Zeeguu: News for learners
Daily reading at your level
Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
Learn languages by reading news you care about. Zeeguu finds daily articles at your level, with instant translations and personalized vocabulary exercises.
Learn languages by reading what you love.
Zeeguu helps you learn a new language by reading real news articles at your level. When you encounter an unfamiliar word, just tap it for an instant translation - and Zeeguu will remember it for you.
more Hear the variety of the language you are actually learning.
Audio lessons:
- Language Settings now asks which variety of your language should be read to you. A Brazilian Portuguese learner has until now been hearing European Portuguese; you can say which one you want, and your daily lesson is voiced that way.
- The question is only asked for languages whose varieties have a voice, so most learners see nothing new.
- If you have never chosen, the variety you are already hearing is shown as selected - the screen tells you what you get instead of leaving it blank.
Signing up:
- The two regional questions - which country's news you read, and which variety is spoken to you - are now asked together, on a step of their own. They used to be split across two screens, where one was easily mistaken for the other.
- That step is skipped entirely when the language you are learning has no varieties to ask about.
- A variety picked while signing up is now actually saved. Before, you could choose Belgium, finish signing up, and find something else selected in Settings.
Also:
- Every label on the language form is now the learner speaking: "I want news from", "I want audio lessons spoken in".
- The language forms now put visible space between groups of questions, instead of reading as one long list.
1.3.4 Sep 12
Pick your variety of a language, and know when a text was written by a machine.
Language varieties:
- If you are learning Dutch or Portuguese, you can now say which variety you want - Belgian or Netherlands Dutch, Brazilian or European Portuguese. Pick it while signing up, or later in Language Settings. "Any" stays the default, and is what everyone has today.
- The choice is a row of pills with a flag on each, right above your level, so you can see every option without opening anything.
- A variety is a filter, so it can leave you with an empty feed on a quiet day. When that happens the feed now says which country it is filtering for, instead of showing a blank page, and offers a way straight to the setting. If a topic is also selected, it names that too, so you are not sent to the wrong screen.
- Your level now belongs to the language you chose: switching languages re-seeds it instead of quietly saving your Danish level under Portuguese.
Knowing what a machine wrote:
- Article cards now say when their text is machine-written: "AI summary" for a summary we generated, "AI-simplified" for a text adapted to your level. Texts your teacher or a friend uploaded carry no such mark, because their words are their own.
- The reader now names the level a text was written to, rather than calling it "your level" - which stopped being true the moment you changed your setting.
- The link back to the original article carries its level and, for a translated piece, the flag of the language it is in, so you know where following it lands you.
Also:
- Language Settings and signup now ask the same three questions with the same controls, so the level picker looks and behaves the same on both, and reads properly in dark mode.
1.3.3 Sep 11
This release is mostly for teachers and their students.
For teachers:
- My Texts and My Classrooms now look like one product, and read properly in dark mode.
- Filter your texts by class, with a count on each class and a "Not shared" pile for the ones that never went anywhere.
- Each text shows its classes as pills. Tap one to see the rest of what went to that class, or remove it with a single tap - no trip through the sharing dialog.
- The share-with-classes dialog now ranks classes sensibly and gains a search box once you have more than a handful.
- A class page has Students and Texts tabs, with every action on the class in one header.
- A class warns you when it holds texts in a language its students are not learning, since nobody in the class can see those.
- Sorting is a normal dropdown now: it closes when you click away, works with a keyboard, and is readable in dark mode. Added Title A-Z, and Newest and Oldest first.
- A text's difficulty is shown as one level, instead of our pipeline talking to itself.
- Deleting a class takes you back to My Classrooms instead of leaving you on a page that no longer exists.
- The Students tab got its label back, and Add Students no longer appears on a class that has no students yet.
For students:
- Your Classroom now respects the card style you picked in Settings - headlines, preview or interactive.
- If you are in more than one class, each text says which class it came from, and you can filter the list by class.
- Teacher-written texts no longer claim to come from a source called "userarticle".
Everywhere else:
- Profile tabs are real pages, so Back returns you to the tab you left instead of dumping you on Badges.
- Coming back from a friend's profile keeps your search, instead of emptying the box.
- Friend search results show the languages someone is learning and when they were last active, so you can tell apart two people with the same name.
- A simplified article's byline now says what it was simplified from, as in "Simplified to A1 from B2".
- When a friend shares an article, the dialog offers the level we will actually adapt to, and closing it now means neither option rather than quietly picking one.
- Your daily lesson is dated by the day it was made, not the day you happen to open it.
1.3.2 Sep 9
- Shared articles now show up the moment a friend sends them. The inbox badge updates while you are looking at the screen, instead of waiting for you to navigate somewhere else.
- In Headlines view you can tap a word in the headline to translate it, without opening the article first. Each headline also gets its own Open button.
- Editing your own translation now happens in a proper dialog with a Save button, so it finally works with a phone keyboard.
- The translation card opens above the word when there is no room below it.
- Fixed: learners of Russian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese got no keyboard at all when typing a translation. The native keyboard is back.
- Teachers can now set a class so that students see only the texts the teacher shares.
- Dark mode fixes: the word editing dialog, the add-your-own-word form and the account upgrade dialog are all readable again.
- The password rules message now matches the password rules.
1.3.1 Aug 26
- New in Settings: Reading, then Text and highlighting. Everything about how text behaves when you tap it - translation, pronunciation, the reading timer, multi-word expression hints and text size - now has one clear home, with a line explaining what each option does.
- The article preview sheet is calmer to read: close it from the top-left corner, and the big "Read the original" button now waits at the end of the summary, right where you have decided whether it is worth your time.
- Swipe the preview away with a quick flick - no more dragging it halfway across the screen.
- Fixed: words you translated in a preview stay translated when you close it and open it again.
- Fixed: preview photos are no longer cropped.
1.3.0 Aug 16
- Tidier feed cards: in Headlines view, a small thumbnail sits next to the title on wider screens, and Save and Hide are now clear labelled buttons in the same place in every view.
- A roomier, calmer article preview: more breathing room, a dimmer backdrop so the feed behind it recedes, and the settings gear where you expect it.
- Fixed: tapping a word in the article preview on desktop now opens the alternatives menu right next to the word instead of far off to the side.
- Fixed: no more double spinner when the feed reloads or you switch topics.
- Fixed: the word game shown while you wait is readable again in dark mode.
- Fixed: launching the app without a connection now tells you you are offline instead of spinning forever.
1.2.1 Aug 15
- New Feed View options: choose how your feed looks — Headlines (title + image), Preview (adds a short summary), or Interactive (tappable words right in the feed). Change it in Settings, under Feed preferences, in the View section.
- Tap any article for an interactive preview: translate and listen to words in the title and summary before you open it.
- Share articles with friends, and find what others send you in a new "Shared with you" inbox.
- Leaderboards: friends and classmates now live in one place, with a simple switch between them.
- Reader: clearer labels for an article's source and its simplified level, plus tidier author lines.
- Settings: a new page to manage your email notifications.
- More fixes and polish throughout.
1.2.0 Aug 3
- New Reader Mode: turn a device into a simple, locked-down news reader with no menus or settings — great for a dedicated or shared device.
- New "Also show easier articles" toggle in Feed Preferences: let your feed include articles a bit below your level.
- Fixed quoted passages in the reader being hard to read in dark mode.
- Better button layouts on tablets, so longer labels no longer get cut off.
- A few other smaller fixes and polish.
1.1.44 Jul 14
- Fixed swiping the topic filters at the top of your feed: dragging the topics now scrolls them, instead of accidentally jumping to another tab.
- Renamed "Ask LLM" to "Ask AI" in the reader menu.
- Clearer error message when an article can't be opened.
- A few other smaller fixes and polish.
1.1.43 Jul 11
- Your feed now updates right away when you add or remove a topic or a word to avoid, instead of waiting a few minutes.
- A smoother offline experience: daily audio and the reading tabs show a clear "You're offline" state instead of a confusing setup screen, and recover on their own once you're back online.
- Swipe left and right between Discover, Saved, Classroom, and Search, now steadier during scrolling.
- Faster loading and fewer flickers on the Read screen.
- Clearer wording when adding words or phrases to avoid.
- A few other smaller fixes and polish.
1.1.42 Jul 2
- Filter your Discover feed by topic: tap a topic pill to focus the feed, and your choice is remembered next time.
- Switching topics now loads instantly.
- A cleaner top of the Read screen with simple icons for Discover, Saved, Classroom, and Search.
- Tidier article cards and a calmer, more readable feed.
- Various smaller fixes and polish.
1.1.41 Jun 19
- Swipe right to go back - now works across the settings screens and the article reader.
- Refreshed settings screens with a cleaner, more consistent layout, and no more empty gap at the top.
- Share YouTube videos to Zeeguu and turn them into reading-and-listening practice.
- Tidier spacing and navigation across the Activity section.
- Improvements to the Translate screen.
- Clearer messaging when you sign in with a non-teacher account.
- Various smaller fixes and polish.
1.1.40 Jun 18
- Your daily audio lesson now resumes right where you paused, instead of jumping back to the start.
- A clearer daily-lesson home screen with a redesigned footer and settings.
- Listen past the halfway mark to unlock tomorrow's lesson — now with a friendly hint.
- The "Today" tab is now called "Current", and past-lesson tabs stay hidden until you actually have past lessons.
- Fixed a scrollbar glitch on the empty and generating states of the daily audio screen.
- Various smaller fixes and polish.
1.1.39 Jun 1
- A fresh daily audio lesson is now ready and waiting for you each day. Just open and listen.
- Feed Preferences gets a cleaner single page: pick the topics you want and the keywords to avoid, all in one place.
- Share articles and audio lessons using the native iOS share sheet.
- Articles without a photo now show a topic-matched placeholder image in Discover and in My Articles, so cards look consistent.
- Polished dark-mode reading layout for a more comfortable read at night.
- Translate-and-adapt is more reliable: when a source can't be adapted, it falls back gracefully instead of getting stuck.
- A smoother onboarding with clearer tips on translations and learning levels.
- Various spacing and layout fixes across My Articles, the home feed, and statistics.
1.1.38 May 30
- Alternative translations now appear instantly when you tap the down arrow next to a translated word. No more shifting rows under your finger.
- New "Ask LLM" button in the alternatives menu when you want a fresh opinion. Opt-in, so it only runs when you ask for it.
- Opening the alternatives menu on a word you previously translated now actually shows alternatives.
- Article cards: summary fits in 3 lines instead of 2, and the "Show more" link only appears when there really is more to read.
- Share your daily audio lesson with a public link.
- Cleaner article summaries on the home feed.
1.1.37 May 23
- Smoother exercise reveals: the answer slides into the solution slot and the solved word is shown the same way it appears in articles, with the translation above and tap-to-pronounce.
- Reporting an exercise as broken now also pulls that word from your scheduling, with a 5-second Undo in case it was a misclick.
- Click-word exercises are easier to tap: more line spacing and wider context.
- Switching language from the exercises summary screen now takes you straight back to the exercises.
- Fixed a bug that prevented some articles from opening.
1.1.36 May 22
My Articles redesigned as a compact list. Tap anywhere on a row to open the article. Each row shows when you saved it and how far you got reading it.
- Discover cards are cleaner: larger images, bookmark icon on the image to save, dismiss icon in the corner to hide, summary that expands on Show more.
- Vocab drill while you wait. If a screen takes a moment to load, optionally practice a couple of words instead of staring at a spinner.
- Article reader: header simplified; swipe right from anywhere on the left side to go back where you came from.
- The app no longer logs you out when you briefly lose network. Airplane mode is now safe.
- Phone is locked to portrait orientation so the layout no longer flips unexpectedly.
- Iconography refresh on the article cards: save and remove are now clear icons rather than buttons competing with Open.
- Small interaction fixes on iOS, including navigation tabs that sometimes needed two taps to register.
- Smoother reading-progress bar in the article reader.
1.1.35 May 20
- Past Lessons: clearer cards with colored Topic / Situation / Vocabulary Lesson chips, soft drop shadows, and a warm progress bar showing how far through each lesson you got.
- Save Article modal redesigned: see your level vs the article's at a glance, with a clear "Adapt to your level" call to action.
- Reader: simplified articles now carry a "simplified" badge, with a link back to the original.
- My Articles: "Unsave" is now "Remove"; Hidden Articles moved into the My Articles tab (no separate sidebar entry).
- Light-mode polish: cards finally have a visible background, links are easier to read.
- Slow load? You'll now see whether it's the network or the server holding things up.
- Teachers can now join a classroom directly from Settings.
1.1.34 May 19
- Past Lessons redesigned: tap a lesson to expand it in place — no more modal popping over the list. Smooth open/close animation, with a visible count of how many times you've replayed each.
- Daily audio + Read tabs now support horizontal swipe between sub-tabs (Today ↔ Past Lessons; Discover ↔ My Articles ↔ Classroom ↔ Search).
- Read tabs reorganized: Discover, My Articles, Classroom, and a Search icon on the right. Read remembers the last tab you visited.
- Discover gets a "Topics: …" chip at the top showing what's curating your feed, with a tap-to-customize gear.
- Simplify dialog now shows the level transition visually (e.g. B2 → A2) and the button names the outcome — "Simplify to A2".
- Once you simplify an article, the original disappears from Discover and My Articles, and the simplified version is what opens when you tap it.
- Pull-to-refresh on Discover and My Articles now actually fetches fresh data. Leaving the reader also refreshes the feed automatically.
- Search now full-width with a cleaner saved-searches page; closing a search returns to the search home; results page no longer reloads the whole app.
- Bigger, more readable modals on phones (no more cramped titles).
1.1.33 May 18
- Dark mode pass on the reader: softer highlight orange, warm chip backgrounds, and a redesigned alternative-translations menu that's calmer and easier to scan.
- New: A− / A+ text size control in the reader's settings gear — pick the size that's comfortable, and the menus and translation chips scale with it.
- Reader layout: punctuation no longer wraps to its own line ("." or "," stuck at the start of a line is gone).
- Translation menu: opens out of the way of the screen edge instead of overflowing, closes the moment you start scrolling, and the "Add own translation" input is hidden behind a link instead of always taking up space.
- Onboarding: gentle popups guide new users through translating, reviewing words, and daily exercises the first time they're encountered.
- Article previews on the homepage: cleaner titles, less link-like, and a tidier "Open" button.
1.1.32 May 14
- New: when the two translation engines disagree on a word, the alternatives menu pops open automatically with a "the bots disagree" header so you can pick the meaning that fits your context.
- Today view: when there are no lessons for today, the latest unfinished lesson now surfaces so you can keep going.
- History: cleaner cards with date labels and a sticky completion bar; the past-lesson player matches the shared-lesson layout.
- Audio player: tap the speed pill to cycle speeds, the file pre-buffers for smoother playback, autoplay is off when revisiting past lessons, and audio is now cacheable across sessions.
- Reader: tapping a word that's part of a phrase no longer gets stuck on a stale single-word translation, and ambiguous context around repeated words is trimmed before being sent to the translator.
- Simplify: tapping simplify on an already-simplified article now just opens the existing version instead of failing.
- Daily exercises: clearer "done for today" message with a short cooldown before the next batch.
1.1.31 May 14
- Shared audio lesson links now open directly in the app instead of falling through to the browser.
- Shared lessons get a clear close button, and switching active language while viewing one returns you to your daily audio.
- Lock-screen Now Playing title is restored for topic and situation lessons (no more blank artwork or degraded transport controls).
1.1.29 May 4
- Fix: shared audio lesson links no longer point to localhost when shared from the iOS app — they now correctly open zeeguu.org for the recipient.
1.1.28 May 3
- Share audio lessons with friends: a new Share button on Today's Lesson and on each Past Lesson card creates a link they can open to listen along. The shared view shows the lesson's language, a topic line, and a CTA inviting them to start their own.
- When a friend opens a lesson in a language you're already learning, your listening time counts toward your daily progress (your word stats are not affected by their lesson).
- Activity history now shows the lesson title for each listening session, instead of just "Listening".
- Dark-mode fixes for Activity history and Translation history — text is now legible in dark mode.
- Smaller polish: shorter redirection animation, language label inline with the topic on shared lessons.
1.1.27 May 1
- Daily Audio: the generation screen now shows the topic or situation as the title.
- Past Lessons: replaying a lesson now counts toward your streak.
- Article preview: tapping the image opens the article, matching the Open button.
- Exercises: the "I know this word" link now appears on multiple-choice exercises (it was only showing on some types).
- Fewer hiccups during long lessons: stopped repeatedly refetching now-playing artwork.
1.1.26 May 1
Hear the variety of the language you are actually learning.
Audio lessons:
- Language Settings now asks which variety of your language should be read to you. A Brazilian Portuguese learner has until now been hearing European Portuguese; you can say which one you want, and your daily lesson is voiced that way.
- The question is only asked for languages whose varieties have a voice, so most learners see nothing new.
- If you have never chosen, the variety you are already hearing is shown as selected - the screen tells you what you get instead of leaving it blank.
Signing up:
- The two regional questions - which country's news you read, and which variety is spoken to you - are now asked together, on a step of their own. They used to be split across two screens, where one was easily mistaken for the other.
- That step is skipped entirely when the language you are learning has no varieties to ask about.
- A variety picked while signing up is now actually saved. Before, you could choose Belgium, finish signing up, and find something else selected in Settings.
Also:
- Every label on the language form is now the learner speaking: "I want news from", "I want audio lessons spoken in".
- The language forms now put visible space between groups of questions, instead of reading as one long list.
more Version 1.3.4 Sep 12
Data Linked to You The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
Data Not Linked to You The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity: