Apple announced the AI-powered features as Apple Intelligence at the WWDC 2024 in July this year. These Apple Intelligence features will roll out to select devices running iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15 Sequoia updates. With the macOS 15.1 Developer Beta, we got to play around with an improved Siri, Messages and Mail summaries, AI focus mode to reduce interruptions, and writing tools. We took a closer look at these new Writing Tools to help you make the most of the AI-based features on your Mac.
Also Read: Get Apple Intelligence Features on Your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, Even Outside U.S.
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What Are Writing Tools on macOS
Writing Tools provide Apple Intelligence-powered options to help make your writing better. Apple integrates these tools deep inside macOS and lets you configure them from the Settings app. You can use the Writing Tools in different apps, like Mail, Messages, and even third-party apps like Google Chrome and Notion.
The Writing Tools are on-device Apple Intelligence features. That means, the text you write will never leave your device. The entire process of suggestions and text-generation happens on your Mac to provide the best possible privacy.
Here’s a breakdown of what these writing tools typically offer at the time of writing in August 2024:
- Proofread: This tool checks your text for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors, offering corrections to make your writing error-free.
- Rewrite: To rephrase or improve a sentence, the Rewrite tool provides suggestions to make your text clearer or more engaging.
- Concise: This helps to shorten and simplify your sentences, making them more direct.
- Tone Adjustments: You can rewrite text in different tones, such as Friendly or Professional.
- Summarize: This feature summarizes your selected text, perfect for condensing long paragraphs.
- Key Points: Extract the main points from your text, helping you highlight the essential information.
- Convert to List or Table: Easily convert your text into a list or a table format, making it more organized and readable.
How to Use AI Writing Tools on Mac
To access the new writing tools, you must run macOS 15.1 (currently in beta) on devices that support Apple Intelligence. Also, you’ll need a Mac with an M1 chip or newer. Follow these steps:
1. Select Your Text: Highlight the text you want to work with in any app or browser.
2. Access Writing Tools: Right-click (or use the trackpad) on the highlighted text, and you’ll see a new option: ‘Writing Tools’. Click on it to see the options mentioned above.
3. Replace or Copy: When you select tools like Rewrite or Summarize, you will get a pop-up window with the chosen text.
Currently, the Writing Tools only include options to improve your text. A few features like ChatGPT integration to generate the text on the fly are not yet available in Sequoia beta in August 2024.
How Can You Use These Writing Tools
This array of writing tools are incredibly useful. They help me collate information and draft posts and documents. For example, when I research, I select the text of an entire news piece or article to summarize it or extract the key points quickly. That helps me grasp the necessary information when I am short on time. Also, I copy the summary to a separate document to refer to it later and research any point further.
Sometimes, you feel you could have written an email or application better. Well, join the club, for I often experience that. These Writing Tools provide helpful suggestions to ensure a better flow and coherence within the article. That means, you can always make your sentences more elaborate or shorter whenever necessary. After that, you may use the tools for conciseness and proofreading to make the sound better.
These tools are also helpful in your regular communication as well. For instance, when using the Messages app or sending a message on Discord, these tools helped me fix a typo and ensure my text was precise about what I wanted to share. Sometimes, you may copy an online recipe, and the list of ingredients will merge to appear in paragraph format. That makes it hard to read. These writing tools helped me read those ingredients easily and follow the recipe.
How Does It Fare Against ChatGPT or Gemini
Popular Artificial Intelligence-powered chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Gemini offer writing tools and prompts like the Writing Tools in Apple Intelligence.
A major advantage of Apple Intelligence’s Writing Tools is their ease of access. You can use them from any screen with a right-click menu, without needing to open a browser on your Mac. The real benefit is that they work offline, unlike AI chatbots which require internet connectivity. Since the process happens on your device, these Writing Tools ensure that all the text you type and save stays private.
However, while these tools are great for fixing grammar, we wouldn’t recommend to rely on them blindly. For they can be hit or miss with more advanced functions when you want to rewrite or concise the text. Sometimes, they provide useful results, but other times we feel they could be more effective. With writing tools, you’re limited to the actions they provide. In contrast, with AI chatbots, you can specify what you want and even ask for multiple results to choose the best one.
In short, writing tools are useful for quick access, but ChatGPT and Google Gemini are the better choices for more advanced or customized actions.
