The Best Apps to Learn Chinese 2026: Master Mandarin

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The Best Apps to Learn Chinese 2026: Master Mandarin

The best apps to learn Chinese will depend on your specific goals, such as improving speaking, listening, reading, writing, or preparing for exams. Each app offers unique features, tools, and methods to make learning Chinese efficient and engaging.

The Best App to Learn Chinese Vocabulary: Duolingo

Duolingo is a good starting point for learning Chinese, especially for beginners and casual learners. Here’s a detailed look at its strengths and limitations:

Strengths：

1. Gamified and Fun:

Duolingo turns language learning into a game with rewards, streaks, and levels, which helps keep you motivated. The bite-sized lessons are perfect for busy schedules and building consistent habits.

2. Foundation in Vocabulary and Grammar:

It introduces basic vocabulary and sentence structures, which is great for beginners. You’ll learn commonly used words and phrases through repetition and matching exercises.

3. Focus on Pronunciation:

Duolingo includes audio exercises with native-speaker recordings to help you practice pronunciation and tones. Speaking exercises allow you to improve your tone accuracy, which is crucial in Mandarin.

4. Visual Character Learning:

The app uses a visual approach to teach Chinese characters (Hanzi), connecting them with pinyin and English meanings. It’s useful for learning to recognize simple, high-frequency characters.

5. Free and Accessible:

The free version offers plenty of content for learners who want a no-cost introduction to Chinese.

Limitations：

1. Limited Character Writing Practice:

While Duolingo teaches character recognition, it doesn’t focus on proper stroke order or writing skills, which are essential for mastering Mandarin.

2. Not Suitable for Advanced Learners:

Duolingo primarily covers beginner to lower-intermediate levels. If you want to advance to reading authentic texts or holding complex conversations, you’ll need additional resources.

3. Lacks Deep Grammar Explanations:

The app doesn’t provide in-depth explanations of Chinese grammar rules, which can make some sentence patterns confusing.

4. Tones and Listening Practice Are Basic:

While Duolingo introduces the four tones in Mandarin, the exercises don’t provide extensive practice in tone recognition or complex listening comprehension.

5. Lack of Real-Life Conversation Skills

Duolingo’s focus is on isolated phrases and sentences, so to develop natural conversation skills, you’ll need to have real-world practice.

Duolingo is a good tool for beginners who want to start learning Mandarin in a fun and low-pressure way. It’s especially effective for:

Building a daily habit.
Learning basic vocabulary and sentence patterns.
Gaining exposure to Chinese characters and tones.

The Best Chinese Dictionary App: Pleco

Pleco is an excellent tool for learning Mandarin, especially for those who want to dive deeper into the language and improve their reading and vocabulary skills. It is widely regarded as one of the best Chinese dictionary apps and has many features that can help learners of all levels.

Strengths of Pleco

1. Comprehensive Dictionary:

Pleco is one of the most detailed and reliable Chinese-English dictionaries available. It provides definitions, example sentences, pinyin, and audio for pronunciation.

The app also includes translations of both simplified and traditional Chinese characters, which is helpful for learners of all regions.

2. Character Stroke Order:

Pleco offers stroke order diagrams, helping you learn how to properly write Chinese characters. This is crucial because stroke order plays an important role in both writing and recognizing characters. The visual guides allow you to practice writing characters, which is especially useful for beginners who need to get comfortable with Chinese handwriting.

3. Flashcards:

Pleco has a built-in flashcard system that supports spaced repetition. You can create your own flashcards or use pre-made sets for studying. This feature is great for memorizing characters, vocabulary, and grammar points.

4. Audio Pronunciation:

The app provides native speaker audio for almost every word and phrase, allowing you to learn correct pronunciation and tones. This is particularly important in Chinese, as tones can change the meaning of a word entirely, and Pleco helps you get those nuances right.

5. Multi-Functionality:

In addition to being a dictionary, Pleco offers handwriting recognition, which allows you to draw a character on your phone’s screen, and it will recognize it and provide the meaning. The app also supports document translation (by importing texts) and optical character recognition (OCR) through your camera, which is useful for reading signs, menus, or books in Chinese.

6. Offline Use:

Pleco works offline, which makes it convenient for use on the go, without needing an internet connection. This is particularly useful when traveling or when you’re in places without Wi-Fi.

7. Customizable:

Pleco offers a high level of customization, from font sizes to themes, making it easy to tailor the app to your preferences.

Limitations

1. Not a Full Language Course:

While Pleco is an outstanding dictionary, it’s not a complete language-learning solution. It excels in vocabulary and character learning, but it doesn’t focus on structured lessons, grammar explanations, or conversation practice. It’s best used in conjunction with other apps or resources for a more rounded language-learning experience.

2. Premium Features:

Pleco’s free version offers a lot of value, but many of the more advanced features, such as additional dictionaries, flashcard sets, and handwriting recognition, are locked behind a paid version. However, the free version still provides plenty of functionality for most learners.

As a conclusion, Pleco is an invaluable resource, especially for learners who want to:

Improve their vocabulary.
Master Chinese characters (including their meanings, pronunciations, and stroke orders).
Build a strong foundation in reading comprehension.

Ideal for:

Intermediate to advanced learners who want to build their language skills beyond the basics.
Beginner learners who want a reliable dictionary to support their studies.
Learners who are serious about reading Chinese and understanding character-based writing.

Best App to Practice Writing Chinese: Skritter

Skritter is a specialized app focused on helping learners master Chinese characters, making it a powerful tool for improving writing skills and character recognition. However, like any tool, it has its strengths and limitations.

Strengths

1. Mastery of Chinese Characters:

Skritter is specifically designed to help learners write Chinese characters. It uses spaced repetition to ensure that characters are reviewed at optimal intervals, making it an efficient way to retain writing skills.

The app provides stroke order guides to help you write characters correctly, which is crucial in Chinese, where the structure of a character is important for memorization and recognition.

2. Handwriting Practice:

Skritter allows you to write characters on your device’s screen using your finger or a stylus, mimicking the experience of writing on paper. This active engagement with each character enhances memory retention compared to passive reading or recognition.

3. Spaced Repetition:

Skritter‘s algorithm helps you review characters just before you’re about to forget them, optimizing the time you spend memorizing. This technique is scientifically proven to improve long-term retention of information.

4. Detailed Character Information:

The app offers detailed information for each character, including meaning, pinyin, example sentences, and stroke order. This helps you not only learn to write characters but also understand their usage and significance in the language.

5. Customizable Study Plans:

Skritter allows you to create custom study lists and follow your own learning path. You can focus on specific areas, such as HSK vocabulary, or even import your own vocabulary lists.

6. Tracking Progress:

Skritter provides detailed statistics and progress tracking, allowing you to see your improvement over time and stay motivated.

Limitations

1. Limited Focus on Grammar and Speaking

Skritter is focused on writing and reading characters, so it does not address spoken Chinese or grammar extensively. It’s not a comprehensive language-learning app—it doesn’t teach sentence structures, conversational skills, or provide listening practice, which means you’ll need other resources for a more complete learning experience.

2. Not Ideal for Beginners Without Prior Vocabulary:

While Skritter is an excellent tool for learning characters, it may not be The best app to learn Chinese for absolute beginners who haven’t already built up a foundational vocabulary. You’ll likely need to learn basic vocabulary and grammar elsewhere first.

3. Requires Consistency

As with any language-learning app, Skritter requires consistent practice. Skipping days or sessions can lead to forgetting characters, and the spaced repetition model may become less effective if you don’t use it regularly.

4. Premium Subscription:

Skritter operates on a subscription model, and while it offers a free trial, you need a paid subscription to access the full set of features, such as unlimited character lists, progress tracking, and advanced features. This can be a downside for those looking for a free resource.

5. Limited to Writing and Character Recognition:

Skritter is primarily focused on character writing and recognition. While it’s excellent for building a strong foundation in Chinese characters, it doesn’t offer much in terms of reading comprehension beyond basic characters or texts.

Skritter is ideal for learners who want to build a solid foundation in Chinese characters. It is especially useful for those:

Preparing for the HSK exam, where character recognition is essential.
Wanting to improve handwriting and character writing skills.
Looking for a dedicated tool for memorizing characters and their stroke orders.

Best App to Practice Conversational Chinese: HelloTalk

HelloTalk is an outstanding app for improving your real-life conversational skills in Chinese. It connects language learners with native speakers, providing an immersive and practical way to practice speaking, listening, reading, and writing in a conversational context. Here’s a detailed breakdown of its strengths and limitations:

Strengths

1. Real Conversations with Native Speakers:

HelloTalk pairs you with native Chinese speakers who want to learn your language in exchange. This real-life language exchange allows you to practice conversational Chinese, helping you develop natural sentence flow, cultural understanding, and tone accuracy.

2. Text, Voice, and Video Chats:

You can chat via text, voice messages, or video calls, allowing you to practice all forms of communication. Speaking directly with a native speaker improves your listening and speaking skills, including tone pronunciation—essential for mastering Mandarin.

3. Built-In Tools for Language Learning:

HelloTalk offers correction tools where partners can correct your sentences in real-time, helping you learn from your mistakes. The app also has translation, pronunciation, and pinyin tools to assist you during conversations, making it beginner-friendly.

4. Immersive Cultural Exchange:

You’re not just learning the language—you’re also gaining insights into Chinese culture, idioms, and slang, which makes your conversational skills more authentic. Real-world topics, like hobbies, food, and daily life, are discussed naturally with your partner.

5. Community Learning:

The Moments feature allows users to post updates (like social media), and native speakers can correct your Chinese or give feedback. This encourages writing practice and exposure to colloquial Chinese used in daily life.

6. Flexible and Fun:

You can practice anytime and anywhere. Conversations are casual and don’t feel like traditional language learning, which makes it more engaging.

Limitations

1. Not Structured for Beginners:

If you’re a complete beginner, diving into real conversations might feel overwhelming. You’ll need some basic vocabulary and grammar first.

2. Reliance on Exchange Partners:

The quality of your learning depends on your language partner’s communication skills, patience, and willingness to correct you. Sometimes, conversations can drift into casual chatting without much focus on learning.

3. Limited Grammer Instruction:

HelloTalk is fantastic for practicing conversation but does not teach grammar or provide structured lessons. You’ll need to pair it with a grammar-focused resource.

4. Free Version Limitations:

While the free version is functional, features like unlimited translations and video calls may require a subscription.

In Conclusion…The Best Apps to Learn Chinese are:

By combining different apps with consistent practice, such as Duolingo (comprehensive learning, sentence, structure), Pleco (vocabulary), Skritter (strokes learning), HelloTalk (real-world conversation), you’ll develop your Chinese with remarkable speed.

For those wanting a more hands-on experience, consider applying for Chinese language learning programs in China through ApplyForChina and immerse yourself in Mandarin where it’s natively spoken!