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by nomilk 540 days ago
Is Grammarly anything more than glorified autocorrect?

Curious if anyone here uses it, and if so, what value it provides (I've been bombarded with its ads for years, but could never see what value it provides). Even a quick search of its website gives inanely basic examples (like correcting Ive to I've) [1].

[1] https://support.grammarly.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047727871...
4 comments
aaronharnly 540 days ago
I myself do not, but some people I know who are intelligent and articulate and also dyslexic struggle to get their thoughts expressed in writing adequately for professional life, especially in the “everyone live co-editing” environment these days. Many of them report Grammarly being a valuable tool for them to feel like they’re on a more even playing field.

So yes, fancy autocorrect, but apparently better enough to matter for them.

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soneca 540 days ago
Having English as a second language, it was essential for me for a long time. I never understood why they never marketed to that public.

I don’t pay for it anymore because I am more comfortable in my current company where I am sure my colleagues won’t be bothered by frequent mistakes and misspellings. Also, for the eventual more important text that I want to be grammatically perfect, there is free ChatGPT now.

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stevenpetryk 540 days ago
It’s a glorified autocorrect. It is not useful for people who are already decent at writing.
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skeeter2020 540 days ago
My CTO uses it, which is frankly, terrifying. We'll be in a shared screen session editing slides for a board meeting or very sensitive docs, and their little UI prompts are shining away.

...and it's not like it improves his grammar or spelling - they're still terrible!

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antihipocrat 540 days ago
Is the CTO aware that the information being checked could be leaked to a competitor?
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azinman2 540 days ago
Do you think Grammarly is offering up individual’s logs to the highest bidder?
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antihipocrat 540 days ago
A leak has already happened:

https://www.engadget.com/2018-02-06-grammarly-patches-seriou...

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azinman2 540 days ago
You mean there was a vulnerability, that they claim was patched within hours of release and never exploited, and only affected the Grammarly Editor interface?

At that point you might as well include every OS because everything contains saved data and vulnerabilities. That’s extremely different than grammarly collecting and selling off private data that they promise is private.

If your competitors are trying to actively hack you and steal your data…

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