Grammarly vs. Apple Intelligence: a battle of AI-powered text editors

Apple Intelligence’s writing tools [left], Grammarly [right]
Apple Intelligence offers iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia customers new AI-driven writing tools. Here’s a comparison of Grammarly, the current market leader. Apple Intelligence represents a major leap for Apple in many ways. After years of using Siri, users are promised a radical change in the way their hardware works. They will have more intelligent features. So far, the imaging capabilities have received the most attention. Siri’s updates are a close second. Apple Intelligence’s text tools are also worth mentioning. In-app tools that correct spelling, grammar, and provide some guidance on readability are familiar to the average user. Apple Intelligence, on the other hand, offers much more, such as rewriting long stretches of text. All of this is an attempt to improve a user’s writing so that others can read it. These features aren’t the only literacy tools available. Tools like Grammarly also promise to improve a user’s writing. Grammarly also offers AI-powered tools that can improve the way a person writes. Apple Intelligence is still in beta testing and has months to go before a public release. It’s worth examining whether Apple will be consuming Grammarly’s customers. Apple Intelligence vs Grammarly: Basic Checks We are all familiar with the underlines in text that appear when you make a grammatical or spelling error. These are usually found in specific writing programs and can be a nightmare for writers. These notices can be useless, for example if a user accidentally types a homophone. Spellcheckers that use traditional spelling will not detect a mistake if the user types “their” rather than “there,” since they are both correctly spelled. Grammarly can help. Grammarly is a tool that can help users identify problems in a text. It does more than just a spellcheck. Apple Intelligence vs Grammarly: An example of a Grammarly Correction in macOSThat includes things like homophones, other writing confusions and offering corrections for each case. Grammarly will also give its own opinion on what you are trying to write. This is displayed as pop-ups overlaid with your text. Apple Intelligence does not have this feature directly. If you want to see your errors inline, you’ll still have to use an app with built-in spellcheck. Apple Intelligence will only come into play if you highlight the text and select Writing Tools. Apple Intelligence Writing Tools will appear, with an option to proofread. Apple Intelligence vs Grammarly: The Writing Tools of Apple IntelligenceTapping on Proofread will then have Apple Intelligence analyze your text and display the corrected version in a pop-up. It doesn’t let you see the exact mistakes that you made, but corrects them for you. This text will not automatically be inserted into your document. However, you can copy it, replace it inline, and share the corrected section with others. Apple Intelligence and Grammarly – Styles and AI Rewriting It can be difficult to write in a certain tone of voice. Not everyone is able to switch from a conversational tone to something more formal. Apple Intelligence as well as Grammarly both offer the ability to automatically change the text’s tone to match your needs. Apple Intelligence Writing Tools offers options to update selected text in a friendly, professional and concise manner. This will work much like proofreading, bringing the selected text to the popup window and displaying a version of the text in that style. Apple Intelligence vs Grammarly: Rewriting text with Apple IntelligenceIf, however, you prefer to keep your current style and feel that it could be improved upon, you can select Rewrite. It will again display new text based upon what you selected. This can be inserted into place. Grammarly offers some generative tones. Clicking on a small icon in macOS will bring up options for improving your text, identifying gaps, etc. Grammarly vs Apple Intelligence: Setting your desired tone. It is much more comprehensive than Apple Intelligence’s few options, but it starts with the similar formality options: neutral, casual, and formal. You can choose from six different options for tone: confident, personable, empathetic and engaging, witty and direct. You can include your profession in case there are any specific writing styles or terminology that you should consider. Apple Intelligence vs Grammarly: Generating Text If you don’t know where to begin or have writer’s blocks, you can ask Grammarly to create something for you. It will create a block of text using your preferred style after you tell it what to write. Asking for a thank-you note, for example, will provide a useful block of text with sections to fill in the blanks. Apple Intelligence vs Grammarly: Generating the text of a thank-you note in GrammarlyApple Intelligence does not offer text generation. You can’t even tell it to generate a block of text about a particular topic. Smart Reply is the closest thing to this on the way. Apple Intelligence can determine the questions asked in an e-mail and provide appropriate responses to the user. Apple Intelligence uses these responses to create an email reply that the user can edit and send. It is always a good idea to proofread any AI text before using it. Apple Intelligence vs Grammarly: Other Assists Apple Intelligence has options to summarize long stretches of text or to create a list of important points. It can also make a table when a user selects a lot of data points. Grammarly offers similar quick options. These include shortening text, adding more description, simplifying text and other tone tweaks. Apple Intelligence vs Grammarly: Accessibility As its name suggests, Apple Intelligence can only be used on Apple hardware. Apple Intelligence is currently only available on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max and Mac and iPad models equipped with Apple Silicon M-series chips. It’s a system-wide function, so it works with all apps that deal with text, including third-party ones. Grammarly is available for Mac and Windows desktops, iOS, and Android mobile. There are also add-ons available for browsers if you don’t wish to install the desktop versions. Installed on the Mac desktop you will see the little icon at the bottom of the window when you are typing in a text based app. You can use the Grammarly editor app on your mobile device, along with the keyboard, to help you write in other apps. Apple Intelligence and Grammarly – Pricing Apple Intelligence will be included in the iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia updates, which are scheduled to be released this fall. Although there is no cost directly associated with writing tools, the hardware required to use them is still required. If you have an older iPhone that is not a Pro, you will need to upgrade. Grammarly offers a free version of its service, but this is limited to basic spelling and grammar checks. You can also get feedback on the tone of your writing but you cannot change it. You can also submit 100 prompts per week. Premium is available for $12 per month if billed annually, or $30 per monthly. Premium gives you full access to Grammarly, including the ability to change your writing style, rewrite complete sentences, and monitor for plagiarism. You can also get 1,000 more prompts per month. A Business option is available for $15 per member monthly if billed annually or $25 per member month if billed monthly. This includes centralized billing, style guidelines, brand tone adjustments and analytics, as well as more prompts. Apple Intelligence vs Grammarly: Semi-Sherlocked. If you only heard that Apple Intelligence offers AI tools to help with writing text, then you might expect the worst from Grammarly. It seems that Grammarly is being Sherlocked when Apple introduces an app that is free and replaces a third party app. This is not a Sherlocking situation. Not entirely. Apple Intelligence brings some very useful tools to Apple users. It will help improve writing and perhaps even boost grades for kids. The initial offering isn’t comprehensive. You are not asking your iPhone for it to automatically write a book review or even to send birthday greetings to family and friends. Grammarly allows users to improve a large section of text. You have a lot of flexibility when it comes to tone adjustments. There’s also a generative AI component that can create text for you. Apple does not offer this, but the Siri connection to ChatGPT may eventually allow it. Apple Intelligence can only be accessed if you are on Apple Silicon, on a Mac, iPad or iPhone 15 Pro. Grammarly is available on many platforms, including Mac and iPad. Grammarly’s biggest problem is the cost. It’s difficult to compete with the “free and integrated” but the subscription fee could turn off anyone who doesn’t write for a living. Apple’s new writing tool has a huge audience, namely those who need occasional help to straighten out their paragraphs. Grammarly is aimed at people who require a great deal more specialized help. Grammarly is still safe. It hasn’t been Sherlocked and will be fine at the moment. Apple’s tools will be fine for the time being, at least until they expand their capabilities.