Grammarly Mobile: Real-time Suggestions Teardown

AI · 4 min read

Grammarly's mobile keyboard integrates suggestions inline while a user types, balancing helpfulness against interruption. The inline chips and underlines follow familiar proofreading conventions, and the one-tap correction affordances are snappy. The app reduces cognitive load by showing only the highest-confidence suggestions in the keyboard, while detailed rationale and tone adjustments live in the app sandbox.

Contextual awareness distinguishes Grammarly: it adapts corrections based on selected tone, audience, and formality, which are surfaced as toggles in the app. However, surface-level tone choices require user setup, and the keyboard cannot infer intent reliably without explicit signals. That leads to occasional mismatches where the UI proposes overly formal rewrites in casual chats.

Privacy and permission models are a persistent design constraint. Grammarly requires broad keyboard permissions to function, and it communicates this through a mix of onboarding screens and periodic reminders. The company uses local processing for many suggestions, but the UX still needs clearer, persistent explanations about what data leaves the device and how sensitive content is handled.