Choose your Learner profile: Diaspora Child, Non-Rwandan Spouse or Rwandan Immigrant.The first visit prompts you, and you can change the profile later in Settings. Dialogues and culture notes are filtered to match your profile. Chats tab. Role-play conversations now have their own tab, labeled Chats. Flashcards tab. Flashcards have their own tab. Speaking Practice. It's a quick action on the Learn screen. Smarter answer checking. Answers are checked more forgivingly for small spelling differences, and most checks work offline. Flashcards show the correct direction in Rwanda mode: English on front, Kinyarwanda on back. Practice tip cards are easier to see. "Beginner: Daily Life" is renamed "Daily Life Essentials". Audio fixes for two phrases. Proverb Library audio stops when you leave the screen, and badge text meets WCAG AA contrast. Conversation audio no longer overlaps on rapid taps, and the Practice tab no longer needs two taps on first entry. Better top-of-screen spacing on Category, Proverb Library, and Conversations.

BEGINNER KINYARWANDA COURSE The Igisha beginner Kinyarwanda course has been restructured into 4 focused learning levels: Pronunciation Foundations, Core Vocabulary, Daily Conversations, and Cultural Context. The old category-heavy layout is replaced by a clean vertical timeline that shows exactly where you are and what comes next. Whether you're a complete beginner or picking Kinyarwanda back up after years away, the new structure makes it easier to build momentum and stay consistent across sessions. 178 NEW NATIVE SPEAKER AUDIO RECORDINGS This update adds 178 new recordings by a native Kinyarwanda speaker, expanding the offline audio library for the beginner pronunciation course. Every syllable, phrase, and expression is now backed by a real voice. These recordings cover the foundational sounds of Kinyarwanda that diaspora learners most often struggle with: tonal syllables, vowel-heavy Bantu patterns, and the rhythm of spoken Kinyarwanda as it actually sounds in Kigali, Musanze, and Butare. All 178 recordings are bundled in the app and play without any internet connection. PROVERBS Kinyarwanda proverbs carry centuries of wisdom about family, community, patience, and justice. Finishing a proverbs module now reveals the full cultural meaning behind each proverb you practiced. Instead of a generic completion screen, Igisha now tells you what the proverb teaches, where it comes from, and how Rwandans use it in everyday conversation. This is language learning as cultural reconnection, not just vocabulary memorization. ACCURACY FIX A learner reported a longstanding error: the evening greeting was showing "Muramuke" instead of "Mwiriwe." This is now corrected throughout the app. Pronunciation accuracy is non-negotiable for diaspora learners reconnecting with family. If you have been practicing greetings: say "Mwiriwe" in the evening, "Muraho" for a general hello, and "Muramuke" only in the morning. SMARTER AUDIO QUIZZES The multiple-choice listening exercises for Kinyarwanda pronunciation drills have been rebuilt to handle syllable-level phrases correctly. Previously, certain beginner audio cards would display blank answer choices or pull distractors from the wrong language. Both issues are fixed. Quiz instructions now also adapt to the type of phrase being tested pronunciation drills get different guidance than vocabulary questions making it clear what you're listening for and why it matters. POLISH AND STABILITY Proverb flashcards no longer clip long text. The full proverb and its translation are always visible Answer choices in Quick Check exercises now wrap on smaller iPhone screens instead of cutting off mid-word Audio playback no longer freezes between vocabulary cards advancing to the next phrase cancels in-flight audio cleanly Beginner course progress counters now refresh when you return to the home screen App version now reads correctly from system constants WHO IGISHA IS FOR Igisha is the only structured Kinyarwanda app built specifically for the East African diaspora. If Duolingo does not teach the language you want to learn and Babbel has never heard of your family's homeland, Igisha was built for you. Every lesson, every recording, every proverb was made for the 300 million Bantu language speakers and their children growing up in the US, Canada, UK, and Europe who want to stay connected to Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, the DRC, and Zanzibar. Learn Kinyarwanda. Stay connected to where you come from.

Igisha is the language learning app built specifically for African languages; not an afterthought added to a global catalogue, but a product designed from the ground up for Kinyarwanda, Swahili, and the communities that speak them. WHO IS IGISHA FOR? AFRICAN DIASPORA: Learn Kinyarwanda or Swahili from scratch. Reconnect with your heritage through structured lessons, native speaker audio, and cultural context you won't find anywhere else. LEARNERS IN RWANDA: Use your Kinyarwanda as the foundation to master English and French. Rwanda Mode delivers trilingual lessons that bridge the language you know to the ones you need for work, school, and daily life. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN • 900+ Kinyarwanda phrases across greetings, daily life, numbers, food, health, travel, business, and culture • 550+ Swahili phrases with dialect markers for Tanzania, Kenya, and Zanzibar • English and French translations throughout • Proverbs, idioms, and cultural notes for real-world fluency NATIVE AUDIO OFFLINE Every Kinyarwanda phrase is recorded by a native speaker and bundled directly in the app. No internet required. Lessons, audio playback, and quizzes all work fully offline. BUILT FOR REAL LIFE OFFLINE-FIRST: All lessons, audio, and quizzes work without a connection. Cloud sync happens automatically when you're back online. DARK MODE: Full light and dark mode support, following your system preference. ACCESSIBLE: Built to WCAG 2.2 AA standards with full screen reader support, dynamic font scaling, reduced motion options, and minimum 44pt touch targets.

Kinyarwanda Speaking Practice & Audio Reliability This release introduces a dedicated Kinyarwanda pronunciation drill for diaspora learners and fixes a critical audio playback issue affecting 713 phrases on iOS. Kinyarwanda Audio Drill Diaspora mode users now have a guided pronunciation practice flow on the Speak tab. Unlike English test prep (which uses ElevenLabs AI), Kinyarwanda practice works entirely offline using bundled audio: no API calls, no session limits, no internet required. The drill follows a 4-step flow per phrase: Listen: Hear the Kinyarwanda phrase spoken by a native speaker Record: Record your own pronunciation using the device microphone Playback: Listen to your recording side-by-side with the original Reveal: See the English meaning and continue to the next phrase Phrases are drawn from the app's existing corpus, mapped to speaking topics by category. The drill adapts across 3 difficulty levels with 5 topics per level, covering greetings, family, health, food, travel, culture, and more. There is no daily session limit for Kinyarwanda practice. The Speak tab intelligently routes based on learning language: Kinyarwanda learners go to the audio drill, English learners go to ElevenLabs-powered test prep (IELTS, TOEFL, Duolingo). NEW: 15 Kinyarwanda Speaking Topics Added a curated topic bank with 15 topics across 3 levels: Level 1: Daily Greetings, Family & Home, At the Market, Health Basics, School & Learning Level 2: Travel & Transport, Food & Cooking, Community Events, Work & Jobs, Weather & Seasons Level 3: Cultural Ceremonies, Storytelling & Proverbs, History & Heritage, Arts & Music, Future & Aspirations Each topic has 3 sections with contextual prompts. The topic selector uses spaced repetition: unseen topics appear first, then lowest-scored topics are revisited. FIX: iOS Audio Playback (713 Phrases) Fixed a critical bug where audio failed to play for 713 Kinyarwanda phrases on iOS. The root cause: these phrases used .opus format audio files, which iOS does not support via expo-av. The error manifested as "Unable to download asset" when tapping play. Resolution: Converted all 713 .opus files to .wav format using ffmpeg (44.1kHz, mono) Updated the audio map generator to prioritize .wav over .opus (reversed previous priority) Regenerated audio-map.ts: now 880 Kinyarwanda entries, all using iOS-compatible .wav format Total audio coverage increased from 167 to 880 phrases FIX: ElevenLabs Error on Kinyarwanda Previously, selecting Kinyarwanda on the Speak tab routed to the ElevenLabs speaking session screen, which threw "Either conversationToken or agentId is required" because no Kinyarwanda agent exists. This is now impossible. Kinyarwanda routes to the offline audio drill instead. Technical Changes - New screen: app/kinyarwanda-drill.tsx (fullScreenModal, gesture disabled) - New file: lib/speaking-topics-kinyarwanda.ts (15 topics, 45 sections) - Modified: app/(tabs)/speak.tsx: mode-gated routing - Modified: app/_layout.tsx: registered kinyarwanda-drill route - Modified: lib/types.ts: added 'kinyarwanda' to SpeakingTestType union - Modified: lib/speaking.ts: kinyarwanda test config, scoring, prompts - Modified: scripts/generate-audio-map.js: wav priority over opus - Modified: lib/audio-map.ts: regenerated with 880 wav entries - Updated: speaking topics test to expect 60 topics across 4 test types

FIXES • Progress bars and Learning Path completion badges now update correctly after finishing a lesson • Quick Quiz no longer shows Kiswahili questions when you're studying Kinyarwanda, and vice versa • Wrong answers no longer trigger positive feedback; the app now clearly distinguishes correct from incorrect responses • Lesson recap now shows all phrases from the session, not just the last one • Flashcard screen no longer crashes on certain phrase combinations • Audio no longer conflicts with on-screen instruction text during lessons • Memory Match game timing and card sequence improved • Match Translations now shows feedback for every pair, not just the first • 7 phrase translations corrected for accuracy • Audio mismatch phrases resolved IMPROVEMENTS • Rwanda Mode is now clearly labelled throughout the app; lessons, the Learn tab, and the Speaking screen all reflect that Rwanda users are learning English and French, not Kinyarwanda • Speaking practice screen now shows a context banner for Rwanda Mode users connecting your lessons to your AI speaking sessions • Onboarding now clearly states the direction of learning for each mode • Updated app icon • Culture Notes layout improved on all screen size

Redesigned Interface & Personalization COMPLETELY REBUILT UI Every main screen has been redesigned from scratch: tighter spacing, crisper typography, and a deeper teal that reads better in sunlight. The app feels faster because it is. NEW: CHOOSE YOUR LEVEL Igisha now asks your proficiency at the start of onboarding. Beginners build from the foundation. Intermediate and advanced learners skip ahead automatically, no repeating content you've already mastered. NEW: FOCUSED LEARNING PATH The category grid is gone. Your journey flows as a single path with every module clearly marked: complete, in progress, or locked. Always know exactly what to study next. NEW: DEDICATED SPEAK TAB AI speaking practice for IELTS, TOEFL, and Duolingo English Test prep now lives in its own tab. One tap to start a live session. NEW: DARK MODE A manual dark mode toggle is now in Settings. Works across all screens. SETTINGS IN THEIR OWN SCREEN Settings, legal links, and account actions have moved out of your profile into a dedicated screen, cleaner and easier to find. BUG FIXES - Fixed: App hung on launch when network was slow or unavailable now loads reliably with a 5-second failsafe - Fixed: Complete, in-progress, and locked modules showed nearly identical icons, now clearly distinct - Fixed: Phantom taps registering on the tab bar on certain devices - Fixed: Touch targets on the tab bar were below minimum size on some screen sizes - Fixed: Visual gaps and misaligned spacing on the Practice screen

This update resolves a crash-on-launch issue and improves app stability: - Fixed a critical startup crash affecting some devices - Faster app launch by optimizing how native modules load - Improved error handling throughout the app - Removed unused code to reduce app size All existing features work as before — lessons, quizzes, flashcards, speaking practice, and cultural content are unchanged.