Apple's Writing Tools can proofread a message, rewrite it in a friendlier or more professional tone, or summarize a long one. If you have looked for it on your phone and found nothing, the reason is usually the phone, not a setting.
Which iPhones have Writing Tools
Writing Tools is part of Apple Intelligence. Apple's own guide, Use Writing Tools to write, improve, and summarize content on iPhone, says Apple Intelligence is available on an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or iPhone 16 model or later. Apple adds a language condition: the device and Siri language have to be set to a supported language, and Apple Intelligence is not available in all languages or regions.
That leaves out a lot of phones still in daily use: every iPhone 14 and earlier, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, and the iPhone SE models. There is no setting that adds Writing Tools to them.
What you can use instead: an AI keyboard
A third-party keyboard can bring similar help to an older phone, because the AI work happens on a server rather than on the phone's chip. You type in your usual apps, and the tools sit in the row above the keys.
Protexter is one of these keyboards. It needs iOS 16.4 or later, so it runs on iPhones that Writing Tools leaves out, such as an iPhone 12, 13 or 14. It covers the jobs people most often want Writing Tools for:
- Fix, the closest thing to Proofread. One tap corrects spelling, grammar and punctuation and keeps your wording, tone and language.
- Rewrite, for tone. A typed draft comes back as warmer, shorter, firmer or more professional versions to pick from.
- Shorter and Expand, to trim a draft by about a third or add a sentence of useful detail.
- Ask AI, to start from nothing. Say what you need, like telling a client you are running late, and get a draft without leaving the chat.
- Translate, which switches a message between English and Brazilian Portuguese in one tap. For other languages, you ask AI from the keyboard.
There is one real difference. A keyboard only sees the text field you are typing in, so it works on the message you are writing. Writing Tools is also built to summarize whole documents and pull out key points.
What Fix does to a rushed message
hey sorry for the late reply i was thinking about what you said and i think your right we should push the launch to next week
Hey, sorry for the late reply. I was thinking about what you said, and I think you're right. We should push the launch to next week.
Fix corrects capitals, punctuation and "your right". The words and the tone are still yours.
When you want the tone changed as well, that is Rewrite, and you choose which version to keep.
Three things to know before you switch
The AI needs Full Access. iOS keeps third-party keyboards off the network until you turn on Allow Full Access for them. Protexter's cloud AI asks for it, and third-party AI processing is a separate switch in the app, off by default. What Allow Full Access means for an iPhone keyboard explains what the switch does and does not allow.
It steps aside in password fields. iOS uses its own keyboard in secure fields and phone number pads, and some apps refuse custom keyboards altogether. That is iOS protecting you, not a fault.
It is a subscription app. The box at the end of this page has the trial terms.
Setting it up
Install the app from the App Store and open it once, so the keyboard can connect. Then add the keyboard in Settings. The full walk through, including the Allow Full Access step most people miss, is in How to add a keyboard on iPhone. In short:
- Open Settings, tap General, then Keyboard, then Keyboards.
- Tap Add New Keyboard and choose the keyboard you installed.
- Tap its name and turn on Allow Full Access if you want the AI features.
- In a chat, touch and hold the globe key and pick the new keyboard.
Is an AI keyboard right for your phone?
- Your iPhone is not an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or an iPhone 16 model or later, so Writing Tools is not on it.
- It runs iOS 16.4 or later. Check in Settings, General, About.
- You mostly want to fix, reword or draft messages rather than summarize documents.
- You are comfortable allowing Full Access and cloud AI for a keyboard, after reading what it sends.
- You write mostly in English, or move between English and Brazilian Portuguese, which is what the Translate button covers.
If most of these are true, a keyboard gets you most of what Writing Tools would on a newer phone, in the apps where you already write.
If you do have a newer iPhone
Writing Tools and an AI keyboard are not either-or. If your phone supports Apple Intelligence, you can keep Apple's keyboard in your list and switch to it with the globe key whenever you want Writing Tools. The full comparison is in Apple Writing Tools vs an AI keyboard.