It's-a-me, MARIO! How to get iOS to stop capitalizing Mario

So here's a weird little funny thing that you may have noticed recently: While expressing your excitement and appreciation for Super Mario Run in iMessage and beyond, and iOS capitalizes all the letters in the word 'Mario' by default, so it looks like this: 'MARIO'.

Why does it do this? Well, it's kind of Nintendo's fault. You see, iOS has a pretty smart and extensible keyboard system in QuickTypem, and allows words to be seamlessly added to the dictionary based on a number of inputs. One of those inputs is new apps, one of which, if you're anything like millions of other people, is probably Super Mario Run.

But if you look at the icon on your home screen, you'll notice that the app, in its unconventional Nintendo way, capitalizes the words, so instead of 'Mario Run' it is 'MARIO RUN'. Why? Who knows. That, in turn, forces iOS to learn that the all-caps version of the popular moustachioed hero is the correct way, until of course you correct it.

How do you do that? Well, the easiest way is just to teach QuickType that Mario isn't always yelling: correct the suggestion to the proper casing a few times and iOS will get the hint pretty quickly.

The more permanent solution is to create a keyboard shortcut to ensure that Mario always gets the casing respect he deserves: 'mario', 'MARIO', or 'mArIo' will always end up 'Mario' each time.

That's it! Once you teach iOS a lesson, Mario should bend to your will.

Daniel Bader

Daniel Bader is a Senior Editor at iMore, offering his Canadian analysis on Apple and its awesome products. In addition to writing and producing, Daniel regularly appears on Canadian networks CBC and CTV as a technology analyst.