Enable Windows Spellchecker in Google Chrome

How to Enable Windows Spellchecker in Google Chrome

Microsoft is working with Google in the Chromium project to add the Windows Spellchecker API to Chromium-based browsers, including Chrome and Edge. The browsers will be able to use it on Windows 8.1 and above. In Microsoft Edge, Windows Spellchecker is enabled out of the box starting in Edge version 83. In Google Chrome, you need to turn on it with a flag.

Microsoft is positioning the built-in Spell Checker as modern, up-to-date engine which is good at recognizing new terms and brands. The following picture demonstrates what to they mean.

The open-source Hunspell Spellcheck library which Chromium uses as of now lacks support for emails, URLs, and acronyms. The Windows Spellcheck API solves this issue.

Windows Spellchecker in Google Chrome

Google Chrome comes with a number of useful options which are experimental. They are not supposed to be used by regular users but enthusiasts and testers can easily turn them on. These experimental features can significantly improve the user experience of the Chrome browser by enabling additional functionality. To enable or disable an experimental feature, you can use hidden options called 'flags'.

For the native Windows Spellchecker, Chrome has two flags.

• chrome://flags/#win-use-native-spellchecker - enables the feature.
• chrome://flags/#win-use-hybrid-spellchecker - allows using both the Windows OS spell checker and the Hunspell engine to find spelling mistakes and provide spelling suggestions. If a language isn't supported by Windows Spellchecker, Chrome will fall back to the Hunspell engine.

To Enable Windows Spellchecker in Google Chrome,

1. Open the Google Chrome browser.
2. Type the following text in the address bar: chrome://flags/#win-use-native-spellchecker.
3. Select Enabled from the drop down list next to the Use the Windows OS spell checker
   option.
4. Now, similarly enable the flag chrome://flags/#win-use-hybrid-spellchecker.
5. Restart Google Chrome by closing it manually or you can also use the Relaunch button which will appear at the very bottom of the page.

You are done! The native spellchecker is now enabled in Google Chrome on Windows 10 and Windows 8.

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Many thanks to via for their tip!

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