How to choose a writing tone for each message on Windows

Set the tone once or choose it for each message

Open Settings and select Tones. Built-in choices include Professional, Casual, and Concise, and you can save custom tones with your own instructions. Select a tone you use often if most of your messages need the same voice. A saved choice helps you repeat an editing preference; it cannot guarantee the accuracy of the resulting text.

Ask for tone is a switch on that Tones page. When it is on, choosing Retone or Reply opens another wheel step for choosing a saved tone. When it is off, those actions use the tone selected in Settings. The switch does not open a box for typing a new instruction into the wheel. Create or edit a custom tone in Settings when you need a different saved instruction.

Use the switch when you alternate between contexts, such as customer emails and teammate chats. Leave it off when you prefer one usual style. Either choice still requires you to check the result; a tone name describes an editing aim, not a promise about the output.

Match the voice to the request you already wrote

For your own editable draft, choose Retone. Start with the action you are requesting and the relationship with the reader. Professional can suit a courteous work request. Casual can suit a familiar conversation. Concise aims to shorten the wording while retaining the facts. Avoid choosing a stronger voice merely to make an uncertain statement sound more definite.

The following examples show possible edits of the same outgoing message. They illustrate what to compare after a tone change; they are not recorded results from a product test.

Apply the tone to the right selection

Highlight the part of your draft you want to edit. Hold the default Windows shortcut, Win+Ctrl+R, to open the wheel and choose Retone. If Ask for tone is enabled, choose the saved tone at the tone step. Use your configured shortcut if you changed it in Settings. If the wheel remains open without a choice, select deliberately or cancel.

Retone normally replaces the selection in an editable field and restores the earlier clipboard. If the target cannot be edited reliably, the result may be copied instead. When the app reports a copied result, paste it into an editable draft and inspect it there. Check the text around the selection as well as the edited passage.

Review a reply before adopting its voice

For an incoming message, Reply generates a separate proposed response. It copies that response to the clipboard and leaves the original selection unchanged. Paste the response into your own reply draft before sending it. Ask for tone controls the saved-tone choice for Reply too.

A friendly or professional voice cannot decide whether you can accept a deadline. Read the proposed response for commitments, requests, and assumptions about your availability. If it accepts work you have not agreed to do, edit that claim yourself. Once you have your own response draft, Retone can help change its wording while you compare both versions.

Keep uncertainty and conditions visible. Changing a tentative delivery estimate into a firm promise is a meaning change even if the result sounds more confident. Choose the voice that fits the message you can stand behind, then review every name, date, quantity, and commitment before sending.

Take it into your next draft

Use Settings → Tones to save your usual voice or enable Ask for tone to choose a saved tone for each Retone or Reply action. Match the style to the reader, then verify that the result preserves the request, uncertainty, and commitments you intended.