New iOS app for Japanese reading with adjustable furigana – looking for testers

Japanese Language Resources
1

Hi everyone!

I’ve been learning Japanese for a few years now, and last Sunday I took the JLPT N4.

While preparing for it, I noticed a big problem in my reading practice: almost every learning resource shows all kanji with furigana. It’s convenient, but it made me rely on it way too much — my eyes would jump straight to the furigana instead of actually reading the kanji I should already know.

One day in class, the teacher covered the furigana with a piece of paper, and suddenly the reading was harder… but also much more engaging. It pushed me just enough, and I realized:

I need this for real reading, not just textbooks.

So I built something for myself, and ended up going much deeper into it.

Introducing Yomu

Yomu is an iOS reader where you can adjust furigana based on your JLPT level.

For example, if you’re around N4 like me, you can hide furigana for N5/N4 kanji (the ones you already know) and only show readings for harder kanji above your level.

It’s been extremely helpful while preparing for N4 and trying to push toward N3-ish material, so I’m opening it for testing to see if it helps others too.

Current features

  • Adjustable furigana by JLPT level

  • Instant offline dictionary (tap any word)

  • Share Sheet import from Safari & other apps

  • Camera OCR (scan books, manga, screens, anything Japanese)

  • Personal vocabulary list + export

  • Reading progress tracking and difficulty analysis

  • Light & dark mode

  • A clean, distraction-free reading view

There’s a small website with screenshots and videos + a Join Beta button:

Thinking about WaniKani integration

Since I use WaniKani myself, I’d love to explore integrating:

  • Hide furigana based on WaniKani kanji level

  • Highlight kanji you’ve “guru’d” vs not yet learned

  • Possibly adjust difficulty based on your WK progress

  • Maybe import WK kanji/vocab into the vocabulary section

If anyone has ideas here, I’d really appreciate input.

Looking for TestFlight testers

I would love some feedback — UI flow, reading experience, OCR accuracy, furigana behavior, anything.

Note: In-app purchases in TestFlight are simulated

You can test everything fully — you will not be charged anything.

You can join via the website:

I originally built Yomu just to make my own reading practice more effective while studying for N4, but if it helps other learners here too, that would make me really happy.

Thanks so much to anyone who gives it a try!

5 Likes
2

Small update in case anyone is following this thread:

I’ve released Yomu on the App Store

I originally built it for myself while preparing for JLPT N4, mainly to deal with furigana being everywhere and making it hard to actually read kanji. The app focuses on adaptive furigana and offline reading, rather than drills or gamification.

If anyone here is an intermediate learner and curious, the App Store link is ‎Yomu – Japanese Reader App - App Store. I’d especially appreciate feedback around furigana behavior or reading flow — positive or negative.

Either way, thanks for the earlier interest.