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

By Daniel Bader
published

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

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.

7 Comments
  • Perhaps you meant uppercase and not capitalization which refers to uppercasing the first letter of the word?
  • This only applies if you use Apple's keyboard right? Not if you prefer sliding to type? More importantly, can I get it to realize that "OK" is yelling, and "ok" is not? "Ok" is a made up word, and popped out of nowhere around 100 years ago. There is no correct spelling, but "OK" in text is yelling, or saying it forcefully.
  • OK is counted as an exclamation, it is in the dictionary, and when written with just the two letters, it should be all in uppercase. But yes, it's pretty weird if you see someone text you saying "I am OK", despite the fact that this is the correct form. You can use "okay" informally, which doesn't require any uppercase letters, but otherwise just add the lowercase ok to the dictionary
  • I'm going to let this O.C.D. issue (yours and mine) alone on this one. Besides, many local news apps do this same thing with their call letters, etc.
  • Not Worth $10 Sent from the iMore App
  • Why Ninteno's fault ? It's just we gotta accept it.. Looks wired when everything else is lowercase, but i guess the All caps MARIO was already how it was, so why not keep it.. It's just us Apple users that gotta adapt..
  • It say MARIO RUN right up under the game on the home screen but who gives a hoot!!!!!