What the Tech? App of the Day: Grammarly
By JAMIE TUCKER Consumer Technology Reporter
Do you spend more time correcting auto-correct than it does correcting you? It seems that after all this time with auto-correct and predictive text that it would be more accurate but still, who hasn’t accidentally sent a text message with an embarrassing mistake?
Grammarly is a web browser extension that corrects misspellings, subject-verb agreement, and other grammar mistakes. Even if you use Grammarly for Google Docs, PDFs, and web services you may not know that Grammarly has smartphone apps that do the same thing.
To use the Grammarly app you must add it to your smartphone’s keyboards.
On iPhone, tap settings>general> keyboard> keyboards> and add Grammarly. Be sure to give it full access.
On Android devices, tap settings>system> Languages & Input> on-screen keyboard and choose Grammarly.
Then you’re set to use the app as your primary keyboard.
Grammarly not only corrects spelling but will offers suggestions to make your text message or other post better. It offers suggestions of synonyms for example. Type the word “awesome” and Grammarly suggests “fascinating”, “incredible”, “Amazing”, “Tremendous”, and “remarkable”.
It knows the difference between “there”, “they’re” and “their”. It’s like having an English teacher correcting your grammar and spelling before you hit send.
Is it perfect right out of the gate? No, but it uses A.I. to build a library of words and names you use often. I think it must also learn which keys my fingers accidentally tap because it does get better over time.
Grammarly is a free app which is fine for most people. There’s also a paid version that offers many more features such as re-writing sentences to sound more professional.
