Margin

Margin · for iPhone & iPad

A little space to think.

Margin is a quiet writing app. Write a thought and pause: in the margin beside your words, a small question about what you wrote may appear. It never writes for you, and nothing joins your note unless you choose it.

See how the margin asks Read the Tips

App Store release in preparation Coming to iPhone & iPad · no public download yet

Reading week

What I want from the week

Three quiet mornings and one long walk. The reading matters more than the notes.

  • finish the Latour chapter
  • re-read my own margin notes

Order of work

  1. clear the desk
  2. read before email
  3. write one paragraph

If “write one paragraph” were the beginning of a story, what might happen next?

a possibility, not a claim

write one paragraph

An illustration of the editor with fictional writing — not a captured screenshot. This imaginative Wonder question is marked as a possibility, and Plant adds it to the note only if you choose.

How it works

Write first. The margin waits.

Margin is built around your own words, not around prompts. Suggestions are small, late, and always yours to ignore.

  1. Write

    Start with a title, or don't. Headings, lists and emphasis are one tap away in the bar above the keyboard, and the page stays clear when you don't need them.

  2. Pause

    After about two seconds of stillness, Margin looks at the paragraph you are writing and may offer a question or two, each connected to words on your page. A quiet margin is normal when there is no useful question — suggestions are never guaranteed.

  3. You decide

    Plant adds a question to your note. Dismiss removes it. Quiet pauses the margin altogether, and Reflect is a deliberate look back over the whole note, when you ask for it.

Room to wander

Three ways to be asked.

Focus, Explore and Wonder change the kind of question the margin asks. It is not an accuracy setting. Each question stays connected to your writing, with the relevant words shown on its card.

From a fictional note

Reading week

Three and . The reading matters more than the notes.

Order of work: clear the desk, , then .

Choose an underlined phrase to see what each mode might ask about it.

Focus

Careful questions about exactly what you wrote.

The default, and the most conservative. Focus stays close to the page: what a phrase means here, what would clarify it, what would challenge it, which part needs another look. Good for essays, arguments and anything you need to get right.

What does “quiet mornings” mean here?

quiet mornings

Other forms Focus can use

  • What would clarify …?
  • What question remains about …?
  • What example would help you examine …?
  • What would challenge …?
  • Which part of … needs another look?

Explore

Fresh angles on your words — comparisons and other points of view.

Explore offers a different vantage point: what an idea is like, where else it shows up, who would read it differently, what its opposite would be. Good for planning, journalling and thinking a problem round.

What is “quiet mornings” like, if it is like anything?

quiet mornings

Other forms Explore can use

  • What would … look like from another angle?
  • Where else does … show up?
  • What would the opposite of … be?
  • Who would read … differently?
  • What is … a smaller version of?
  • What other idea does … bring to mind?

Wonder

Playful what-ifs. Clearly imagined, never claims about you.

Wonder is for play: a phrase as a place, as the start of a story, a year from now, belonging to someone else. Imaginative what-if questions are marked as a possibility, not a claim — never a statement about you or your life, and never a factual answer.

If “quiet mornings” were a place, what kind of place?

a possibility, not a claim

quiet mornings

Other forms Wonder can use

  • What if … were not true?
  • Suppose … changed completely — what then?
  • Imagine … a year from now. What is different?
  • What if … belonged to someone else?
  • What would have to be true for … to be easy?
  • If … were the beginning of a story, what might happen next?

These examples are composed on this page from the app's real question forms and a fictional note. Nothing is generated live, nothing you choose here is stored, and in the app the margin may also stay quiet. In the app, you choose a mode from the margin or in Settings › Room to wander.

In the app

Paper-quiet, on purpose.

Warm cream instead of white, Lora for your words, and a single small orb in the corner that holds the margin until you want it.

  • App preview: a note titled Reading week with a bold heading, a paragraph mixing bold and italic, a bulleted list and a numbered list. In the top corner, a small orb shows the Focus pencil with a badge reading 2.
    Your writing, formattedHeadings, emphasis, and bulleted or numbered lists — the orb in the corner shows the mode and how many questions are waiting.
  • App preview: the margin panel open over the note, listing Focus, Explore and Wonder with their drawings, Wonder selected, then 3 questions, Reflect and Quiet.
    The margin, in one placeTap the orb to switch between Focus, Explore and Wonder, open the questions, ask for a Reflection, or go Quiet.
  • App preview: the Margin sheet with three question cards, each quoting words from the note, with Plant and Dismiss actions and Quiet and Done buttons above.
    Questions you can read properlyEach card shows the words it is about. Plant one into your note, dismiss it, or close the sheet and keep writing.

App previews from a development build with fictional writing. Design may evolve before release.

Made for writing

The rest is quietly useful.

Formatting that stays out of the way
Headings, bold, italic, underline and lists live in a bar above the keyboard. Type -, * or 1. and a space at the start of a line to begin a list; Return on an empty item leaves it, and Return after a heading continues in body text.
Word export
Export Word document writes a real .docx with your headings, emphasis and lists. Share as text shares the words alone, to any app the share sheet offers.
Your notes, on your devices
Notes are stored on your device and can sync through your Apple account's private iCloud when it is available. Formatting is stored per device today: the words travel, the styling does not yet.
Intelligence on your device
Suggestions are made on your device — with Apple Intelligence when it is available, and with built-in rules when it isn't. Your writing is not sent to a developer-operated server or a third-party AI provider. Apple's own services, such as iCloud and Siri, work under Apple's terms.
Siri and Shortcuts
New thought in Margin, Add to Margin, Search Margin notes, Ask Margin about my notes — which returns exact excerpts with their titles — and Reflect on my last note. Availability depends on your device, language, region and Siri settings.
Honest about its limits
Questions are invitations to think, not factual answers. Margin does not look up facts, verify your claims or continue your paragraphs — and some pauses produce nothing at all. You remain the author.

Coming to iPhone & iPad.

Margin's App Store release is being prepared for iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. There is no public download yet; when there is, it will be linked from this page. In the meantime, the Tips explain how the margin behaves, and the privacy policy explains where your writing lives.

Read the Tips Privacy policy