Are Apple’s Writing Tools the Right Stuff

Apple released iOS 18.1 and macOS Sierra 15.1 with Apple Intelligence earlier this week. This was the first of Apple’s many planned updates over the next year to make Siri smarter and add AI to the operating systems.

Apple’s approach has been slow and methodical. It promises a boring AI that supports our existing behaviors. While the initial Apple Intelligence features released this week are pretty limited, Writing Tools was among them.

Writing Tools is a system-level feature that offers rewriting, tone correction, and enhanced spelling/grammar revisions. This is one of the features of Apple Intelligence that I was most excited about. I like Apple’s take: Writing Tools isn’t generative; it requires existing written content to revise or enhance.

When it was announced, I considered Writing Tools a potential Grammarly replacement. Despite some of its shortcomings, I love Grammarly. I’ve never been a great speller, and Grammarly helps find most of my typos (and what it misses, you all catch for me).

While effective at catching mistakes, Grammarly also captures everything I type on my computer. I average between 50,000 and 100,000 words a week running through Grammarly, training its AI, and being stored on someone else’s servers. I opt for keeping my data in my hands wherever possible. Replacing Grammarly is on my someday list.

Unfortunately, Writing Tools is not the Grammarly replacement I’m looking for.

What I like most about Grammarly is that it’s always there, highlighting my many flaws (503 last week). Following the boring AI route, Apple’s Writing Tools are only invoked when you call on them. While this is nice, it is an extra step not part of my current workflow.

While cumbersome, the Proofread feature is good. It helps my spelling slip-ups despite the old-school error-to-error arrows. I’ve primarily used Proofread on my phone, where I don’t have Grammarly installed. It’s nice being able to check an email or toot before sending.

Proofread is good, but the Rewrite feature (and the Friendly, Professional, and Consise shortcuts) are not good. I’ve played around with them in a few different settings and have rejected the suggestions every time. They come across as either overly enthusiastic or sound like something I would never say.

They appear either excessively enthusiastic or sound like something I would never utter.

Who uses utter?

Apple’s Writing Tools is an on-device or private-server-based feature, and it may learn the more I use it. Maybe.

Apple’s Writing Tools are nice to have in the belt, but they are not ready to replace Grammarly. As the numerous planned Apple Intelligence upgrades come out over the next year, I expect (hope) this changes. Grammarly is up for renewal in April. Just saying.

Have you started playing with Apple Intelligence and Writing Tools? What do you think?