How to set up text replacement on your iPhone

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

If you've ever used autocorrect to type out a message on an iPhone, you're familiar with its drawbacks. We are familiar with them. We hate them. Text replacement is a feature on your phone that is kind of an all-purpose autocorrect. It will change to "On my way!" when you type it.

You can set up your own shortcut phrases with text replacement.

• Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text replacement
• Tap the plus sign in the upper right corner
• Fill in the first field, Phrase, with the text you want to use
• The second field, Shortcut, will contain the text you’ll type to use that phrase
• Tap Save in the upper right corner, and you’re done

What should you use it for? Setting up a shortcut for your email and phone number is one of the most common suggestions. The phrase could be something like@ or eml, but it won't cause a text replacement.

You can use text replacement to add a fun direction. You can use the standard one.

It would be great to be able to drop a casual text into a text without it being converted to an enthusiastic enthusiastic text.

• On the Text replacement screen, tap the Edit button in the lower-left corner
• Tap the red minus icon and use the red Delete button that appears to delete the phrase you want to remove

That is it! You are on your way to making your life easier.