Google Docs will now flag your text for repetitive and inappropriate words

Get ready for ragged purple underlines that’ll annoy you until you make that correction

Most writers will default to popular word processors like MS Word and Google Docs for all their writing needs. But when it’s time to sharpen their finished copy and maybe catch a few loose commas here and there, they’ll prefer to rely on external tools like Grammarly and ProWritingAid. That’s because Word processors have focused on being just that for a long time. To make Docs more robust, Google has introduced features like Smart Compose, spelling autocorrects, and grammar corrections. Now, the software is getting “stylistic and writing” suggestions to help you create impactful documents faster.

A Workspace blog update details everything you can expect from the feature. When activated, you’ll see jagged purple lines flagging words or phrases as you type in Google Docs. These underlines will appear when the algorithm wants to suggest alternate wordings to avoid unnecessary repetition, opportunities for active voice, more concise texts, more inclusive language, or flag potentially inappropriate words. Google’s hoping that this will help users diversify their writing and ensure they’re using the most effective word for any given situation.

Google Docs has had different colored squiggly lines flagging incorrect text for a long time. The red ones appear for misspellings, while blue comes up for grammar errors. Purple is a great new addition that should reduce the need for writers’ to invest in third-party tools. The behavior of these underlines is still the same, though. Click on it with your cursor, and a dialogue box will appear with the suggested change and the ability to ignore it, send feedback, or open settings.

The new stylistic suggestions feature is already rolling out, but you may not get it until the end of April. It’ll be on by default for users when it arrives — you can disable it for whatever reason by navigating to Tools > Stylistic suggestions and ticking the options you don’t want. Some or all of the features may not be available to you depending on your Workspace plan — see the announcement update for details.