Ready for iPhone Duo: opened up, the app uses the big screen. Tracing gets a bigger square with the stroke order, the kana table shows the details right beside it, and in reviews the answer appears next to the card. Half open like a small laptop, the writing square lies flat on the table. Also, labels no longer break in the middle of a word.

New: Trace, a third way to write. A blue dot shows where each stroke starts and the ink follows your finger, stroke by stroke. Then you hear the character and go straight to the next one with Next.

New: grammar from N5 to N1 with 52 lessons and a level check for your grammar level. The call with Sensei is now part of Nihongo Flow Ultra Maxx. Bug fix: teachers can send messages in the AI chat again.

New in 1.47: • Live call with Sensei: just start talking, Sensei answers right away in a natural voice. With the new Nihongo Flow Ultra Maxx subscription (Premium plus up to 15 minutes a day). • A short tour for new accounts and tips on the main screens. • Simple view: only the core features on Home, switch any time. • Placement test with audio: hear every word. • Small fixes.

New in 1.46: • Placement test: start right at your level, from N5 to N2. • Speaking: "Hear the pronunciation" plays the word for you. • Writing: trace characters stroke by stroke, with a sharper shape check. • Reading aid of your choice (furigana, romaji or both) and a text size slider. • Homework: its own path, practise finished tasks again. Teachers add words from a file or a photo. • Every screen in your language. • Fixes in the Hokkaido game and in speech recognition.

Premium now unlocks right away, even when the App Store is slow to answer.

The writing step now accepts every common spelling (Hepburn with or without macrons, Kunrei, kana). In full mode the reading was sometimes checked against the meaning, fixed. The progress bar fills with every correct answer. You can now sign up without an avatar.

Live lessons now in the app: book a lesson, your bookings, the lesson room with its shared task list, and the teacher dashboard. Also: a close button on the Premium sheet, teachers switch AI on per student (with parental permission for minors), and immersion texts in seven more languages.

Schools and teachers: join your school with a class code, get homework from your teacher and follow their task path. Teachers see the progress, level and activity of their students.

Korean interface: Nihongo Flow now speaks Korean too — including Korean word meanings for the first 2,200 vocabulary words, Hokkaidō Densetsu and the Lock Screen widget.

New: Kotoba Drop, a word game. Drop syllables into the basket. Parts of a word that touch merge, and the finished word becomes its picture. Gather words, not points, free for everyone. Hiragana, katakana and kanji unlock as you play. Hokkaidō Densetsu and Kotoba Drop now live in the new "Games" menu. Nihongo Flow now also speaks Hindi, Portuguese (Brazil) and Indonesian – pick your language at login or in Settings. Fixed: immersion titles and translations now appear in your language instead of German.

Nihongo Flow now speaks Hindi, Portuguese (Brazil) and Indonesian. Pick your language at login or in Settings: the interface, the Hokkaidō journey, the N5 kanji, the Lock Screen widget and the meanings of the 2,200 most common words are translated. AI explanations are in English for now.

People in the learning paths and the AI chat are now our own characters: in the Baby Path, Mama is the fox, Papa the bear and the baby a Shima-enaga, and the Friendly Teacher in the AI chat is Sensei Sun. Also: quizzes no longer list a synonym of the right answer as a wrong option, the buttons at the top of the AI chat no longer cover the back arrow, and your energy is saved when you leave a lesson early.

The Lock Screen widget shows the kanji of the hour again. We're reworking the due-word view and will bring it back in a later update.

New: your due words on the Lock Screen. The widget now shows your next due word with its reading and meaning, how many words are waiting and your streak. Tap the word to open the handwriting practice for it (Premium). When nothing is due, you still get a new kanji every hour. To add it: Settings → Appearance → Lock Screen widget. Also: reviews fall due at the right time, the heatmap counts days in local time, plus smaller fixes.

Kanji on your Lock Screen New widget: a new kanji every hour, with its reading, meaning and an example word. About 260 N5 and N4 kanji, on your Lock Screen or Home Screen (iOS 16 or later). To add it: Settings > Appearance > “Kanji on your Lock Screen”. Autumn in Nihongo Flow A new autumn look with a maple branch, a harvest moon in dark mode and falling leaves on your home screen. The app now follows the season; prefer the classic design? Settings > Appearance > Standard.