Last Updated on September 8, 2015 by Mathew Diekhake
Writing Aid is a new app for iOS that offers different English help to other apps we have covered in the past. With Writing Aid you use the search bar at the top of the app, and that’s where put in the words trying to describe what it is you want to know. The idea behind it is to help with writer’s block, or not being able to think of certain words while writing. For example, if I type in “phone that Apple made” it would give a list of possible words that fit the descriptions. In this case it would hopefully say the answer is the iPhone.
Writing Aid won’t help you with general grammar, but it will offer synonyms and definitions to help you make sure you have used the right word. For example, you might have been given a word back from the app that it wants you to use in place of what you asked for, but you aren’t confident that is the right word because you aren’t familiar with it. Now you can also look at the definition of that word given to check and make sure it fits.
Writing Aid is yet another example of a great application that is used to enhance your English skills when writing content. Because the app is available on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, it means it doesn’t just restrict the help of a computer or desktop you might be writing on. You can open the app on mobile devices too, so if you are writing on paper you can use the app for help. Many text editing apps don’t come with this much flexibility and often skip being available to download on the iPhone all together, so that’s a big bonus in this case.
The standard price for an English application is expensive, and that is a downside normally when looking for help. It’s often knowing what people will pay for something that drives the price up, and when it comes to English, many people are desperate for the help. Writing Aid will only cost you $0.99 which is the cheapest one we have reviewed all year so far and by some margin.
This app launched on the 23rd of February so it’s only a week old. That means it will have some bugs that you could come across if you use it long enough. As with all of them, there will be future updates assuming it doesn’t disappear from the App Store completely. These updates will gradually cut the amount of bugs and give performance enhancements.
To use it you will need an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch that is running IOS 7 or later. Apple makes all apps become iOS 7 compliant which means they need to update. If an app is totally new like we have here, then often they don’t create it for the older firmware versions like iOS 6 and iOS 5 that many people still use. That’s also another thing you should consider if you are still refusing to upgrade your Apple devices at this time.
If you’re looking for more help with your English we have reviewed several other applications that are fantastic also available in iOS. Our most recent write-up was on Phraseology that helps with writing tools and a text editor available on the iPad. There’s also WordBook that helps as a thesaurus and WriteRight which is similar to what we have here, but also offers help with antonyms.
Download Writing Aid for $0.99 from the app store.