If your Apple iPhone’s autocorrect has started fixing perfectly typed words—or turning “come” into “coke”—you’re far from alone. Many users report strange corrections since the release of iOS 26 in September.
Experts believe the shift traces to Apple replacing older autocorrect tech with a new AI-style “on-device language model.” This model uses transformer techniques—similar to those behind chatbots such as ChatGPT—to predict what you might type next.
While older systems worked via simpler statistics (“n-grams”), the new approach is more advanced. However, experts say that when it fails, it fails in harder-to-understand ways. “It works a lot better… but when it goes, it’s really bad,” noted computational linguist Kenneth Church.
Online videos of bizarre autocorrect behaviour—like the word “thumb” turning into “thjmb” on screen—have gone viral, racking up millions of views and fuelling frustration.
Apple says it has indeed updated autocorrect over time and insists the particular keyboard glitch shown in viral videos isn’t due to autocorrect. Still, users are left waiting for clearer fixes.
