Skritter: Write Chinese

One of the best apps to study Chinese characters.

For those people who have given up hope on ever learning Mandarin - this app can be a game changer for you. It will teach you in quite a smart way to write the characters, while adding your own mnemonics (which is so important). In this way you will be able to leverage both your visual and muscle memory. It also connects to Pleco and has a great selection of card decks (all HSK levels, various student books etc.) I hope the producer will keep developing this app, by adding some new features but not getting rid of the current ones, as it already works very well for me.

Very comprehensive and well made app with lots of videos and leaning exercises.

I downloaded this app as a supplement to my Chinese classes in the hopes that it can aid in my character and word retention outside of my flash cards and Chinese homework. I knew the app was subscription based. However, I wrongly assumed that the app would allow me the freedom to test some of its features WITHOUT inputting my payment info. Unfortunately, I’m unable to try out even a few decks already provided in the app without needing to, “Activate a subscription to unlock learning on all decks and more.” I understand the need for the app to maintain its subscription model. However, I think it’s absurd that you need to provide payment information upfront to even DO ANYTHING in the app. I don’t want to use the 7-day free trial because I don’t even know what the app can offer me in the first place, again, WITHOUT providing payment information. In comparison to other subscription-based language learning apps, a free version is available albeit with limited access or fewer features. Unlike Skritter, I’m more inclined to try at least the 7-day free trial because I already know what the app offers and whether or not it works for me. The fact that Skritter doesn’t offer that option and requires that you provide payment info for JUST a 7-day free trial doesn’t make sense and is extremely frustrating for a broke student like me. TL; DR - the app does not offer free features and requires payment upfront to try the only free option available, the 7-day free trial. I wish I could comment about the quality of the app itself and its ability to help in my Chinese studies. Unfortunately, everything is locked behind a paywall.

I was using two different flash card apps to approach two different directions. Skritter does both and adds additional approach to learn I did not realize existed. It’s great.

My favourite resource for learning Chinese. Whenever I learn some new vocab, I add it to a custom deck and the review systems are perfect for solidifying everything in my brain. I consider the words saved to be my primary indicator of vocabulary progress. Also they provide great support. I emailed the team about an edge case bug that was causing some progress not to be saved, and they began a conversation with me to figure out the cause and resolve it within a week.

Tried them all. This is the best.

It’s okay. Unfortunately a single character takes up almost my entire iPad Air. It’s just a lot of space.

Very helpful for learning to read, write, and speak the hanzi. Worth the price!

Being able to practice tones, definitions, and writing all in the same place is amazing.