings path is often System, then Languages, then On-screen keyboard, then Gboard, then Text correction. Android renames that path.
3. Turn on Spell check. That is the dictionary check while you type. Auto-correction, on the same screen, replaces a word. The label is sometimes autocorrect. Neither row is a WhatsApp menu.
4. If those rows are missing, another keyboard is the one typing, or this keyboard does not offer them. There is still no dictionary switch inside WhatsApp.

Android: Samsung Keyboard

1. Open a WhatsApp chat and confirm the keyboard on screen is Samsung Keyboard, not Gboard.
2. Open its settings from the gear on the keyboard, or from the phone Settings app under General management, then Samsung Keyboard. One UI renames that path.
3. Turn on the row named autocorrect, auto replace, spell check, or suggest text corrections. The label changes by version. That row is the dictionary setting.
4. If none of those rows are there, Gboard may be the keyboard that is actually typing. There is still no dictionary switch inside WhatsApp.

iPhone

1. Open the Settings app. WhatsApp has no dictionary row of its own.
2. Tap General, then Keyboard.
3. Turn on Check Spelling. That underlines a word the dictionary does not know. Autocorrection on the same screen replaces a word. On some iOS versions the label is Auto-Correction.
4. Settings, then General, then Dictionary only adds a Look Up dictionary. It does not turn spelling on inside WhatsApp.
5. Those Keyboard switches apply to the iPhone keyboard. A third-party keyboard uses its own settings instead.

How to add a word to the personal dictionary

Gboard

1. Open Gboard settings, then Dictionary, then Personal dictionary. The gear or features menu on the keyboard reaches those settings. Gboard moves that icon.
2. Pick the language you are typing in.
3. Tap the plus button, type the word, and go back. An optional shortcut is on that same screen.

Samsung Keyboard

1. Open the same Samsung Keyboard settings and look for Custom dictionary, or a row that adds a word. One UI renames that row.
2. Or long-press a marked word in the chat and choose Add to dictionary when Samsung Keyboard shows that option.
3. If neither is there, this version does not offer a word list. There is still no list inside WhatsApp.

iPhone

1. iPhone does not show a personal-dictionary list the way Gboard does.
2. Open Settings, then General, then Keyboard, then Text Replacement, and add the word as the phrase.
3. Or type the word in the chat and tap the suggestion that shows your spelling, so the keyboard can learn it.

Turning spell check on, without saving a word, is the same keyboards: how to turn on spell check on WhatsApp.

Shmooz is a separate AI assistant inside WhatsApp. It can rewrite a draft you paste. It cannot change the phone keyboard, and it is not part of WhatsApp.