The Three Times WriteAmp Uses the Network
"Nothing leaves your Mac." I put those words on the homepage, and I stand by them, but a sentence that short is doing a lot of work. The honest version needs three footnotes, because WriteAmp does use the network. Three times, for three specific jobs, and never for your writing.
I would rather you know exactly what those three jobs are than discover them later and wonder what else I did not mention. Precision is the whole strategy here. So here is the complete list, and what each item actually involves.
Number one: a model file comes down
The first time you pick an engine, WriteAmp downloads a small model so it can make suggestions without a server. That is a file arriving on your machine, not your words leaving it. The local tiers are roughly 0.1 to 0.4 GB depending on which you choose, and once the file is here, the download is done. The first time you type in a language other than English, the multilingual model downloads once too. From then on, every suggestion is made locally, in the moment, by code that runs on your Mac. I wrote about how to pick between the tiers if you want the details.
Number two: an update check
Like most Mac software, WriteAmp checks a feed to see whether a newer version exists, so you get fixes without hunting for them. That check sends a request and gets back a list of versions. It does not send your text. You can turn automatic checks off in Settings and update by hand whenever you feel like it.
Number three: a license check
This is the one that deserves the most honesty, because it is the least convenient.
WriteAmp's license is verified against Lemon Squeezy, the store that sells it. That means activating a key requires the network. There is no offline key file and no code that unlocks the app forever without ever talking to a server. I wish the trade did not exist, but it is the price of a payment processor I do not have to build myself, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.
Here is what the check actually does after activation. At launch, and then quietly every six hours, the app asks the store one question: is this key still valid? If the network is unreachable, WriteAmp keeps whatever state it already had. A bad Wi-Fi day does not pause your suggestions. The only thing that changes anything is a clear answer that the key no longer exists, which is how a refund or a chargeback takes effect. If the last successful check is old, the license card in Settings tells you so, honestly, instead of pretending everything is fine.
If your definition of on-device is zero network connections ever, WriteAmp is not that product, and no Mac app that downloads its own brain can be. The model file has to come from somewhere. What you get instead is a network that does three specific jobs and never carries a single word you typed.
What never goes up
The other side of the ledger is longer, and it is the part I care about.
You do not have to take my word for any of this. Settings shows the exact phrases your history has stored and the apps it learned from, and there is a one-tap wipe. I wrote about why that transparency is the point, because a privacy claim you can inspect is worth more than one you have to trust.
The test that settles it
The most convincing check does not require reading a ledger at all. Download a model, activate your key, then switch your Mac to airplane mode and keep typing. The suggestions keep coming, because nothing about them needs the network. Then open an email draft about something you would not want read and watch it never leave the machine. The privacy page has the full written version of everything above, and the architecture behind it is the same reason WriteAmp can be bought once instead of rented: there is no server in the loop to pay for.
Three network calls, none of them carrying your words. That is the precise meaning of the four-word promise.
Sources
- Apple Foundation Models framework documentation: the on-device Apple Intelligence path that also runs without uploading text
- Apple Intelligence foundation models research page: how Apple describes on-device inference
On macOS 26+ Macs, Apple Intelligence mode stays free even after the trial ends — you always keep a working path to suggestions.
Written by Amit Ashwini, who builds WriteAmp and runs its marketing. More: why the Tab key beats the chat box · mini, midi, and max compared · benchmark methodology.