How to enable the nifty tool ‘Next word prediction’ on HTC One

The HTC One went on sale in stores last week, but strangely, one of the most advanced smartphones available on the market comes with one of its most useful features turned off.

The nifty tool, called “Next word prediction,” is enabled when users type. As users finish writing a word, the tool displays three words above the keyboard that users can easily tap on to add to their sentence. The feature can be quite a time saver, especially if you are typing out common phrases, such as “Hi, how are you doing?”

But inexplicably, “Next word prediction” comes turned off by default on the HTC One. That’s not a big deal, but turning the feature on is confusing and somewhat of a puzzle. I recently reviewed the device, and I had to contact HTC to get instructions about how to enable the feature. Here’s how to turn it on.

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First, open the HTC One’s settings app and scroll down until you see the “Language & keyboard” option. Tap that, then tap “HTC Sense Input” followed by “Advanced.” On that screen, tap on “Next word prediction” and the feature should now be on.

If your device is like mine and has the option grayed out and unable to be tapped, go back to the “HTC Sense Input” page and turn off “Trace keyboard.” Then go back to “Advanced” and you should now be able to turn on “Next word prediction.”

If you want both “Next word prediction” and the “Trace keyboard” on, simply go back once again to the “HTC Sense Input” page and enable “Trace keyboard” by tapping on it. You should now be set.

For the most part, the HTC One is a great phone that can go toe to toe with the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S 4, but it’s unclear why the Taiwanese phone maker would send the device out with such a good feature turned off and make it so difficult to turn it on.

HTC could not be reached for comment.

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