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The 10 Best Writing Apps for iPhone (2021)

Writing applications are one of the most useful apps on your iPhone or iPad, but they are not often the first apps that come to your mind. Perhaps, most individuals don’t often write on their iOS devices and probably because they are happy with built-in apps. No matter how many unique possibilities are accessible today, there is no real excuse not to explore the rich world of iOS writing applications.

There is a writing app for every writing phase; various writing applications accomplish different things, which is why many writers work with many simultaneously. Here is a list of the best writing apps for iPhone 2021.

ProWritingAid

Many people consider Scrivener to be the ultimate writing tool for iPad and iPhone in several particular areas. Multiple features distinguish Scrivener from other writing apps, but adaptability is the main feature.

Scrivener helps you write from scripts to book reports. No matter what you write, you will have access to its remarkable capabilities, which allow you to modify, analyze and dictate anything from the notepad application that may never be useful.

Scrivener helps you save your research and project notes while you are still writing, and at the end of your work, you can gather all the data that make up your project and add them to a Word or PDF.

Compatibility:  Mac, iOS, and Window and it has a free trial of 30days, a $45 license fee

Ulysses is similar to Scriveners at first sight, but deeper investigation shows that diverse experiences and interests make them dissimilar. In Ulysses, for example, you might write # to establish a header or > to set up a block quotation, which means that it’s not manual formatting but rather a ‘Markdown.’

Ulysses is a very standard writing application. It is not as outline-friendly as Scrivener, but you will not have difficulty staying organized with keyword labels, progress monitoring, split view capacity, and all project lined up neatly in the sidebar. This is just one of iPhone and iPad’s best writing apps.

Compatibility: Mac and iOS, and it is $4.99 per month.

iA Writer is just what you need when you want to write without distractions. Yes, this app may only look simple, but it offers a great deal. Its plain text style provides a blank slate for any writing you need, and it is also packed with plenty of excellent text-editing functions that allow you to manage your work effectively. Reviews typically connect iA to Ulysses because Markdown is also used to format.

The iA is nevertheless more precise and incorporated into your screen more naturally. This basic style fits well with the task of the iA “to keep you focused while writing.”

Compatibility:  Mac, iOS, Windows, and it has a Free 14-day trial; on Mac, it is $29.99, and Windows is$19.99.

Storyist gives an excellent basis for novel creation; the app glitters in screenplay and stage game projects. When starting a new project, you work from a very intuitive script template to select action, character, dialog, etc. It ensures that you format correctly and that you are aware of the things you use, not to overdo it or neglect to switch between scenes.

The sidebar tabs also allow you to organize your characters, settings, and photos, useful for screenwriters who want strong graphics to complete their job. However, the Storyist is a modest app for one reason: it is essential and economical for novices with just enough formatting skill to make you feel like a new Hollywood sweetheart.

Compatibility: it runs on Mac and iOS, and it has15 days free trial with a license fee of $59.99

ProWritingAid is often compared with Grammarly; however, the editing technique of this tool is a bit more integral. While it still highlights significant errors, ProWritingAid’s app tends to increase the flow of your writing. For example, it reduces passive voice and filler words rather than nitpicking grammatical technicalities.

You will also find more exciting features in ProWritingAid analysis, including self-generated vocabulary statistics, phrase structure, and more. ProWritingAid lets you discover which terms you overuse, which regions are inconsistent and how you might more easily link your ideas. Overall, this is a tremendous tool that will certainly help you refine your writing (albeit you have to pay for accessing the full range of capabilities).

Compatibility:  iOS, Windows, and Mac, it has a free trial, $70/year membership with limited features.

Writing begins with an excellent piece of concept. Every item you write starts with one idea: a word, a character, a place, or something. Then, it becomes problematic when you try to figure out how to develop your concept and make it a whole, and for this, iMindMap has a solution.

This app allows you to map your brain and creative processes essentially. You may design sophisticated flowcharts from a simple base to highlight the progression of a concept. iMindMap presents you with the fantastic technique to convert a clutch of ideas into a unified structure for a writer with troubles keeping them all in place.

Compatibility : it runs on all iPhone and iPad Notepad apps.

Hemingway is a handy tool and an intelligent tribute to one of the finest writers of the twentieth century; it is a must-have for every writer who enjoys shorter and pleasant things. The pure prose base app delivers reviews on the length of a phrase, use of the word, passive voice and adverbs, and some basic things that can yet make or break a single part.

The software uses colored highlights to assist you in cutting the space in each area and identify the reading level of the text to guarantee that your target audience is the proper one.

Compatibility:  iOS, Mac, and Web. It is accessible online and also has a $19.99 license fee.

While Scrivener and Ulysses is an all-around writing app, Plottr was established with one core aim, which is helping you to outline and plot your writings.

If you are a story writer, Plottr is the best app for you. This application helps you build your scene, plots quickly, and acts which its in-built interface enables you to arrange, rearrange, color coordination, and filter until your story starts flowing and begins to make sense to you.

Compatibility:  it runs on iOS and Mac; its flat fee is $25.

Squibler is a sleek new app to help you write more rapidly and cleverly. It recognizes that the completion and publication of drafts are much more than just drafting them. The software is designed to assist you with everything. And that’s what it does with delicacy.

Squibler’s objective is to allow you to organize your writing best to make it clear.

Squibler provides this with a range of tools to support you in your organizing, tracking, motivating, and storing all your research and ideas in a safe and accessible location.

Compatibility:  iOS and a free 2-week trial and $9 per month after trial.

Pages may not be as popular as Google Docs, but they do contain more excellent information. The calling card pages are its skill to write exceptional documents.

Pages make it possible to create practically any kind of document that seems distinctive with many templates and custody options.

Compatibility:  iOS

You do not need to bother about your writing skills; all you need is the perfect app running on your iPhone and works perfectly for your writing style. You can choose any writing app from the above and keep your writing experience enjoyable.

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Appreciate the effort, Any chance of re-writing this around what is arguably the most important formatting feature – font size and margin that Corresponds to the small real estate of the iPhone. I’ve used a lot of these apps – they are pinching / re-sizing nightmares. Would love to see a re-do on this one. The demand for a user-friendly iphone writing app is there. We just need more focus on the information side.

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Get to Know Scrivener for iPad and iPhone

Kirk McElhearn  /  10 AUG 2022

Scrivener for iPad and iPhone lets you work on your projects on mobile devices, and sync them back to your computer.

If you use Scrivener on a Mac or Windows computer, and haven't yet discovered the Scrivener app for iOS and iPadOS, this series of articles about the mobile version of the app are for you. I’m going to show you how you can use Scrivener on an iPad or iPhone on its own, or in conjunction with Scrivener on your desktop or laptop computer.

In this week's article, I'll give you an introduction to Scrivener for iPad and iPhone , and tell you why you may want to use the mobile app. Other articles will look at how to tweak Scrivener on iPad and iPhone to work the way you want it , how to sync projects between the mobile apps and the desktop , and how to compile projects with the mobile apps .

Why use Scrivener on an iPad or iPhone?

Many people see the iPad as just a consumption device: you use it to visit websites, watch films, and play games. But you can do a lot more with it. You can type using the on-screen keyboard, and many people create a lot with an iPad, and an external keyboard allows you to type much more fluidly, and also use keyboard shortcuts. While you have been able to use an external Bluetooth keyboard since the very first iPad, it's only in recent years that Apple developed their own keyboards , such as the Smart Keyboard, the Smart Keyboard Folio, and the Magic Keyboard. With these combination keyboard/cases, you can protect your iPad and use it almost like a laptop. (There are also third-party keyboards and keyboard cases.)

An iPad with a keyboard is a great device to use if you want to write in a coffee shop, or on the go, especially if you don't own a laptop. One advantage of using an iPad is that it is designed to only display one app at a time. (There is a split screen feature, and iOS 16 will include Stage Manager, which allows you to work with multiple windows, but the basic way of using an iPad is with a single window.) The iPad can be immersive, allowing you to focus more easily than on a laptop, where apps running in the background may disturb you.

The Apple Pencil is also a great device for editing a project. You may want to write on your Mac or PC, then shift to the iPad to get a different view as you edit or revise your work. Many people find this a good way to get a different point of view of their writing.

The iPhone is a bit more limited because of its size, but people have written entire novels on their iPhone, so don't let the size fool you. It allows you to work anywhere on a device that fits in your pocket; you can write, edit, or revise your projects on an iPhone . And, if you're a good two-thumb typist, you can type quickly on an iPhone. You can even connect an external Bluetooth keyboard to an iPhone; Apple sells one made by Logitech that comes with a stand that you can use with both the iPhone and iPad.

Features of Scrivener for iPad and iPhone

Scrivener for iPad is fairly similar to the desktop app, though its interface is compressed a bit to work on a mobile device with limited screen space. It offers the three key elements of Scrivener: the Binder, Editor, and Inspector, and has a Corkboard and Outliner, just like it's sibling.

One useful feature in Scrivener for iPad is the extended keyboard row. Appearing just above the iPadOS keyboard, this row gives you access to a number of commands.

If you swipe the handle in the middle of the row, you can cycle through three sets of commands, which offer buttons for commonly used punctuation, navigating text, and adding footnotes and adjusting some formatting elements.

Scrivener for iPhone is a bit more cramped because of the size of the display, but you still have access to all the key features of the app. If you do plan on writing a lot on an iPhone, you may find it easier with a larger model, such as Apple's iPhone Pro Max models. You can certainly use Scrivener on any iPhone model, even the iPhone mini, but you won't have the same amount of breathing room. And don't forget that you can turn the iPhone and Scrivener will rotate and display wider pages. Here's how Scrivener looks on an iPhone 13 Pro both vertically and horizontally.

If you've already got Scrivener for iPad or iPhone , you can find out more by tapping Tutorial in the Help section of the main screen. In future articles, I'll discuss how to adjust settings for your projects, so you can view them as you want; how to sync projects between your computer and an iPad or iPhone; and how to compile and print your projects.

Kirk McElhearn is a writer , podcaster , and photographer . He is the author of Take Control of Scrivener , and host of the podcast Write Now with Scrivener .

Write Now with Scrivener, Episode no. 16: William Gallagher, Playwright, Novelist, and Tech Journalist

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Best essay writing apps for iPhone & Mac

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Composing with a pen and paper is rapidly becoming outdated, which is reasonable. Why put yourself through such stress when using your device to compose better quicker? 

Tons of writing apps make writing a more stress-free experience. Ideally, excellent essay writing apps should help you with grammar, proofreading, and more. For example, you can write a profile essay about   any topic expertly using good writing apps which can help you understand the definition and outline of an essay. A good writing app will help you execute your task effectively and give you a great writing experience. If you use an iPhone or Mac, or use both, here are the top apps to choose from. 

This brilliant writing application has been named the best essay writing app for Apple devices such as Mac, iPad, and iPhone. It doesn’t work with some other OS like Android or Windows. What makes Ulysses unique is that it can back up your documents to the iCloud so that regardless of whether you lose the first record, your work is still securely put away in the cloud.

Ulysses uses markdown language to help you apply styles to your writing without worrying about using a formatting menu. This app also features a “focus mode” that helps streamline your writing to a single line and minimize on-screen distractions. Ulysses lets you export your files in various formats to make it easier to finalize your work. 

Focus Writer

Focus Writer is a simple-to-use free word processor, and it is accessible across all major working operating systems, including your iOS and Mac gadgets. With Focus Writer, you can make text and save it in RTF design. It features live document statistics to assist you and eliminates the need to run word counts and character counts. It features:

• Hide-away interface
• Live statistics
• Spells checking
• Document tabs

Evernote is another spectacular writing application that helps with essay writing. The program is a cross-platform note-taking application.  It would work with iOS gadgets and other working frameworks like Android and Windows. Evernote is great for handling written by hand notes. It additionally assists with making the outline of an exposition or article, which can be helpful for an essay write-up. Evernote can store anything you want to remember for your papers, be it a straightforward composing note or an article you viewed on the net. Like that, you can have all your paper thoughts organized and compact.

Grammarly is one of the most well-known article writing tools available on the market today. Grammarly is notable for aiding the adjustment of spelling issues, grammatical errors, and styling mistakes.

Grammarly is open in both a free and a paid version. It has a web-based editor that really looks at your sentence structure, spelling, grammar, word choice, readability, and style mistakes. Grammarly can detect plagiarism by contrasting your paper with billions of other web pages on the net. It’s an awesome program for composing impeccable papers, theses, research papers, and different sorts of compositions.

Pro Writing Aid

ProWritingAid is a cloud-based editing tool for article writing, copywriting, and blogs. This program is planned to help you recognize editing issues, eliminate mistakes, and correct grammatical problems in your essays.

It has a brilliant and valuable free version, while its premium version contains amazing features like upgrading word choice, wiping out cliches, and amending sentence length issues. ProWritingAid further develops your readability and style while additionally recognizing grammatical mistakes.

Hemingway is best known as a tool that can help you improve the readability of your writing,  but it is also an effective, comprehensive proofreading tool.

Hemingway detects sentences that are too complex for readers, helping you simplify your thoughts.  Its top-notch proofreading features can help make your sentences clear, concise, and bold.

As you keep writing your essay, the editor will mark too complex sentences. Hemingway helps you hold the reader’s attention by keeping your sentences short, simple, and sound.

Manuscripts

The Manuscripts is a terrific program for creating short stories, essays, and novels that are pleasant and powerful. This software discovers items like digits in the middle of phrases, layout, compound words, and abbreviations that exist in many formats and detects faults in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Overall, it is free to download and use, with no restrictions on what you may do with it. 

It makes no difference how difficult or frustrating writing may appear. However, using the Manuscripts, you can effortlessly kick-start your career in the writing domain. Use it as a starting point for self-editing before submitting to clients. 

Scrivener is a full-featured writing tool. Are you writing a novel? A script? An essay? A research paper about fashion * ? *Brazilian Portuguese website linked

Scrivener can handle them all! The “binder” view in Scrivener allows you to divide your book into chapters and parts and reorder it using a drag-and-drop interface to understand how your work fits together.

Scrivener provides too many customization options to count, and each feature of the program may be changed to your preference to help you create the ideal writing environment. 

With the Binder, you may keep your work divided for easy organizing and editing while maintaining its structure. Scrivener is one of the best book writing apps for writers; writers created it for writers. 

After writing down your ideas, Scrivener lets you combine your project into a single document and export it in formats including DOC, rich text, PDF, ePub, and Kindle. Scrivener works on popular operating systems.  So whether you’re on your computer, laptop, tablet, or phone, you can write awesome essays anytime and anywhere with Scrivener.

Byword is straightforward and powerful writing software. A Byword is an uncomplicated software with a user-friendly interface and only a few settings to fiddle with; it just wants you to get to writing.

You’ll get a blank document in this Markdown-focused writing tool and write. Byword lets the iCloud Drive sync your papers between your Mac, iPhone, and iPad, and you can also save them to Dropbox.

Byword supports Markdown, which is a distraction-free writing language. Markdown is a means to format text without using menus or options, which keeps the user experience simple and clutter and distraction-free. 

Pages, Apple’s very own writing program, allows you to create many different documents. Pages have over 60 templates that include almost every type of writing, from short essays to research papers, novels, and theses. Pages app also includes templates for business cards and flyers to give you more variety. 

You can insert photos, text boxes, and shapes, and you can change the layout of your documents and do much more. If your computer is one of Apple’s 2016 MacBook Pros with Touch Bar, you can also use Touch ID to keep your documents safe. 

You can easily collaborate with other writers that are using Pages. Multiple individuals can work on a document simultaneously, whether they’re using macOS, iOS, or even Windows, thanks to iCloud.com. You can also share collaborative documents with the entire community or with select individuals, and you can see who is in the group.

You can share collaborative papers with particular users publicly, see who is working on the document at any one time, and track their cursors as they update the page. It’s fascinating writing software that gives you the variety you seek.

Google Docs

Google Docs is one exciting piece of writing software. It’s free, straightforward to use, and requires no backups since everything is in the cloud.  Best of all is its collaboration features, which allow you to invite your editor to the document and then watch as they make changes, which you can view in the comment mode. 

Freedom lets you temporarily disable applications, websites, and social media on all of your devices so you can concentrate on writing. This is great for those seeking an immersive writing experience with no distractions. Not to worry, in case of emergencies, you can still be contacted. You can even set the program to function automatically when you need it the most. 

The freedom from online diversions is beneficial; sometimes, “just a few seconds” may stretch into hours of wasted time. Freedom might assist you in concentrating and increasing your productivity. It works on any device. 

Our takeaway

Whether you are in high school, college, or working on your Ph.D., there are essay writing apps that can help you along the way. If you sift through the benefits of each tool and consider their peculiarities, you can find the proper application to help you with your essays and research papers. Any of these apps will transform your writing experience from frustrating hard work to a pleasant experience.

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Writing your book with Pages

Pages is Apple’s free, powerful word processor that lets you write, edit, and collaborate with others to create stunning books.

Pages is not only simple to use, but it’s full of helpful features for writers. You can use Pages to create any kind of book, from a traditional novel to a dynamic digital book with interactive graphics, bespoke font treatments, and much more. Pages can help you manage and develop your entire writing process: plan out your storyline on the go with Pages on your iPhone, edit on your Mac without compromising your original draft with Track Changes and Smart Annotations, and format your story to look beautiful and professional using Pages templates and text styles. Pages makes it easy to write and polish your draft into a beautiful, engaging book that readers will love.

Start using Pages for Mac

Start using Pages on the web 

Use Pages on iPhone to write whenever inspiration strikes

Inspiration can strike when your computer isn’t on hand, but don’t let that stop you from getting your ideas down. Use Pages on iPhone and never let an idea slip between your fingers. Jot down thoughts, edit a section, or even write your whole book from start to finish directly from your iPhone. Pages uses iCloud Drive to sync documents across all your devices, so when you’re ready to sit down at your computer, you haven’t lost a word and can pick up your story right where you left off. Conveniently, iCloud Drive automatically saves your work periodically so you never have to worry about losing your work.

Use Comments to brainstorm

Writing is an organic process. It doesn’t always start at the beginning and proceed forward neatly. When you’re beginning to collect your thoughts, don’t get stuck on perfecting a paragraph or finding the perfect word — that will just slow down your creative process. Use the Comments feature in Pages to brainstorm ideas, think through sections of your book that you might not be ready to write, note questions you may want to answer later, or just highlight sentences you want to remember to complete another time. Comments can help unblock you on tough parts so you can keep writing without losing a thought, or losing momentum.

Use Collaboration to share your process with others

Even the best authors can use an editor. Getting feedback from a trusted reader on your draft helps you refine and craft your best story. A reader’s feedback can consist of line-by-line editing or more general suggestions about characters or plot. Use Collaboration for Pages to easily share with others and collect their feedback all within your single document. Use Pages password-protection features to keep your book safe and control who’s able to see it.

Use Track Changes or annotate with Apple Pencil

Every great book is polished through the same process: edit, rewrite, repeat. Use Track Changes to edit without overwriting your original text and track who made a change when collaborating. Use Apple Pencil on iPad to make annotations directly in your document for easy editing later.

Use text styles and panel navigation to add structure and organize your story

Great books are polished with strong text hierarchy and organized page structures. Use text styles to add chapter headers or page breaks, or to bring emphasis to specific text. Use Pages thumbnails and table of contents views to easily navigate your book.

Use Pages free book templates

Start by choosing a template that works for your book genre. The templates include layout, placeholder text, and even images to give you an idea what your book could look like. After you’ve picked a template you can add text, photos, image galleries, videos, audio, shapes, tables, charts, and more to your book.

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7 Best Essay Writing Apps For Students And Academics

In a rush? One of the best essay writing apps is Grammarly . Learn how these apps can help you with research paper writing!

To write a strong essay, you must follow a logical order when you organize your writing . If you omit this feature, your reader will become confused. Fortunately, there are numerous essay writing applications that can help you stay focused and organized. The best essay writing app for students should help you with grammar, proofreading, and writing style.

As you try to ease your writing load, you need to find applications that can help you with analytics, argumentative, narrative, expository, and critical writing. Whether you are looking for an essay writing app for PC, Mac, iPhone, or iPad, there are plenty of options out there. Take a look at the best essay writing apps, and find the right one to meet your needs.

1. ProWritingAid

2. grammarly, 3. hemingway, 4. ulysses, 5. evernote, 6. focus writer , 7. freemind, how we evaluated the applications, why trust our opinions, final word on the best essay writing apps, how does a writer app or writing software compare to a professional essay writing service, is there an automated tool that writes essays for you, can a brainstorming tool really help your writing process, essay writing resources.

Pricing: $79.00 per year or $20.00 per month. 

ProWritingAid  is a cloud-based editing tool for essay writing, copywriting, and blogging. This software can help you identify proofreading issues, eliminate mistakes, and correct punctuation in essays.

You have access to both a free version and a paid version. You can try the premium version for 14 days to decide whether you want access to the premium features. Premium features include optimizing word choice, avoiding cliches, and fixing sentence length issues.

ProWritingAid helps you improve your readability and writing style while also picking up grammar issues You can use ProWritingAid in Microsoft Word, Scrivener, Google Docs, and Chrome. Free users can only run 500 words at a time through the program.

• The interface is easy to use.
• There are numerous integrations available.
• You can access more than two dozen writing analysis reports.
• The free version is limited to only a few hundred words at a time.
• It can also take a long time to get used to the myriad features available.

ProWritingAid is a powerful, accurate grammar checker and style editor. It's suitable for non-fiction and fiction writers and doesn't require a monthly subscription. Save 20% per month or year.

Pricing: $139.95 billed annually or $25 per member per month. You may be able to negotiate a lower rate if you need multiple users for your business.

Grammarly is one of the strongest essay-writing apps available today. Grammarly helps you correct spelling mistakes, fix stylistic issues, and catches punctuation.

Grammarly has a free version and a premium version available. The free version can help you correct basic grammar , spelling, and punctuation issues. It can also help you optimize long sentences. 

The premium version gives you access to word choice issues, stylistic corrections, and even a plagiarism checker. The premium version can also automatically fix many of these mistakes, helping you save time during the editing process. There is no premium trial available. Grammarly is available as a browser extension and as a separate window into which you can upload documents. 

• Free version relatively powerful
• Contains built-in plagiarism checker
• Works everywhere
• Less suitable for longer essays
• Plagiarism checker is premium only

We tested dozens of grammar checkers, and Grammarly is the best tool on the market today. It'll help you write and edit your work much faster. Grammarly provides a powerful AI writing assistant and plagiarism checker.

Pricing: The web application is free, but the desktop version is $20.

Hemingway is known as a tool that can help you improve your readability score, but it is also a comprehensive proofreading tool.

Hemingway can point out sentences that are too complex for readers, helping you streamline your thoughts. As a virtual proofreader, it can make your sentences clear, concise, and bold.

As you write your essay , the editor will mark sentences that are deemed too complex. Then, you can let Hemingway go to work, picking up passive voice , comma splices, and even run-on sentences. By keeping your sentences short, you hold the attention of the reader. 

• Easy to use
• Ideal for copyediting
• No plagiarism checker
• No specific tools or checks for essays

Pricing: $4.99 per month of $39.99 for the year, following a 14-day free trial.

Ulysses  has been dubbed as the top writing app for Apple products such as Mac, iPad, and iPhone; however, the program is not compatible outside of Apple products. What sets Ulysses apart is that it can sync your files directly to the iCloud. Even if the original file is destroyed, you will not lose your work.

Ulysses uses something called markdown language. This helps you apply styles to your writing without having to worry about a formatting menu.

You can also take advantage of “focus mode,” which helps you streamline your writing to a single line and reduces on-screen distractions. Then, when you finish, you can export your files in a variety of formats to make it easier to finalize your work.

• You will store all of your writing in one place, eliminating the annoying back and forth between multiple folders and files.
• You can store older images of your files, reverting to them if you do not like your work.
• You can use the distraction-free interface to improve your productivity.
• The customer support team is exceptional.
• Ulysses is not available for Windows or Android.
• You do not have access to any pre-designed templates.

Pricing:  Evernote has a free tier, a plus tier at $34.99 per year, and a premium tier at $69.99 per year.

Evernote  is another application that can help with essay writing. The program is a cross-platform, note-taking application that is ideal for processing hand-written notes, such as the outline of a potential essay, or articles from the web, which can be helpful for a research paper. 

Evernote can store just about everything you would ever need, ranging from a simple typed note to an article you came across. That way, you never have to worry about losing your essay ideas. 

While Evernote is most popular among Mac users, it works on multiple devices. Evernote is available for Windows and Mac users, giving people offline access. Evernote also has a convenient Android and iPhone app. 

• Great for research
• Powerful note-taking features
• Fast, reliable sync
• Less enjoyable to write with
• Large libraries get clunky
• Not purpose-built for essays

Pricing: Free, but donations to the maker are encouraged.

Focus Writer  is a free word processor that is available across all major operating systems. This word processor is largely seen as an alternative to Microsoft Word.

Because Microsoft products can be expensive, a lot of students cannot afford them. Therefore, Focus Writer is growing in popularity. 

This tool will give you access to a wide variety of statistics including word count and character count. Furthermore, the program stores its files in an RTF format. This is read by most other word processors, so you can open your essays on other platforms when required.

• The tool is compatible with Mac, Windows, and Android products.
• It gives you access to important text statistics as you write.
• It is a strong word processor for students and writers on a tight budget.
• The program does not give you access to advanced proofreading or editing features.

Pricing: Free

FreeMind is a mind-mapping program that helps users create structured diagrams. If you have recently finished conducting your research and need to organize it before you start biting, this is the perfect program to help you.

You can also use this program to keep track of projects, tasks, and time. It is possible for you to brainstorm an essay, using different colors to show which parts of the essay you are referring to. Then, you can use these color-coding features to keep track of your essay as you write. 

Furthermore, the program comes with advanced DES encryption to help you protect your work. You can protect your work from accidental loss as you finish your project.

• The program is completely free to use.
• The diagram process is versatile for those writing essays in a variety of fields.
• There is DES encryption that protects your work from being lost.
• The diagram process can be challenging for people to use for the first time.
• It does not have a very flashy visual appearance, lacking numerous advanced features.

Because there are so many essay writing applications available, we used a variety of criteria to evaluate each program. Our testing criteria include: 

• The availability of each application across multiple platforms
• The ease of use of each individual application
• The variety of features available
• The price of the program in comparison to the features offered
• The security of each program

After testing the individual features of each program, we developed a ranking system designed for students, essayists, and research paper writers. 

There are several reasons why you should trust our opinions regarding essay writing applications. These include:

• We have written essays for a variety of reasons across multiple platforms.
• We have thoroughly tested all of these applications.
• We have paid close attention to the reviews, ratings, criticisms, and features of each individual application.

Even though everyone has slightly different needs when it comes to essay writing applications for academic papers, we are confident that one or more of these applications will meet your needs. 

Whether you are in high school, college, or working on your Ph.D., there are essay writing apps that can help you along the way. If you compare the benefits and drawbacks of each tool, you can find the right application to help you with your essays and research papers.

FAQs About The Best Essay Writing Apps

A professional service could be a stronger option than an automatic writing tool, but professional services will be more expensive.

Yes, there are tools that can write custom essays and short stories for you, but these programs often produce incoherent babble that will not improve your writing skills or make a good impression on your reader.

Yes. If you want to write a quality paper, you need to use a high-quality brainstorming process to get all of your ideas on the page. A strong writing software program can help you with that.

What is a Personal Essay?

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Bryan Collins is the owner of Become a Writer Today. He's an author from Ireland who helps writers build authority and earn a living from their creative work. He's also a former Forbes columnist and his work has appeared in publications like Lifehacker and Fast Company.

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Alex Birkett

11 Apps That Write Essays for You (and Improve Quality)

Last Updated on February 28, 2023 by Alex Birkett

Writing essays is a time-consuming task.

It requires research, structuring, formatting, and plenty of editing. As such, it’s no wonder that students often seek out help from external sources.

One of the most popular solutions in recent years are essay writing apps.

But what exactly are they? And do they work as advertised? Let’s dive into the details.

What Are Essay Writing Apps?

Essay writing apps are digital tools that help you to write better essays.

They typically come with features like spellcheckers, grammar checkers, and idea generators to help spur your writing process forward.

Some also offer pre-written content that you can use as a starting point for your own essay.

The idea is that these tools save you time and energy so you can focus on crafting great ideas instead of getting bogged down with tedious tasks like proofreading or finding research materials.

Do Essay Writing Apps Really Work?

The short answer is yes – but with some caveats.

While these apps can certainly be helpful in terms of providing assistance with proofreading and idea generation, they won’t be able to write entire essays for you from scratch like some people may believe.

Moreover, while some apps offer pre-written content that could be useful as a starting point for your essay, it’s important to remember that this isn’t an excuse to plagiarize or copy other people’s work without crediting them properly; if caught doing so, it could have serious consequences for your academic career.

What Are the Best Essay Writing Apps Available?

The best essay writing apps will have some of the following abilities:

• They generate net new content
• They help you format and ideate the structure of your essay
• They improve your writing style
• They have grammar, spelling, plagiarism, and style detection
• They can help you research factual information about the topic
• They’re “multi-purpose tools” that allow for custom functionalities
• They’re affordable.

I’ll judge the following of the best essay apps below on the above characteristics.

Editor’s note: I’m going to use some affiliate links when possible to try to earn some revenue from my content. These don’t change the opinions espoused in the content nor the style in which they are written. If I think a product sucks, I’m not going to say otherwise. This is just a bonus and a way to fund the whole operation. Anyway, enjoy the article!

11 Apps That Write Essays for You

• ProWritingAid
• Hypotenuse AI

Jasper  is an AI-powered essay writing app that helps you organize, write, and format your essays faster.

It’s functionally an all-purpose AI text generator , with a Google Docs / MS Word style editor you can use in conjunction with custom commands.

You can also hook it up with Grammarly to find spelling mistakes, punctuation mistakes, run on sentences, and other grammatical mistakes in real time.

They’ve got a few different modes (as part of their broader Boss Mode plan):

Focus mode is for pure writing, a simple word processor (but with an AI assistant attached). The focus writer is where I spend a lot of my time in this tool.

Chat mode is just like ChatGPT (more on that later)

SEO mode hooks up with Surfer SEO  to give you keyword suggestions in addition to your regular spell checking and generative essay writer functionality.

And power mode unlocks all of their use case templates, recipes, and commands.

Overall, Jasper is hands down the most powerful AI writing software. Premium features like SEO mode, Chat mode, and Power mode are only available on their Boss Mode plan, so I’d opt for that one.

It does seem to struggle with research papers and reference materials, so make sure you’ve got your citations on lock before you start writing. They also lack a web clipper tool, but their browser extension tool does give you the ability to write content everywhere.

They also have drawing tools and art generation capabilities , by the way.

Price : Starts at $24/mo. Boss Mode plan begins at $49/month

G2 Score:  4.8/5

Frase is a web-based writing tool that uses AI to help writers create high-quality essays quickly.

They’ve got a whole suite of SEO tools , including a content brief and content research tool, content optimization software, and generative AI  tools to help you write content.

Their content brief and research tool is of particular interest here.

Most of the best essay writing app options on this list focus only on text generation or rewriting; few focus on actually helping you format your piece in the first place, which is often where the hard work is.

Then, for their AI writing tool, they feature a ton of helpful templates, including “explain why,” “bullets to paragraphs,” and a metaphor / analogy tool:

Price:  Only $14.99/mo ($12 per month when paid annually).

ChatGPT  was launched in 2022 by OpenAI (the creators of GPT-3, which powers most of the writing software on this list).

It has brought generative AI to the mainstream, and it’s already one of the best writing apps for all purposes.

It acts as a chat interface, so it’s much more intuitive than many of the dedicated AI writing software out there.

Basically, you can ask it or prompt it to write…anything. I’ve used it to generate creative stories, write love poems, make me ideas for essays, improve my writing skills, and build outlines for SEO-focused content.

Let’s walk through a use case. I took a history class in college called “US history from 1945 to the present.” I’ll ask ChatGPT to create me some topic ideas:

Pretty good! I like the cold war idea, so I’ll ask it to create an outline for me:

Okay, maybe I’d want to change up a few pieces of this, but let’s go with it. Here’s the full essay:

Crazy! And that’s just a first pass. I could further tweak the outputs with better instructions.

This stuff is getting scary good.

Price:  Free

G2 Score:  NA

4. Writesonic

Writesonic  is a YC-backed startup that makes generative AI tools capable of writing essays.

I’m a big fan of this product.

They’ve got a ton of ready-made templates to get you started out (including a few that are great for writing essays). They’ve also got a few templates that can help you improve your writing style or even rewrite content so its better formatted.

Finally, they’ve got a Google Docs style editor for long form writers so you can use commands and write alongside the AI.

G2 Score: 4.8/5

Copy AI  is another AI copywriting tool  built on top of GPT-3.

It primarily writes essays through use case templates. A few that are popular for the writing process include:

• Essay intro
• Essay outline
• Explain like I’m 5
• Sentence rewriter
• Analogy generator

For example, look at this need little essay writer app that lets you build an outline for your essay:

The sentence rewriter and analogy generator are two examples that can help you improve your writing style.

Copy AI doesn’t have the same flexibility and power that Jasper and ChatGPT have, but it’s much easier to use. The templates are well set up and foolproof. And they have many that actually help you format text and design the scope of your piece, not just write it.

Overall, I’m a big fan of this tool.

Price:  Free for up to 2000 words and then $49/mo for unlimited word counts.

6. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid  is a cool professional writing software that uses AI to generate content.

It’s great for academic papers and academic writing. Unlike many other essay writing services, this one incorporates grammar checking, spell check, style checking, plagiarism checking, and word count into the content they produce.

They’ve built custom solutions for higher education, teachers, non-native English speakers, and creatives.

I like this one because it lets users create content from scratch, but it’s also got features to improve your writing (this is powerful for college students especially).

Got some handwritten notes that you want to whip up into a good essay? This one is great at processing hand written notes and producing great content.

Pro Writing Aid works via browser, but they’ve got integrations that allow for offline access and desktop software as well – such as a Scrivener integration and an MS Word integration.

Overall, a great product with a free app that allows for up to 500 words.

Price: Completely free for up to 500 words, and then $10 per month for unlimited use.

G2 Score: 4.5/5

7. Speedwrite

Speedwrite  is one of the most popular writing applications out there. It helps you write essays from scratch as well as rephrasing your existing content.

How’s it work? Basically, through “predictions.” You just enter text and hit the “predict” button (they call their text generations “predictions”). This then takes your content and paraphrases it using their artificial intelligence.

This makes it useful for everything from writing notes to polishing up existing texts.

They’ve got tons of users (roughly 500k+). They claim to have written millions of lines of text, and all of this is fresh, original content with good style and grammar.

While Speedwrite has some downsides (it’s not great with structured diagrams or starting with a blank page), it’s still popular. Anyway, there are a ton of great Speedwrite alternatives  you can check out.

One cool thing is you can use this tool completely free.

Here’s an example of a “prediction” based on the above text.

Price:  Free and the only $19.99 per month

Lex is a new AI writer that I’ve just started trying out. I love it so far.

It’s different from the others. It’s aimed at writers. Many of the other tools help non-writers produce content. This one is no-frills, just a Google Docs / Microsoft Word style editor and an auto complete functionality.

And to be honest: the outputs are pretty darn good. I only write the first two sentences here and then let Lex finish it:

Lex can also be used on both ios devices as well as android devices (instructions in the app).

As far as I know, the tool is free, but I’m sure they’ll introduce a standard pricing model soon. You have to get on a waitlist to get access.

Price : Free

G2 Score: NA

Rytr  is a similar tool to Jasper, Copy AI, and Writesonic. It was also built on GPT-3 technology, so it’s got many of the same outputs and templates as these tools.

The biggest difference with Rytr is its price. They’re one of the most affordable apps that write essays for you, starting at just $9/mo (plus a free plan).

This is a great starter app.

Price: free, and then $9/mo

G2 Score: 4.7/5

10. Hypotenuse AI

Hypotenuse AI  started out as an ecommerce-focused AI tool, but it has since expanded.

Like other tools on this list, they’ve got one of the best essay writing capabilities out there.

The reason I’m adding them to this list, though, is their content detective feature. This allows you to research content with citations. Most tools suffer from factual inaccuracies, which is obviously a huge problem when it comes to academic writing.

Hypotenuse is working to solve that, and for that, I applaud them.

Price: Starts at $24/mo

G2 Score: 4.4/5

11. Word AI

Word AI  is a sweet tool built for two things: content rewriting, and scale.

You can essentially do like 1000 rewrites based on your initial content. This is helpful for SEO folks hoping to do link building and guest posting at scale.

For the essay writers among us? It’s great for coming up with clear copy and rewriting your piece to enrich your text, split sentences, and improve the clarity of your writing.

I will say, transparently, this is not one of my favorite tools out there. I think it’s a little clunky for most use cases and it’s best for spinning up a ton of content for SEO.

However, I wanted to include it on the list because it’s one of the best at content production at scale.

Price:  $57/month

G2 Score: 3.9/5

At the end of the day, essay writing apps can be incredibly useful resources if used correctly by students or writers who need assistance crafting their stories or arguments more effectively and efficiently than ever before.

However, it’s important to remember that these tools don’t replace actual human effort – they’re meant to supplement it – so make sure not to rely too heavily on them or allow them to take away from the creativity in your own work!

In that way, “apps that write essays for you” is sort of a myth. You’ll still need to provide the human intelligence 🙂

With all this in mind, don’t forget to do your own research into which app is right for you before committing – good luck!

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10 apps that write essays for you + how to use them.

Writing essays can be hours of long work reading and writing. To help you hand your paper in faster, we’ve compiled the top 10 apps that write essays for you.

Published on Jun 04, 2024

By Krista Doyle

Writing essays is a skill you need to pass many high school classes and even college or university courses. However, not everyone has the greatest writing skills, and even then, great writers sometimes don’t have the time to write everything. 

Plagiarism is another common concern when in school and should be taken seriously, considering it can get you kicked out of education. Instead of paying a hefty fee for essay writing services, take advantage of the best essay writing apps available to help you score your next A+. 

Why software can help improve your essay writing

Using software, especially AI-powered platforms, can help streamline the writing process by offering features like templates, structured frameworks, content generation as well as grammar and spell-check.

Essay writing software allows you to organize your thoughts more effectively and often in a distraction-free work environment. They can also aid in enhancing the overall quality of your writing by offering savvy suggestions for improving sentence or paragraph structure, vocabulary usage and flow within your essays.

Benefits of essay writing software

• Improved Organization: Essay writing software helps users organize their thoughts more effectively, creating a structured framework for their writing tasks.
• Enhanced Productivity: These tools provide a distraction-free work environment, allowing writers to focus solely on their essays without any interruptions.
• Content Generation: Some platforms like Jasper assist in generating content ideas, providing valuable insights and suggestions to kickstart the writing process.
• Vocabulary Enhancement: By offering suggestions for alternative word choices, essay writing software helps enrich the vocabulary used in your essays.
• Structural Guidance: These tools provide feedback on sentence and paragraph structure, helping users improve the overall coherence and flow of their writing.
• Quality Improvement: Essay writing software contributes to enhancing the overall quality of your work by offering valuable tips and recommendations to refine your writing.

Elements of an A+ essay you can’t ignore

• Clear Thesis Statement: An A+ essay must have a strong and clear thesis statement that presents the main argument or point of view.
• Comprehensive Research: Extensive research with credible sources is crucial for providing in-depth analysis and supporting arguments effectively.
• Proper Structure and Formatting: The essay should have a well-organized structure with a logical flow of ideas from introduction to conclusion.
• Critical Analysis: Demonstrating critical thinking skills by evaluating information, presenting counter arguments, and offering insightful perspectives.
• Originality: Strive for original ideas and unique perspectives to set your essay apart and showcase intellectual creativity.
• Effective Use of Evidence: Incorporate relevant evidence and examples to strengthen arguments and demonstrate a deep understanding of the topic.
• Meticulous Proofreading: Pay attention to grammar, punctuation, spelling, and overall writing mechanics to ensure clarity and coherence in your essay.

How to write a strong essay thesis

To write a strong essay thesis statement, you should begin by clearly identifying the main topic or argument of your essay. Your thesis statement should be concise and specific, providing a roadmap for the reader on what to expect in the rest of the paper.

Make sure your thesis is arguable and not a statement of fact. Next, consider the key points you want to make in support of your thesis. These points will guide the structure of your essay and should be logically organized for a coherent flow of ideas.

The final step in writing a strong essay thesis is to revise and refine it. This step is crucial because it allows you to improve the clarity, coherence, and overall effectiveness of your thesis statement.

During revision, pay attention to the language you have used and make sure it is precise and specific. Consider whether your thesis accurately reflects the main argument or topic of your essay.

The top 10 apps that write essays for you

We’ve found the top online apps and websites to help you decide on your thesis, collect your research, and help you through the paper writing process. Some of these apps are AI-based and can help you with the writing process, while others will help you improve your productivity and ability to gather information effectively.

• Wordtune Read
• Essay AI Lab
• My Assignment Help Essay Typer
• Paper Typer

Jasper is an AI writing tool with the power to write essays for you. The templates library is robust, allowing you to choose from many different styles and formats. Writing your next essay is as easy as inputting key information and clicking the ‘Generate now’ button!

From the dashboard, just ask Jasper for help writing an essay. From here, you can input all the important details of your essay, including its intended target audience (ie. college professors). This is key for optimizing academic writing that will be published online. 

In the screenshot below, we asked Jasper for help on an essay about writing A+ essays. We shared some content information as well as our desired tone. Jasper delivered!

• Optimizes written content for ranking on Google
• Finishes your sentences for you
• Has a Jumpstart learning center to learn even better ways to use Jasper
• Includes over 50+ templates for different writing needs
• Rated 5/5 stars in over 1000 reviews
• Paid membership required

Pricing: Jasper offers several flexible pricing plans ranging from the $39/mo Creator plan to custom Business plans for an enterprise-level solution.

2. Papers Owl

This quick thesis statement generator makes the most out of the first few sentences of your essay. Add in your information and the AI generates a paragraph to introduce your essay.

• Online website tool
• No registration required
• Receive three outputs each time
• Requires that you know your thesis already — which requires prior research
• You need one to two supporting statements already

Pricing: Free

Coggle is a mind mapping app. These visual diagrams help you decide on your essay topic, organize all your points, and know which ideas are linked to each other. Coggle is available for iOS and Android devices and as a Google Chrome extension.

• Available as an online website tool, browser extension, or app
• Collaborate with up to three other people
• Make unlimited mind maps
• Download your map as a PDF or image
• Most maps will be public
• Requires registration
• The free version has no custom line paths

Pricing: Free forever. Paid plans start at $5/month.

4.  Wordtune Read

Wordtune’s app Wordtune Read reduces your reading time by summarizing paragraphs in long articles and essays. This example shows how Wordtune Read turns a long academic research paper into a three-minute read by summarizing essential points on the right.

• Summarizes long articles and documents
• Allows users to upload a document or link to a research article
• Users can export the summarized points as a Word document
• Available as a Google Chrome extension
• Can only export as a Word document

Pricing: Basic version is free, but there are options to upgrade. Paid plans start at $9.99/month.

5. Essay AI Lab

Essay AI Lab searches the internet for relevant information for you and conveniently puts it all together in an essay. All you have to do is provide the guiding title and prompt. 

Essay AI Lab’s writing process allows you to choose each paragraph in your essay from tens of samples. This word processing tool is excellent for finding resources while writing your essay.

• Includes citations and research references in APA or MLA format
• You choose each paragraph for your essay
• Paraphrases to eliminate any plagiarism concerns
• Completely free to use
• Requires registration to save or download your work
• Rephrasing can change word meaning
• Some citations come from blogs and news sources

6. My Assignment Help Essay Typer

This word processing tool is very similar to Essay AI Lab but has a few more benefits. In addition to providing pre-written paragraphs on your topic, you can hire an expert at any point to jump in and help you finish your paper.

• Includes other free tools like a summary generator and paraphrasing tool
• App available for iPhone or iPad and Android devices
• Works best as a research tool
• Reviews claim they do not give refunds for failed services

Pricing: Free 

7. Paper Typer

Paper Typer writes you an entire essay in seconds after you tell it the subject of your paper. This AI essay writer app creates appropriate formatting for your essay as well. It offers headers and subheaders to write the best essay possible.

• Entire paper in seconds
• Unlimited sessions and edits
• You can edit citations on the same site
• Covers a wide range of information on the topic
• Only works for simple subject topics
• Fact-check needed to ensure proper citations
• Edits required to prevent plagiarism

Pricing: Free for students.

8. Wordtune

Wordtune upgrades your academic papers with professional writing using AI algorithms. This text editor uses AI to rewrite sentences and paragraphs up to 280 characters long. 

This tool works best to polish introductory or concluding sentences or summarize a long point. You can upgrade to the Premium plan to make your sentences more formal, more casual, longer, or shorter. 

• Designed to improve the quality of your essays
• Free version available
• Has extensive customer support
• Limited free membership
• Won’t write essays for you; only improves pre-written text

Pricing: Free online. Premium plans start at $9.99/month for unlimited use.

9. AI Writer

AI Writer is another fully AI essay writer. Write your title or headline on the homepage, sign-up, and receive access to an original draft, citations, and relevant SEO-friendly content. 

• Free 1-week trial
• Optimizes content for SEO
• Has a 2-minute turn-around time
• Saves up to 50% of your time compared to starting from scratch
• Writes in English only
• Membership required
• Does not use all-academic sources
• Reviewers say the essays are not high-quality

Pricing: Paid plans start at $29 per month.

10. Readable

Readable is a web-based text analyzer that helps to improve your writing’s readability score. Readability refers to how complex your writing is. For example, college essays typically have a higher readability score than high school essays. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is the academic standard for determining readability, which Readable uses in their analysis.

Improving your readability score can lead to clearer writing and higher grades.  

• Offers a 7-day trial of ContentPro version
• Grades your paper
• Shares your word count as you write
• Analyzes the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level
• Free version is very limited
• Requires an account to download your work

Pricing: There’s a free version. Paid plans start at $8/month.

Write A+ essays with Jasper

While there are several apps that write essays for you available in the market, Jasper stands out for several reasons. 

Our AI writing assistant was designed to be your writing partner. Instead of generating content from a template, Jasper is a “thinking” app. It draws on its knowledge of 10% of the internet and writes naturally — almost like a human would.

You can use Jasper’s Blog Post Outline template for outlining and the Long-Form Assistant for essay writing. You can also take advantage of the Blog Post Introduction and Blog Post Conclusion templates for starting and finishing strong. 

You will get 100% unique content with Jasper — zero plagiarism. You only have to think about proofreading, using a spell-checker, or any final revisions.

What are you waiting for? Sign up for Jasper today.

Meet The Author:

Krista Doyle

Krista Doyle is a writer-turned-strategy-nerd based in Austin, TX. By day she manages content strategy and SEO right here at Jasper, by night she binges Netflix or continues her mission to find the best old fashioned in Austin, TX.

Enjoy this post? Join over 4 million people who are learning to master AI in 2024.

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How to Write Handwritten Messages on an iPhone

Last Updated: November 25, 2021 Tested

This article was co-authored by wikiHow Staff . Our trained team of editors and researchers validate articles for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow's Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. The wikiHow Tech Team also followed the article's instructions and verified that they work. This article has been viewed 31,755 times. Learn more...

Want to use your finger to write a text message on your iPhone's screen? The Messages app on your iPhone makes it easy to send custom handwritten notes to your friends. There's even a selection of pre-written options to choose from. We'll show you exactly how to write text messages by hand on your iPhone's screen and send them using iMessage.

• If your screen will not rotate, orientation lock may be enabled. If so, swipe up from the bottom of your screen and tap the lock icon in the upper-right corner. It will change from orange to gray.
• 4 Tap the squiggly line. It's at the bottom-right corner of the keyboard to the left of the microphone.

• You can also select a pre-written message by tapping on one in the menu at the bottom of the screen.
• To undo writing, tap Undo in the top-left corner of the screen.

Community Q&A

• When handwriting messages to contacts who aren’t iMessage users, the writing may not show up as well or at all. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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1. Open Messages . 2. Tap a conversation. 3. Turn your iPhone to landscape orientation. 4. Use your finger to write a message or choose a pre-written message. 5. Tap Done . 6. Tap the send icon. Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Best Free Writing Apps in 2024

Showing 83 writing apps that match your search.

Capture your thoughts, discoveries, and ideas and simplify overwhelming planning moments in your life with your very own digital notepad. With OneNote, you can plan that big event, seize that moment of inspiration to create something new, and track that list of errands that are too important to forget.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows, Android, Chrome, PC

Best for: Note-taking, Journal, Blog, Essay, and Free

Website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onenote/dig...

Base price:

Premium price:

★★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★★★ Accessibility

★★★★★ Value

Also rated 4.5 ★ on TechRadar

Still looking for the perfect app to write your novel? Novelist might just be the perfect tool for the job!

Platforms: Android, iPhone, iPad, Online

Best for: Outlining, Worldbuilding, Drafting, Story, Book, and Free

Website: https://www.novelist.app/

★★★★ Performance

★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

Remember everything and tackle any project with your notes, tasks, and schedule all in one place.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Windows, Android, Mac, Online, Chrome, PC

Best for: Note-taking, Outlining, Book, Essay, Journal, Poetry, Story, Blog, and Free

Website: https://evernote.com/

★★★★★ Features

Also rated 4.4 ★ on the App Store

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Simple. Effective. Personal. Keep life moments and ideas always with you. Diaro is here to help.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android, Chrome

Best for: Note-taking, Journal, and Free

Website: https://diaroapp.com/

★★★★ Accessibility

Also rated 4.6 ★ on Google Play

Textilus Pro

Textilus Pro is a great word processor app for students and business people, also being excellent for writing reports, papers, blog posts, journals or ebooks! Textilus Pro can help you organize your research, generate ideas, and remove distractions so you can focus on the most important thing: writing.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad

Best for: Note-taking, Drafting, Blog, Essay, and Free

Website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/textilus-pro-word-processor...

Also rated 4.5 ★ on the App Store

Bear is a beautiful, flexible writing app for crafting notes and prose.

Best for: Note-taking, Drafting, Book, Story, Essay, Blog, and Free

Website: https://bear.app/

Also rated 4.3 ★ on the App Store

Campfire Write

Campfire is a versatile writing tool organized into modules, each one offering a different type of story element you can create. Keep track of each character's motives, history, eye color, and more. The Characters Module gives you an easy way to make quick notes or detailed character sheets about anyone in your story. Upload your map to the Maps Module, add pins to integrate it with the rest of your story, and nest other maps to keep things organized.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, Online, PC

Best for: Outlining, Drafting, Book, Story, and Free

Website: https://www.campfirewriting.com/

★★★ Performance

Also rated 4.0 ★ on Reedsy

Storyline Creator

Storyline Creator is an elegant writing tool that helps you streamline your writing process. It's incredibly fun to draft ideas, to visualize, enhance and organize your stories - so you can focus on your plot and the creativity instead of the paper war.

Platforms: Online

Best for: Outlining, Book, Story, and Free

Website: https://www.storylinecreator.com/

★★ Performance

★★ Accessibility

Freedom blocks distractions across all your Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, and Chrome devices so you don’t have to fight off the temptation of distracting pings, notifications, headlines, and emails.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, Android, iPhone, iPad, Chrome, Online, PC

Best for: Productivity, Journal, Book, Story, Essay, Poetry, Blog, and Free

Website: https://freedom.to/

Also rated 4.4 ★ on Google Play

Your thoughts in words. Say exactly what you mean through clear, compelling and authentic writing.

Best for: Editing, Proofreading, Blog, Essay, and Free

Website: https://www.wordtune.com/

Also rated 4.4 ★ on Capterra

Keep peace of mind knowing your team's content is perfect.

Website: https://linguix.com/

Also rated 4.6 ★ on Capterra

Create documents, make impact. When your work needs to wow, Craft gives you the tools to make it magnificent.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows, Online, PC

Best for: Note-taking, Drafting, Journal, Essay, Blog, and Free

Website: https://www.craft.do/

Also rated 4.9 ★ on the App Store

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The 6 Best iPhone Book-Writing Apps

Make your book-writing tasks easier with these apps for your iPhone and iPad.

Book writing used to be a very difficult business to get into, often being more about who you know rather than what you know. Nowadays?

Well, it's still difficult, but nowhere near as difficult. What makes it easier is book writing apps, which can help you to plan your story or have a place to write and get some guidance on your content.

1. Scrivener

Scrivener is a highly comprehensive app that aims to assist writers as much as possible. With a UI (user interface) that makes dragging and dropping friendly and simple, Scrivener allows you to work on individual sections of your book and even switch around where chapters are placed.

You can put comments, footnotes, links, and highlights on any selected text, insert images, see your word and character counts, and import PDF and media files. The app utilizes Dropbox to make it quick and easy to move a manuscript between different devices.

You can export to a variety of formats, even exporting to a ZIP compressed folder. It also allows you to take screenshots of previous versions so that you can cross-compare after making changes; which is especially useful if you're struggling with nailing a particular chapter and have multiple ideas of how it can go.

Download: Scrivener  ($19.99)

2. LivingWriter

LivingWriter is quite a simple app with a fun and sleek UI. It allows you to write your stories and make notes to assist with your story. When inside a story project, you can write Story Notes, Story Elements, Chapter Goals ,  Story Goals , and more. The app makes exporting to PDF and Word quick and simple, meaning you can add to a story while out and about if you think of an idea, and then export it to Word to continue on a different device when back at home.

The app even allows you to add a Cover Image to the stories, which is a nice touch that helps with the aesthetic of different stories. Compared to the other writing apps on the list, LivingWriter could be seen as being a little simple, but its strength comes in how easy it makes it to break down your goals for the story. Its formatting options are comprehensive enough to give you everything you need while writing a book via your phone.

Download:   LivingWriter  (Free)

3. Story Planner for Writers

Coming up with ideas for stories, or even just individual chapters, can be difficult for even the greatest writers. Story Planner for Writers aims to make this easier for you through its intuitive outlining features.

The app has dedicated sections for outlining characters and locations. It even allows you to add images to improve the aesthetic and help get you into the zone. Through its color-coded feature, you can separate plot lines to help keep them straight in your head.

Its Progress Bar feature helps you to ensure you're remaining productive enough on a daily basis, tailored to your own desired output. It also offers stats that help to illustrate through data how your story works.

Download: Story Planner for Writers  ($5.99)

4. Writer Assistant (Wassi)

Writer Assistant (Wassi) works much the same as Story Planner for Writers, but while it doesn't boast as many features as the latter, it has a free version and holds enough features to be useful.

Through the top menu, you can work on different aspects of a project---with tabs for Characters, Locations, Stories , and so on. And, on each tab, whatever you're working on will be broken down into further tabs that can help you really flesh out a location or character.

Writer Assistant allows you to Save and restore backups , and you can also export to PDF , as well as change the theme of the app to make it look the way you want it to. These extra features are helpful if you work on other devices and want to plan your story on the app and then transfer it over to another device to begin writing it.

This app is great for planning out your story and nailing the different aspects of it all---plot, characters, locations, and so on. The way that it breaks it all down can help get your creative juices flowing and simplify the task of planning your novel if you're struggling to get started.

Download: Writer Assistant (Wassi)  (Free, in-app purchases available)

Ulysses is one of the most popular book-writing apps around, and for good reason. With a sleek, highly responsive UI and design that is based on simpleness, you can get straight to creating content and worry about the details later.

Through Sheets, you can write different stories through the app and can set them to sync via iCloud. Ulysses makes it easy to sync to your iPad or Mac, meaning you can use the app when out-and-about to add some ideas or write some of your stories, then continue on a larger screen when you're back home.

On the text editor, you can add Headings, Dividers, Blockquotes,  and more through the hamburger menu. On the Formatting tab, you can add Annotation, Videos, Footnotes, and Comments amongst other things.

The most impressive feature of Ulysses is its Revision Mode , which makes suggestions on how to improve your text such as spelling, grammar, word redundancy, and typography. This feedback is helpful for writers of all skill levels. Finally, the app is available in over 20 languages---so it's more than likely accessible to you.

Download: Ulysses  (Free, subscription available)

6. Storyist 4

Storyist 4 is also a very popular writing app and for good reason. It combines the principles of the other apps featured (book planning vs book writing) in a way that feels natural and simple.

When creating a project, you can work on the actual manuscript and get straight into writing the story, or you can spend some time outlining the Characters and Settings. You can also add Images . The  novel templates make it easier to get started, especially if you're struggling with writer's block or feeling overwhelmed. While the Characters and Settings templates are a little more barebones than Story Planner for Writers and Writer's Assistant, the fact you can plan or write all in Storyist makes it a very convenient and helpful tool.

Storyist also offers a great deal of formatting and sectioning options for your text, but they can be a little difficult to find for beginners, being featured in the sub-menus of an already bloated menu. This is something that will impact you less as you become more acquainted with the software.

Download: Storyist 4  (Free, subscription available)

Write Right

Any app that helps you write a book is worth a look-in, and these six featured will help you with planning and the actual writing process. While the onus is still on you to come up with the killer story, these apps will assist you in the process and help make you a better writer.

How to send a handwritten text in Messages on iPhone, iPad

If you’re a new iPhone user or simply don’t use the Messages app as much as others, you might not realize all of the cool things you can do with your texts. You can use nifty screen effects , add GIFs and photos, and pop in some cute stickers .

Another great way to personalize your text messages is with handwriting. You probably wouldn’t use it for a lengthy message, but for a quick “I’m sorry,” “Hi there,” or “I love you,” nothing except your spoken words makes it more special than if you write it yourself.

Here’s how to send a handwritten text in the Messages app on iPhone and iPad.

Get ready to write

Open the Messages app on your iPhone or iPad, and then follow these steps to handwrite a text:

1) With Messages open and your text on the screen, turn your iPhone sideways . Note: You don’t have to turn your device if using an iPad.

2) When you put your cursor in the message field, the keyboard will then display a scribble key , so tap it.

3) You’ll then see a clean screen for you to handwrite your message. You can also use one of the premade messages you see at the bottom with a tap. But what fun is that? Whip out your index finger and use your own handwriting.

4) Tap Done when you finish and then send your text.

If you get yourself set to handwrite your text and change your mind, just tap that Keyboard button on the bottom right, and you’ll be back to simple typing.

Do more with your messages

Many times, text messages can feel impersonal. So using tricks like this to make them special can make a world of difference to your recipient. Even if it’s a hand-drawn smiley face instead of an emoji, it might just make someone’s day.

Are you going to give handwritten text messages a try? What are your favorite features for personalizing your text messages? Share your thoughts with us below!

For additional fun with your text messages, check out these related articles:

• How to use iMessage effects like stickers, filters & shapes on photos
• How to add reactions to the iMessages you receive
• How to use Digital Touch in Messages for iPhone and iPad

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Effective time management skills can help you squeeze maximum output with little effort. iPhone allows you to up your time game by facilitating swift conversion of handwriting text into digital text. For this, you must know the role of Optical Recognition Tools (OCRs). These potential tools offer a spectrum of features, making them the perfect handwriting-to-text converter app for new and advanced iPhone users.

In this article, I have explained the Notes app that works as an inbuilt OCR app for iPhones. I have also jotted down a list of some of the most popular OCR apps to make you a pro at converting handwriting to text on iPhone.

How to convert handwritten notes to text on iPhone

Best iphone apps to extract text from image.

• Launch the Notes app on your iPhone.
• Create a new note or open an existing note.
• Tap the camera icon . Alternatively, tap the cursor, then tap > , and select the Live Text icon .
• From the pop-up, pick the Scan Text option.
• As the camera opens, point it toward your handwritten text.
• Let the camera read and analyze your text. The grey insert button will turn blue .

That’s it! Your handwritten text gets included in Notes as digital text. 

Additionally, if you wish to carry a digital copy of your handwritten note, you can scan your files and convert them into PDFs. 

Scan and convert a handwritten document in Notes app on iPhone or iPad

• Launch Notes → open a note → tap the camera icon .
• Then click on the Scan Document option.
• Point the iPhone camera toward the document you wish to scan .
• The system will click a picture on its own, or you can press the shutter button .

For the unversed, the feature is only available on iPhones using iOS 15.4 or later and iPadOS 15.4 or later.

Also, for more such hacks, you can follow our guide on how to use Notes app like a pro .

The list here describes some leading apps that effectively convert image text into digital text on iPhones:

• Microsoft OneNote
• Cam Scanner
• Pen to Print app
• Google Drive
• Handwriting to Text Recognizer

1. Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote can be a powerful solution if you are looking for a robust and easy-to-use app that converts handwriting to text. This iOS-compatible app works well on iPad and iPhones with iOS 15.0 or above.

• Converts handwritten words written on paper into digital text. 
• One account for all your needs.
• Microsoft OneNote offers limited tagging facility. 
• A bit complicated

Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $6.99)  

Download  

2. Cam Scanner

Cam scanner OCR is a reliable tool to convert handwritten notes to text for advanced and professional purposes. However, the app requires users to pay a small amount for use.  

• Easy-to-use interface
• Premium version lets you edit the document and transfer it into a .txt.
• Smooth auto-cropping for flexible scanning. 
• Limited tools
• Frequent ads and time lags 
• Leaves a watermark

Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $4.99) 

3. Pen to Print app

The Pen to Print app is popular for those seeking powerful handwriting to text converter. The tool processes every line of text written in physical format. It edits one sentence at a time so you can reframe text if the writing is not readable.  

• Effortless conversion to digital text
• Quick navigation 
• Mediocre formatting 

Price : Free (In-app purchases start at $1.99) 

4. Google Drive

Google Drive can be your next best option if you are not using ‘Notes’ to convert handwriting to text on iPhone. All you need to do is to scan the handwritten text, open the image in Google Docs, and convert it into text.  

• You can quickly scan and convert an image with handwritten text
• Regular updates to ensure users get an unmatched experience for handwriting to text. 
• Threat to user security 
• Daily limit on file upload size  

5. Handwriting to Text Recognizer

The Handwriting to text recognizer app stands as one of the most popular apps for people looking to convert handwriting into text on an iPhone.  This app converts handwritten notes, lists, or other text forms from paper to digital text in a few simple clicks. 

• Easy to use
• Works with iOS 10.0 or above
• Limited formatting features 

Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $1.49) 

6. Adobe Scan

Adobe Scan is quite popular as the best digital notepad that converts handwriting to text category. Coming from Adobe, you can trust the app for a seamless handwriting-to-text conversion experience.  

• You also can use it to create JPEG or PDF files
• The app removes marks on your paper, documents, or notes. 
• It is one of the best tools for tax and legal documents. 
• There is no direct support for third-party cloud storage portals such as Drive.  
• The app does not store documents locally, meaning limited control and more Internet use. 

Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $9.99) 

Wrapping up …

Technology lets you make the best use of time without compromising on quality. Developers create OCR apps to serve this purpose by simplifying the note-taking procedures for iPhone users. The list here gives you a glimpse of the best OCR apps leading the market in the handwriting-to-text converter apps sector.

You can choose any option here and enjoy the best-in-quality digital text conversion on iPhones. Save and edit as many times as you want and immediately keep all your hassles. If you found this helpful or have any queries, do let me know in the comments.

• Best handwriting apps for iPhone and iPad
• Best AI writing apps for iPhone and iPad
• How to find and replace text in Notes app on iPhone
• Best free note-taking apps for iPhone and iPad

Srishti is a writing enthusiast who has been creating user-friendly content for more than 5 years in the tech space. At iGeeksBlog, she helps readers explore the Apple ecosystem, understand the jargon, and improve their experience. With expertise in buying guides, she helps you find the best accessories amid the pool of choices for Apple products. Her talent for making complicated tech understandable shines through in her writing. When away from her MacBook, you can find her doing a hands-on experience with new products.

🗣️ Our site is supported by our readers like you. When you purchase through our links, we earn a small commission. Read Disclaimer .

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How to Use an iPhone for Writing your Novel

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I’m a commercially published author, so I’ve been through the process of writing a novel several times and know that inspiration can strike at any time. I’ve learnt that I need to write things down immediately before I forget them. Scraps of paper are fine for scribbled reminders, but transcribing the scribbles is painful and these days I have my iPhone with me practically all the time.

I’m working on a new novel, so decided to experiment with using my iPhone for writing, see how practical it is and pass my experiences on to you.

By the way: most of this advice should apply to Android and Windows phones too, but as I only have an iPhone, I can only be certain it works for iPhone. As with my recommendations for  novel writing software,  I use everything in this article for real, and I’m getting no kickbacks for recommending anything.

Using an iPhone for writing: What’s the point?

It’s all about being able to write anywhere.

I travel a lot and sometimes I just don’t want to take my MacBook with me, so it’s great to have an even more portable option.

There are three ways of using an iPhone for writing: an external keyboard, voice dictation (Siri), and the on-screen keyboard. Let’s see what the strengths and weaknesses of each are.

Writing on iPhone using an external keyboard

You need a couple of things to make this work:

• A bluetooth keyboard

The stand I use is a Joby GripTight Micro. This has the advantage of folding down to almost nothing. You can see it folded up in the picture above (in the saucer of the coffee cup).

Once I fold the GripTight Micro out, it holds my iPhone at a good angle for work. Here’s how it looks when deployed:

The GripTight Micro is available on Amazon US here and Amazon UK here .

The keyboard I use is the iRocks foldable Bluetooth keyboard. I found my iPhone recognised it immediately (of course you have to remember to turn Bluetooth on in the iPhone settings first).

When folded, the keyboard is a bit bigger than an iPhone, and it weighs about the same as the phone too. It folds out to about 90% of the size of a laptop keyboard. The keys have a ‘proper keyboard’ feel, though the space bar is quite small.

Here’s how it looks when deployed:

Similar bluetooth keyboards are available on Amazon and eBay. The keyboard I got was it had a UK keyboard layout – remember to check that whichever keyboard you think of buying has a layout that suits you.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The major advantage of an iPhone + keyboard combination is that it’s suitable for proper ‘sit down and get on with it’ writing. You can write thousands of words with this setup.

The combination is also about a quarter of the size and half the weight of a Macbook. An iPhone 6, bluetooth keyboard and stand weighs 1lb/450g. A 12″ Macbook weighs 2lb/900g and a Macbook Air is slightly heavier.

Considering that most people carry a phone anyway, an iPhone + keyboard combination is a lot more portable than even the smallest, lightest MacBook, let alone bigger laptops.

The disadvantage is it requires forethought and setup. Though this combination is smaller and lighter than a MacBook, the keyboard isn’t really small enough to carry around in a pocket just in case, unless you have huge pockets. You also need to sit down at a table of some sort to write.

Another issue is that you still need to use the iPhone’s touchscreen occasionally, which is a little awkward. The iPhone doesn’t support a Bluetooth mouse or trackpad, so they’re not an option.

Overall though, this is a workable combination for first draft writing and worth considering when travelling light.

Writing on iPhone using Siri

The big advantage of using Apple’s Siri voice dictation is it’s something you can do hands free. For example, you can dictate part of your novel while walking somewhere.

Tip You activate voice dictation from the iPhone’s on-screen keyboard by pressing the key with a microphone symbol on it – which is just to the left of the space bar.

You need to remember to say all your punctuation and formatting. This is initially annoying, but it gets easier with practice. Some voice commands to remember are:

• Punctuation: full stop, comma, exclamation mark etc. are all recognised.
• ‘New Paragraph’ and ‘New Line’ are both recognised.
• ‘Single quote’ and ‘Double quote’ – for dialogue.

Apple’s Siri voice recognition works, but it has drawbacks. For me at least, the accuracy is not 100% and I end up having to check anything I dictate. In particular, Siri doesn’t recognise the names of characters. Accuracy is better with a microphone and if I speak a little more precisely than normal.

I’ve also found that the voice dictation has a tendency to cut out, which can be annoying.

Obviously, talking to your phone is not always practical, particularly if you are self-conscious.

Siri voice dictation is probably best used when you are writing dialogue and know exactly what you want to say. If you’re ‘on a roll’ and can almost act out the scene, Siri really comes into its own.

Writing on iPhone using the on-screen keyboard

The primary advantage of the on-screen keyboard is that it’s the ultimate ‘write anywhere’ solution.

It’s not really possible to use either an external keyboard or Siri dictation when you are standing in a crowded train, for example, but you can always use the on-screen keyboard.

The drawback is the small size of the on-screen keyboard, which makes text entry relatively slow. And there’s the dreaded auto-correct, which can get pretty annoying and is better turned off for creative writing.

I found the on-screen keyboard most useful for basic editing. After dictating a passage using Siri, checking it over, adding missed punctuation and fixing spelling mistakes is where the on-screen keyboard is the best solution.

Writing on iPhone: Software

To use the iPhone for writing you need a word processing app. I use Microsoft Word for iOS and iA Writer.

Microsoft Word

One important thing when writing on iPhone is storage and sharing work with your other devices. Word for iOS can save work to Microsoft’s OneDrive or to Dropbox.

I found Microsoft Word worked well on the iPhone, particularly in ‘re-flow’ mode where it ignores print formatting and displays better for the screen. The ‘pinch to zoom’ functionality made it easy to get the text to the right size, which is particularly useful when using the iPhone + external keyboard combination.

If you use Microsoft Word elsewhere, then using on the iPhone too is the simplest option. I recommend it particularly for use with the iPhone + external keyboard combination.

Microsoft Word for iOS is available here.  You’ll need a subscription to Office365 for full functionality.

I use iA Writer on my MacBook for first draft writing. Because iA Writer assumes you are holding the phone, it has a fixed font size that’s too small to work with the external keyboard setup. Ia Writer is good with Siri and the on-screen keyboard though. It has the advantage of simplicity with no options to fiddle with.

iA Writer uses Apple’s iDisk for storage. It’s available here.

Other Useful iPhone Writing Apps

Other creative writing apps I use on my iPhone for writing are:

• Dropbox, for saving and synchronising documents,  here
• Dictionary, which includes a thesaurus,  here
• Wikipedia, useful for checking facts,  here
• Apple’s Books, for reading (you should have this if you are on the latest version of iOS)
• Kindle, for reading books,  here
• To help me focus (see my article on the Pomodoro Technique ) I’ve found the  Pomodoro Keeper  app is good.

Overall, I think the iPhone has a place in the writer’s life. To sum up my advice:

• The iPhone + stand + external keyboard + Microsoft Word combination is ideal for first draft writing on trains, planes and in cafes.
• iPhone voice dictation is good for writing dialogue-heavy scenes hands free.
• The on-screen keyboard is usable for editing when the other options aren’t possible.

Agree? Disagree?

If you’d like to discuss any issues related to writing on iPhone, please  email me.  Otherwise, feel free to share the article using the buttons below.

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How-To Geek

How to take handwritten notes on your ipad using the apple pencil.

Purchased an Apple Pencil with your new iPad? Forget your notebooks and take digital handwritten notes right on your iPad. Here's how.

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Apple pencil compatibility, how to take handwritten notes on ipad using notes app, alternative note app options.

The Apple Pencil is a versatile tool for your iPad. Not only can you use it for (virtual) drawing, painting, or coloring, you can also take notes and doodle. Here's how to take handwritten notes on your iPad.

Apple Pencil is available in two different models. The first-generation Apple Pencil comes in a round shape and was first introduced with the original iPad Pro. It also includes a Lightning connector under a cap for charging.

Here's a list of all iPads that support the first-generation Apple Pencil at the time of writing:

• iPad Air (3rd generation)
• iPad mini (5th generation)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (1st or 2nd generation)
• iPad Pro 10.5-inch
• iPad Pro 9.7-inch
• iPad (6th generation)
• iPad 10.2 inch (7th generation)

The second-generation Apple Pencil is quite a bit smaller, with a single flat edge. It now magnetically latches on to the edge of the iPad Pro and charges wirelessly.

The accessory is only supported on the following iPad Pro models with Face ID (again, at the time of writing):

• iPad Pro 11-inch (2018 and 2020 models)
• iPad Pro 12.9 inch (2018 and 2020 models)

It's quite easy to get started taking notes on your iPad as you don't even have to download an app. Simply use the built-in Notes app on your iPad.

Open the "Notes" app on your iPad and create a new note. From there, tap on the Expand button to make the note full-screen.

Now, you can tap the tip of your Apple Pencil on the screen to enter the handwritten notes mode. You'll see drawing tools appear at the bottom of the screen.

The canvas is now yours. You can doodle, write, or type anything in the note. When you're taking notes with the Apple Pencil, use your finger to swipe up and down.

From the drawing tools, the first is the Pen tool. Tap on it to see the option for the thickness of the nib and the transparency. You can do the same thing for the next two tools which are Marker and Pencil.

If you have the second-generation Apple Pencil , you can double-tap on the Action button to switch to the Eraser. You can also customize the Action button to switch to the last used tool instead.

Related: How to Change the Double-Tap Action on Apple Pencil for iPad Pro

The fourth tool is the Eraser. Tap on it to turn your Apple Pencil into an eraser. Move your Apple Pencil over anything that you want to erase.

The fifth tool is a Lasso-style selection tool. (Photoshop users might be familiar with it.) Once the tool is selected, you can circle over elements to select them. Once selected, you can use your finger to move them around. This can be a good way for you to move a doodle to a different place.

The last tool in the set is the Ruler. After you select it, you'll see a large ruler show up in the note area. You can use two fingers to move the Ruler and to change the angle.

Move your fingers around and you'll see that the ruler snaps to certain angles like 45 degrees, 90 degrees, and so on. Once you've used the ruler, tap on the icon again to get rid of it.

On the right edge, you'll see a color picker. You'll see five common colors that you can pick from, or you can tap on the color picker icon to choose from all available shades.

Now that you know all the tools, go ahead and start writing using your Apple Pencil.

Once you're finished writing, there's a nice hidden gem for you to discover. Apple Notes app has a handwriting recognition feature built-in. So, as long as your handwriting is legible, Apple should be able to recognize and index them.

This means that you can search for text inside your handwritten notes. To test it out, go to the "Search" field, and try to find something from your handwritten note.

Plus, you don't even need to unlock your iPad to start taking handwritten notes. Just tap on your iPad's lock screen with your Apple Pencil. This will create a new blank note that you can start writing in. Later, you can unlock your iPad to save the note.

You can customize the feature in the Settings app by going to Notes > Access Notes From Lock Screen section.

Write Neatly Using Lines and Grids

When you start using the Notes app to take handwritten notes, you'll realize that your handwritten notes are quite haphazard. There's one way to make things neat and tidy. When you first create a blank note, tap on the Share button. It will show a single "Lines & Grids" option. (You'll also find the option in the Share sheet. )

From the pop-up, select the kind of lines or grid layout that you want.

This will now become the background of your note, making it much easier to write in straight lines.

The Apple Notes app is a good place to get started with handwritten notes on the iPad, but if you want more features, you'll have to look at one of the many third-party apps on the App Store. Here are our recommendations.

GoodNotes 5 ($7.99)

GoodNotes 5 is the most versatile notetaking app when it comes to Apple Pencil. You can customize virtually every single part of the handwritten notetaking interface. You can switch between different pen styles and scrolling direction. You can add shapes, images, and text to the note. The app comes with a myriad of templates, and there's a feature that lets you zoom in to a particular part of the page.

Notability ($8.99)

Notability is a popular notetaking app among students. It lets you record audio, type out notes, and take handwritten notes, all in a single interface. Plus, it can sync audio along with your notes, which is handy during revision time. You can also import and annotate PDFs and work on two notes side-by-side.

If you have an iPad Pro and a newer Mac, you can connect your iPad to your Mac and turn it into a fully functional secondary display and drawing tablet (with Apple Pencil support) using the new Sidecar feature in macOS Catalina and iPadOS.

Related: How to Use Your iPad as an External Mac Display With Sidecar

• Apps & Updates

Ulysses writing app for Mac, iPad, and iPhone gets internal linking, history navigation, more

Popular markdown-based writing app Ulysses has received a valuable update today that brings internal links for headings, history navigation, dark mode for WordPress publishing preview, and more. Here’s what’s new with Ulysses version 35 for Mac, iPad, and iPhone.

Ulysses launched the new update today and detailed the new features on its website . The two new headlining features are internal links and history navigation plus three bug fixes and a dark mode upgrade.

Here’s how Ulysses describes the new capabilities:

Internal Links

• You can now link to any heading within a sheet.
• Same sheet, other sheets, doesn‘t matter.
• Just start typing into the regular URL field, and auto-complete will list matching headings.
• You can quickly jump to such links (try CMD-click).
• You can export those links (great for table of contents and personal knowledge bases).
• We even import internal links from Markdown, DOCX and HTML files.

History Navigation

• You can now jump back and forth between recently used sheets.
• Navigate to the last edit.
• Return to an internal link.
• Go back to the previous sheet after using Quick Open.
• We also added a “Go” menu for quickly jumping to the Library, your Inbox, and any of your projects.  macOS

Version 35 also squashes three bugs and offers dark mode for WordPress publishing preview:

• Fixed restoring iCloud projects from backups (the iCloud backup wakeup).
• Added Dark Mode to WordPress publishing preview (night owls rejoice; yayyyy…).
• Fixed a bug where text would temporarily disappear when using a third-party input method (conspiracy theories debunked).  macOS
• Fixed a crash when using {alignat} within an equation (aka “alignot”, haha).

Ulysses – an Apple Design Award winner – is a free download from the App Store with in-app purchases available for $5.99/month or $39.99/year to unlock all of the features.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

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Exclusive: iOS 18 to Add Text Effects to iMessage

Apple plans to add a new text effects feature to the Messages app on iOS 18, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

Our hope is that Apple will also add bold, italics, and underline formatting options alongside the text effects, but we have not confirmed that possibility.

In addition to the text effects and RCS support, the Messages app on iOS 18 will reportedly gain an AI-powered autocompletion tool .

As a refresher, RCS support will provide an improved messaging experience between iPhones and Android devices compared to the current SMS standard. Just like iMessage, RCS features higher-resolution photos and videos, audio messages, typing indicators, read receipts, the ability to send messages over a Wi-Fi network, and better functionality for group chats.

iOS 18 is set to be unveiled during the WWDC keynote on June 10 , and the first beta should be made available to members of the Apple Developer Program immediately after the presentation. The first public beta of iOS 18 will likely follow in July, and the update should be widely released to all users with a compatible iPhone in September.

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Top rated comments.

Idc about the animations or whatever but the fact that in the year of Our Lord 2024 I still can't do basic manipulations on the text in my messages such as bold , italic , and underline when such an ability has existed throughout nearly the entire history of GUI-based computing for many decades now, is ridiculous.

It’s a text message not a word document.

Anyway, as usual, I still don’t care about rcs and hope these features are iMessage only.

It’s a text message not a word document. Anyway, as usual, I still don’t care about rcs and hope these features are iMessage only.

Next Article

Our comprehensive guide highlighting every major new addition in iOS 17, plus how-tos that walk you through using the new features.

Apple News+ improvements, cross-platform tracker alerts, website app downloads for the EU, and more.

Get the most out your iPhone 15 with our complete guide to all the new features.

A deep dive into new features in macOS Sonoma, big and small.

Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference will kick off with a keynote on June 10.

Expected to see new AI-focused features and more. Preview coming at WWDC in June with public release in September.

AI-focused improvements, new features for Calculator and Notes, and more.

Action button expands to all models, new Capture button, camera improvements, and more.

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2 days ago by Tim Hardwick

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1 week ago by MacRumors Staff

More From Forbes

17 prompt-writing tips to make the most of genai.

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While generative artificial intelligence assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude AI are incredibly capable, getting them to provide a truly helpful response requires a carefully crafted, effective prompt. If you have a few prompt-writing tricks up your sleeve, it’s much more likely that these resources will generate something that suits your purposes.

It’s all about how you ask. By using clear and specific prompts, you can guide GenAI tools to give you the information you need in the style and format you want. Below, 17 members of Forbes Agency Council share their top prompt-writing tips for getting the best results from a GenAI assistant.

1. Treat It Like A Real Person

Having had endless conversations with ChatGPT, I’ve found that the best responses come from treating the GenAI tool like a real person. Your brain might resist because it’s not human, but if you can imagine that the GenAI is a colleague—such as a bright intern—you will provide the right information and clarity to get brilliant responses. And yes, I also make a point of saying “please” and “thank you!” - Abigail Stuart , Day One Strategy

2. See If It Has Any Questions For You

At the end of my prompt, I always like to tell ChatGPT, “Before you respond, please ask me any clarifying questions you have that would allow you to provide a better response.” - Sarah Lent , Doremus+Co

3. Give It A Persona

As they say, “Garbage in, garbage out!” It’s crucial to craft effective prompts for GenAI to get a quality result. Context is key, so provide rich background information. In your prompt, give the GenAI tool a persona—for example, ask it to “act like a digital marketing manager”—to get a more specific result. Build up a conversation, prompt on prompt, over time to continually enrich the quality of results. - Ranzie Anthony , Athlon

Forget iOS 18 Millions Of iPhone Users Now Have RCS Messaging

Microsoft issues new warning for 70% of all windows users, samsung issues critical update for millions of galaxy users, 4. let it walk before you ask it to run.

Effective prompts tend to come from a series of smaller prompts that are easier for the system to digest and reference. So, break things down into smaller elements, accept or correct them, and then ask your AI tool to bundle those results into a final response. - Austin Irabor , NETFLY

Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?

5. Be Specific And Clear

My top prompt-writing tip for working with an AI tool such as ChatGPT is to be specific and clear. Detail the response style, tone and key points. This specificity reduces misunderstandings and guides the AI to produce relevant and accurate responses, enhancing overall effectiveness. - Scott Keever , Keever SEO

6. Leverage It For Highly Manual Tasks

Don’t rely on AI for generating marketing and advertising copy. The large language models and machine learning models rely on mimicking publicly available content, which can lead to copyright infringements and ownership disputes over intellectual property. Instead, use AI for highly manual tasks, such as generating a list of zip codes within a region or providing GPS coordinates for specific locales to facilitate targeting. - Tyler Back , Mitosis

7. Tell It Who You Want It To Be

Tell your AI who you want it to be! Do you wish you had a Harvard Ph.D. student as a research assistant? Start your prompt with, “You are a Harvard Ph.D. student supporting me as my research assistant...” and then describe your task. Similarly, you can ask for feedback from a specific significant figure in your field, such as, “Give me editorial feedback from the perspective of Anna Wintour.” Enjoy. - David Cash , Cash Labs

8. Add As Much Detail And Context As Possible

Write your prompt down in advance and add as much detail as possible, including who the author is (or who it should sound like) and the intended reader. Having small kids, I tend to think more about giving them context in my answers to their questions, and it’s the same for AI. Create the prompt as if you’re talking to someone with little to no context and include all relevant information. - Christine Wetzler , Pietryla PR & Marketing

9. Use Scenario-Based Prompts

Scenario-based prompts work wonders to get the desired results. Give the tool a summary of who you are, what your objective is, what you want the tool to analyze in order to accomplish this and in what format the desired output should be. - Seth Hargrave , Media Two

10. Detail Requirements And Any Constraints

Be specific and clear about your needs. Detailing your requirements, context and any constraints helps ensure that AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude AI deliver the most relevant response. For instance, if seeking an analysis, specify the type—financial or technical, for example—and any focus areas or assumptions to include. This approach helps tailor the response to meet your expectations effectively. - Alex Yastrebenetsky , InfoTrust

11. Ask Open-Ended Questions About Specific Ideas

Ask open-ended questions that encourage depth and creativity in the response. Avoid overly broad or vague prompts, and instead, focus on prompting the AI with specific scenarios, challenges or ideas. This prompts the AI to provide more insightful and meaningful responses, leading to a more engaging and productive interaction. - Fadi Agour , RPM: REAL PERFORMANCE MARKETING

12. Provide As Much Context About The Audience As You Can

Provide as much context as possible about the audience you want to move with your message: their industry, role, pain points and what a win looks like for them. Given how fast GenAI performs, it’s tempting to plug in “what” you need—such as a 500-word blog post or a business development email. But if you want your message to resonate, it’s really the “who” that matters. - Howard Breindel , DeSantis Breindel

13. Ask One Question At A Time

Prompts that include multiple questions overload AI tools and reduce the quality of responses. If you have a complex question or task, break it down into smaller parts. Start with foundational information that establishes context, then gradually build up to more complex requests. This guides the AI through a logical progression, ensuring that each response builds on the last and doesn’t miss any key details. - Starr Million Baker , INK Communications Co.

14. Always Try To Avoid Ambiguity

To ensure GenAI tools such as ChatGPT provide the desired and most accurate responses, craft prompts that are clear, concise and specific. Clearly state your query, provide as much context as needed, and be precise about the type of response you seek. Always try to avoid ambiguity, and provide relevant details to guide the AI toward generating accurate and relevant content. - Elyse Flynn Meyer , Prism Global Marketing Solutions

15. Feed It Content From The Website You’re Writing For

The more information I provide, the better output I receive. AI can do amazing work, but it needs to know exactly what you’re looking for in order to work its magic. Using content from the website you’re writing emails or ad copy for will help guide the system to produce content using the correct vernacular. - William Polson , Australian Internet Advertising

16. Give It Examples Of A Style To Mimic Up Front

I love giving examples up front. So, if I want a social media post in my style, I’ll just drop in some of my past posts and say something like, “Here’s an example of what I mean: [social media post copy].” Then I’ll ask the AI to mimic the style of the example I provided. It works wonders! The AI can quickly pick up on the style, so you don’t have to painstakingly list out all of your needs. - Frederik Bussler , Bussler & Co

17. Provide Perspective On The Role It’s Playing

Start by telling the GenAI tool what role it is playing and add perspective on that role. You could say, for example, “You are an experienced human resources professional with an extensive background in employee recruitment. Today, you are focused on filling a critical role within the company and need a job posting that reflects the culture and prestige.” Include details on these points plus the job requirements and benefits. - Korena Keys , KeyMedia Solutions

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Rewrite sentences quickly, panikka studio.

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Use AI to improve your writing. Use AI to improve your writing. Whether you want to reply to an email, write an important text or simply spice up your paragraph, Paraphraser can help you! Privacy policy: https://panikka.studio/apps/privacy-policy Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula

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This app is excellent. I love the way it fixes what you want to write in a more professional way. Amazing to use it at work and when typing emails

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This absolutely ate it’s giving I love it get this app Fr especially if u want to improve your writing

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With AI writing so much code, should you still study computer science? This new data point provides an answer.

• UC Berkeley sees a 48% jump in first-year applications to study computer science.
• Despite generative AI advances, students are eager to pursue computer science careers.
• Human developers remain essential for creating something new.

One of the most persistent concerns around generative AI is whether the technology will put workers out of a job. This idea has particularly caught on in the context of software coding .

GitHub Copilot can write a lot of code these days, so is it even worth studying computer science now? That's been a question on the minds of math-minded high schoolers since ChatGPT burst on the scene in 2022.

There's a new data point that helps answer at least part of this question: Students are still lining up in droves to take computer science in college.

An eye-popping data point

Let's take The University of California Berkeley as an example, as this college at or near the top for computer science.

First-year applications to UC Berkeley's College of Computing, Data Science, and Society CDSS increased 48% this year. There were 14,302 (non-transfer) applications for these CDSS majors in the Fall 2024 incoming class, versus 9,649 the previous year.

For context, the number of first-year applications to UC Berkeley as a whole didn't change much from a year earlier.

Related stories

This was announced last week by Professor Jennifer Chayes, the dean of Berkeley's College of CDSS. She popped these eye-popping stats during a fireside chat with Governor Gavin Newsom and Stanford Professor Fei-Fei Li at the at the Joint California Summit on Generative AI in San Francisco.

There's a role for human software developers

Afterwards, I got in touch with John DeNero, Computer Science Teaching Professor at UC Berkeley, to talk about this some more.

He's also chief scientist at Lilt , a generative AI startup, and he was previously a researcher at Google working on Google Translate , one of the first successful AI-powered consumer apps.

"Students express some concern that generative AI will affect the software engineering job market, especially for entry-level positions, but they are still excited about careers in computing," he wrote in an email to Business Insider. "I tell them that I think many of the challenging aspects of software development can't be performed reliably by generative AI at this point, and that I expect there will still be a central role for human software developers long into the future."

AI can't do new things very well

Generative AI is currently very good at replicating parts of software programs that have been written many times before, DeNero explained.

That includes computer science homework assignments! See BI's coverage on how much ChatGPT is used to cheat on homework .

What if you want to create something new? This is where smart human coders will still be needed. (This makes logical sense as AI models are trained on data. If that information doesn't exist yet or it's not part of the training dataset, the models often get in trouble).

Generative AI "requires a lot of thoughtful human intervention to produce something new, and all consequential software development projects involve quite a bit of novelty," DeNero said. "That's the hard and interesting part of computing that currently requires clever and well-trained people."

"Generative AI can speed up the more mundane parts of software development, and software developers tend to adopt efficiency tools quickly," he added.

What happens at Lilt?

This applies to what's happening at Lilt, which is building an AI platform for translators.

Google Translate first came out 18 years ago. And still, human linguists have jobs and are relied upon when translations are really important. For instance, you can use Google Translate to read a Japanese train timetable maybe, but would you use the app to translate your business's most important contract without having a human expert check it? Probably not.

"To reliably produce publication-quality translations, human expert linguists are still at the center of the process, but by using Lilt's task-specific generative AI models, those experts are much faster, more accurate, and more consistent," DeNero said. "As a result, more text gets translated at higher quality into more languages."

He expects this same pattern to play out in software development: A small team of highly trained human developers will have an even greater capacity to build useful high-quality software.

"And so, future Berkeley graduates will have plenty of opportunities to use their computing skills to improve the world," DeNero said. "Hopefully some more of them will come work for Lilt."

Watch: AI expert discusses generative AI: What it means and how it will impact our future

• Main content

Copy and translate text from photos on your iPhone or iPad

You can use Live Text to copy text in photos or videos, translate languages, make a call, and more.

Use Live Text to get information from photos, videos, and images

Live Text recognizes information within your photos, videos, and images you find online. That means you can make a call, send an email, or look up directions with a tap. Your iPhone or iPad can also speak aloud Live Text with Speak Selection .

To turn on Live Text for all supported languages:

Open the Settings app.

Tap General.

Tap Language & Region, then turn on Live Text.

To use Live Text, you need an iPhone XS, iPhone XR, or later with iOS 15 or later.

Live Text is also available on iPad Pro (M4) models and iPad Air (M2) models, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) or later, iPad Pro 11-inch (all models), iPad Air (3rd generation) or later, iPad (8th generation) or later, and iPad mini (5th generation) or later with iPadOS 15.1 or later.

To use Live Text for video, you need iOS 16 or later or iPadOS 16 or later.

Copy text in a photo, video, or image

Open the Photos app and select a photo or video, or select an image online.

Touch and hold a word and move the grab points to adjust the selection. If the text is in a video, pause the video first.

Tap Copy. To select all of the text in the photo, tap Select All.

In iOS 16 and later, you can also isolate the subject of a photo and copy or share it through apps like Messages or Mail.

Make a call or send an email

Open a photo or video, or select an image online. If the text is in a video, pause the video first.

Tap the phone number or email address that appears to call or send an email. Depending on the photo, image, or website, you might see the option to Make a FaceTime call or Add to Contacts.

Translate text within a photo, video, or image

Tap Translate. You might need to tap Continue, then choose a language to translate in, or tap Change Language.

You can also translate text from images in the Translate app .

Learn which regions and languages currently support Live Text .

Search with text from your images

Open a photo or video, or select an image online.

Tap Look Up.

If you tap Look Up and select just one word, a dictionary appears. If you select more than one word, Siri Suggested Websites and other resources for the topic appear.

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