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Work · July 10, 2023

Manabi Reader – Learn Japanese by Reading on iOS and macOS (SwiftUI)

I quit my job last year and worked mostly on this full SwiftUI rewrite of my Japanese reading app, Manabi Reader. The rewrite gave me the opportunity to expand to macOS (and without Catalyst so it feels extra native) and redo the data layer to be offline-first via Realm with iCloud sync. The biggest differentiators compared with other language study apps are that it tracks every word/kanji you read so that you can see how much of a given webpage/article you're already familiar with and other features/analytics built on that foundation; it automatically builds a personal corpus…

Manabi Reader – Learn Japanese by Reading on iOS and macOS (SwiftUI) launched on July 10, 2023 with 105 votes, #548 of 4,347 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 3 years on.

Visit reader.manabi.io ↗Alternativestop 13% of July 2023

In plain words

Manabi Reader is a Japanese reading app for iOS and macOS that helps learners track vocabulary and kanji comprehension across articles and webpages. It performs word tokenization and dictionary lookups entirely on-device for privacy, builds personalized sentence corpora automatically, and integrates with Anki for study. The app uses SwiftUI across platforms, operates offline-first with iCloud sync, and features a browser-like interface with readability mode.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Improve your Japanese through immersion. Enjoy reading native texts with Manabi Reader assisting you, and you'll see your literacy grow in real-time. Personalized reading analytics help make your progress feel more tangible than ever before. You don't need to spend money to learn with Manabi Reader. If the world-class free tier features are enough for you, there's no pressure to upgrade. Ready to use HTML/CSS device mockups, no Photoshop required! Put an image, video, animation, or anything else in the screen! As always, this theme is free to download and use for any purpose! Since this theme is MIT licensed, you can use it commercially! Manabi Reader – Read Japanese One of my Honors…from reader.manabi.io

In the maker’s words, at launch

I quit my job last year and worked mostly on this full SwiftUI rewrite of my Japanese reading app, Manabi Reader. The rewrite gave me the opportunity to expand to macOS (and without Catalyst so it feels extra native) and redo the data layer to be offline-first via Realm with iCloud sync. The biggest differentiators…

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