Real Japanese podcasts, made comprehensible. Tap any word for its reading and meaning, ask the AI why a sentence works — and never lose your place.
Wakatta turns the real Japanese podcasts you'd listen to anyway into something you can actually understand.
Press play and follow a live transcript that lights up word by word as it's spoken. Tap any word you don't know for its reading, meaning, and part of speech — without leaving the audio. When a whole sentence won't click, tap Explain and an AI sensei breaks down the grammar in plain language.
Lost the thread but don't want to stop? One tap marks the last ten seconds — eyes-free — and it's waiting for you afterward, already explained.
WHY WAKATTA
• AI grammar explanations for any sentence, in your language
• Instant word lookup: reading, meaning, and part of speech in one tap
• Real, native audio — podcasts people actually listen to, not textbook dialogues
• Live transcript with karaoke-style highlighting, furigana and romaji toggles
• "I got lost" — mark a confusing moment hands-free and come back to it
• Bring your own audio: import any Japanese clip and we'll transcribe it
• Follow shows and build your own library
• Save words for spaced-repetition review with the original audio
• 170+ hand-picked Japanese YouTube channels
It's the immersion you'd do anyway, just made comprehensible. Start free.
I found that this app is perfect for “shadowing” in listening practice. With daily podcast review I already feel more comfortable with slightly faster Japanese. Can’t wait to see what other features get released!
Developer Response
ありがとうございます! 🙏 Shadowing with podcasts and YouTube videos is exactly what we hoped Wakatta would unlock — so glad faster Japanese is starting to click. More features coming soon. Keep it up! 🎧
Bring your Anki deck. Import an .apkg and choose what comes over — the words you already know, the ones you're learning, or the ones you haven't started. We stop teaching what you've got, and the sentence on each card comes across with it.
Search the dictionary the way you speak. Look up 飲んだ and get 飲む, or paste a whole sentence and we'll split it into words. Save straight from the results, and find anything you've looked up in your history.
Filter your saved words by category, by how well you know them, or by where they came from.
Plus credits for the dictionary data behind the app, and fixes.
Version 1.0.19
The developer, Mariano Matayoshi, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Linked to You
The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
Contact Info
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Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
Mariano Matayoshi
Size
13.5 MB
Category
Education
Compatibility
Requires iOS 18.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 18.0 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 18.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 15.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.