How to use Apple Intelligence writing tools

One of the top Apple Intelligence features is a new set of system-wide writing tools. You can invoke these intelligent writing helpers anytime, anywhere to rewrite, summarize, reformat or proofread text. In my experience, they can really streamline reformatting a document and can be helpful for making your written communication better.

Here’s how to make the most of Apple Intelligence writing tools.

How to use Apple Intelligence writing tools

The first Apple Intelligence features are available now in iOS 18.1. The second round of features is already in testing in iOS 18.2. But to run Apple Intelligence, you’ll need an iPhone, Mac or iPad with an M-series chip, an A17 Pro chip or greater.

Table of Contents:

1. Enable Apple Intelligence
2. Bring up the Apple Intelligence writing tools
3. How all the writing tools work
4. Summarize websites, emails, articles, any selectable text

Enable Apple Intelligence

To turn on the Apple Intelligence features, open Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri. Tap Join the Apple Intelligence waitlist to reserve your spot in line. The feature is being rolled out gradually, likely to test the impact it will have on Apple servers.

At the moment, the wait time isn’t very long — just a matter of minutes. That may change as more people sign up.

When you’re let in, you’ll get a notification. Downloading the models that power Apple Intelligence may take a while.

How to bring up the Apple Intelligence writing tools

Writing tools are available anywhere you can type in text. That’s most apps — Safari, Notes, Mail, Messages; and a plethora of third-party apps.

In iOS or iPadOS, tap the cursor to bring up the pop-up menu that says Copy, Paste, Select All. You can swipe on the menu (or tap the arrow buttons) for more options; tap Writing Tools. Some apps like Notes and Mail may have an Apple Intelligence button in the toolbar; the icon looks like a seven-pointed spiral.

On a Mac, just right-click and select Writing Tools from the context menu.

If you select text before you open the writing tools, it’ll only analyze and apply to your selection. Otherwise, it’ll apply to everything in the text view.

How all the Apple Intelligence writing tools work

Proofread looks for mistakes, poor punctuation and clumsily-phrased sentences. It’s a good tool to use as a final check before sending something important. It takes a moment to scan for typos, and then you can tap arrows to jump through its list of changes. It’ll highlight where edits were made, and explain why it was changed. You can tap Use Original if you want to revert it. Revert in the upper left will reverse all the changes; Done will save its edits.

Rewrite rephrases the same information slightly differently. If you don’t like the way a sentence sounds but can’t get out of a rut, this is a good tool to use. You can tap Try Again to make it generate another rewrite, or tap Original to reverse it.

Friendly and Professional rewrite the tone to be either more casual or more diplomatic. Like the above, you can try again or go back to the original.

Concise removes unnecessary, extraneous, superfluous words to make the sentence shorter, less long and have fewer words in it.

Summary and Key Points reduce the information down to just a single sentence or a few bullet points. These don’t automatically replace the original text, so you can use it to get a thesis statement out of a whole paper. You can Copy the results to paste it somewhere else, Replace the selection or Share the results using the system share sheet to Messages, Mail, Notes and other third-party apps.

List and Table transform the formatting of the selection into a list of bullet points or organize the information into a multi-column table. Tap Original to undo the changes.

Summarize websites, emails, articles, any selectable text

Writing tools aren’t just for your own writing. You can invoke them on any selected text, not just inside a text editor. You can select this very paragraph and have it rewritten. On the iPhone, tap and hold to select and pick Writing Tools from the pop-up menu; on a Mac, click and drag to select then right-click.

This can be useful for work in communication, marketing, publishing or many kinds of business. Select an article on the web to copy out its summary or key points. Select some hastily written bullet points in an email, use writing tools to make it sound professional and flesh it out, then copy and paste it elsewhere. Copy a Slack message, have the writing tools convert it to bullet points, and paste it in a PowerPoint presentation. Select a lengthy compare-and-contrast paragraph, then convert it into a simplified table.

More on Apple Intelligence

Apple’s writing tools can be pretty useful. Although I’m already professional writer and likely won’t use the Rewrite or Professional tools, Proofread is a harmless final check you can get in the habit of using. And reformatting a lengthy document is a universal pain in the ass — “Let’s switch this to bullet points” or “Can we add a table?” can now be done in mere seconds.

This article on Apple Intelligence writing tools was originally published on October 15, 2024. It has been updated with the latest information.