Writers rejoice: Scrivener for iPad and iPhone is finally here

For authors and would-be authors, the long wait is over. The beloved writing app Scrivener has finally released an iOS version — and fans in the writing community are stoked. 

When Scrivener made its debut on the Mac in 2007, it was widely celebrated as one of the best tools for fiction and nonfiction writers who needed an all-in-one app. It organized chapters, research material and word processing, all under one roof. 

The passionate support around the app has only grown over the years. Scrivener's popularity increased in lockstep with the rise of the self-publishing community that has flourished on Amazon. But some of that interest has waned in recent years — as calls for an iOS version of the app went unanswered, and competitors popped up to meet the mobile needs of the self-publishing community. 

Ulysses

, which was released in 2013 and recently won an Apple Design Award, has emerged as a strong desktop alternative to Scrivener. Ulysses released its iPad version last year, beating Scrivener to the punch — and stealing many Scrivener fans who gave up waiting for an iOS version. 

The remaining Scrivener holdouts — which, based on early reactions on social media, is still a fairly large group — have been rewarded for their patience. The iOS app is snappy, highly responsive, and a near-perfect mirror of the desktop version. 

Priced lower than Ulysses' iOS app, which costs $24.99, the $19.99 Scrivener for iOS is designed for both the iPad and the iPhone. It lets you pinch to zoom and shrink documents; it can import research documents and media files; and it has many of the organizational and document output options  (Word, Final Draft, Plain Text and PDF) the desktop version offers. 

The only major failing is the app's lack of iCloud functionality. To sync documents between devices, Scrivener for iOS requires Dropbox. In this regard, Ulysses for iOS wins again, as it allows users to sync documents using iCloud. 

Regarding the multi-year wait for the app, Literature and Latte, the company behind Scrivener, is taking a humorous approach to past complaints about the app's delay.  

"A big thank you to all the Scrivener users who cheered us on and sent us words of encouragement during the tortured development cycle of our iOS version," the company says in the iOS app's developer notes. Thanks to miscellaneous coders, "we got through them like Spinal Tap gets through drummers."

In short, diehard Scrivener fans will be largely satisfied with this long-awaited mobile option for the beloved app. So far, it seems Scrivener for iOS is worth the wait.