Japanese, learned without trying
Yumo puts a new Japanese word on your Lock Screen and Home Screen every few hours. No streaks, no lessons. It just shows up.
歓迎
かんげい · kangei
welcome
Free on the App Store. Android coming soon.
How it works
Three steps, then nothing
Yumo is designed to be set up once and then forgotten. The learning happens on screens you already look at.
- 01
Add the widget
Long-press your Lock Screen or Home Screen and drop Yumo in. That is the entire setup.
- 02
Pick your rhythm
A new word every 6, 12 or 24 hours on the free tier. Every 1, 2, 3 or 4 hours with Pro.
- 03
Stop thinking about it
Words arrive while you check the time. Tap one to hear it, save it, or trace its strokes.
Lock Screen
Learned before you even unlock
Sunday, 9 February
9:41
あした · ashita
tomorrow
The screen you check most
You look at your Lock Screen dozens of times a day without deciding to. Yumo puts a word there, so the reading happens before you have thought about studying.
Rectangular or inline
The rectangular accessory shows the kanji, its reading and its meaning. The inline one sits beside the time as a single line, for when you want it almost invisible.
iPhone only, and we say so
Lock Screen widgets are an iOS feature. Android phones do not have them, so on Android Yumo lives on the home screen instead.
Home Screen
And on the screen you work from
明日
あした
ashita
tomorrow
Yumo
Small or medium
Every widget carries its own level and rhythm, so you can run N5 on the Lock Screen and N3 on the Home Screen at the same time.
On Android
A resizable home-screen widget that follows the level and rhythm you set in the app. Android has no Lock Screen widgets, so Yumo does not pretend otherwise.
Always right, always offline
The word shown is a pure function of the time and your settings. No server decides it, so it is identical on every device and works in aeroplane mode.
Features
Small app, deep app
Everything below works without an account, without a connection, and without sending anything anywhere.
Trace the strokes
Practise writing kanji and kana with guided stroke order from KanjiVG.
Hear every word
Native pronunciation through your device's Japanese voice. No downloads, no streaming.
Save what matters
Keep the words you want to revisit; they stay on your device.
赤い
あかい · akai
- ENred
- FRrouge
- DErot
- ESrojo
Four meaning languages
English, French, German and Spanish, all bundled in the app.
Browse the dictionary
7,972 words with readings and meanings. N5 on the free tier, every level with Pro.
Themes
Light, dark or system, plus widget colours, transparency and text colour with Pro.
Notifications, same rhythm
Optional word notifications on the widget schedule, scheduled locally.
Completely offline
The whole dataset ships inside the app. Learning needs no connection.
Kana
Start where Japanese starts
Kana
Basic
Both scripts, every kana
Hiragana and katakana side by side: the 46 basic characters, 25 with dakuten and handakuten, and 33 combinations, each with its romaji.
Tap one to write it
Every character opens stroke-order practice, from あ to ヲ. Combinations like きゃ are practised one character at a time.
Free for everyone
The Kana tab is part of the free tier. No Pro, no account, and it works offline like the rest of Yumo.
Levels
N5 to N1, or let it climb
All 7,972 words, graded by JLPT level. Yumo starts you on Auto at N5; with Yumo Pro it moves you up as the days pass, weaving earlier words back in for review. Or pick a level and stay there.
- N5
The first 718 words. Everything on the free tier.
赤い red (adjective)
718 words
- N4
Everyday verbs and adjectives you will actually hear.
苦い bitter
668 words
- N3
The bridge level, and the largest jump in vocabulary.
覚める to wake, to wake up
2,139 words
- N2
Newspaper and workplace Japanese.
受験 taking an examination
1,748 words
- N1
The long tail — 2,699 words most courses never reach.
見地 point of view
2,699 words
See the whole N5 list
All 718 words at the level everyone starts at — free to read, no account, nothing to install.
Browse
The whole dictionary, searchable
Browse
Search however you remember it
Search 7,972 words by kanji, kana, romaji or meaning. Every entry carries its reading, its romaji, its JLPT level and meanings in English, French, German and Spanish.
N5 free, every level with Pro
On the free tier Browse covers N5 — 718 words. Yumo Pro opens every level above it.
Offline, like the rest of Yumo
It all ships inside the app, so search works with no connection at all.
Pricing
One price, forever
Yumo Pro is a single purchase. No subscription, no renewal, no account to cancel.
Free
$0
718 words
- N5 vocabulary — 718 words
- A new word every 6, 12 or 24 hours
- Lock Screen and Home Screen widgets
- Hiragana and katakana chart
- Pronunciation and stroke practice
- Favourites, notifications and themes
Yumo Pro
$8.99once
718 words
- Every level, N5 to N1 — all 7,972 words
- A new word every 1, 2, 3 or 4 hours
- The Auto journey, climbing N5 to N1
- Browse the full dictionary
- Widget colours, transparency and text colour
Free on the App Store. Android coming soon.
Privacy
It collects nothing
No account, no profile, no advertising. Your words and progress never leave your phone.
No account
There is nothing to sign up for. Yumo has no login, no profile and no cloud sync.
No tracking
No usage analytics, no crash reporting, no advertising identifiers. Nothing follows you across apps.
Nothing leaves the device
Settings, saved words and progress are stored locally. Deleting the app deletes all of it.
Offline by design
The whole dataset ships inside the app, so learning works in aeroplane mode by design rather than by accident.
Two exceptions: buying Yumo Pro sends your purchase to Apple or Google and to RevenueCat, which validates it so you can restore it later; and on iPhone, the optional News & updates notifications go through OneSignal, which receives your device’s push token. Both are described in full in the privacy policy.
Questions
Before you ask
Yumo is a Japanese vocabulary app for iPhone and Android. Its widget puts a new Japanese word on your Lock Screen or Home Screen every few hours, and everything works offline. The N5 level is free; a one-time $8.99 Yumo Pro purchase unlocks all 7,972 words, N5 to N1.
Yes. The Kana tab shows both scripts with their romaji — the basic characters, dakuten and handakuten, and combinations — and tapping any kana opens stroke-order practice. It is free, with no Yumo Pro purchase needed.
Yumo rotates on a fixed rhythm — every 6, 12 or 24 hours free, or every 1 to 4 hours with Pro. Between those points the word holds. That is intended: a word you see for a few hours is a word you remember.
Yes, as a home-screen widget. Android phones have no Lock Screen widgets, so that part is iPhone only. The Android version is coming to Google Play soon.
No. It is a single purchase tied to your App Store or Google Play account, restorable on any device you sign into.
Yumo speaks through your device's built-in Japanese voice. If none is installed, add one in Accessibility settings — iPhone under Spoken Content, Android under Text-to-speech output.
Refunds are handled by Apple and Google, not by us. Use reportaproblem.apple.com, or your Google Play order history.