Android · 20 languages · in development
The English you meet at work, kept
You already read a foreign language all day — the standup thread, a notification, a page in a notebook, the label on something in front of you. VocNova reads it with you and turns what matters into cards worth studying.
You are on the list. We will write once, on the day it opens.
You are already on the list — nothing more to do.
That does not look like an email address.
Something went wrong at our end. Try again in a moment.
Three ways a word gets in
From the messages you already read
Connect a chat account, or let VocNova read notifications from the apps you tick. It finds the words worth learning and writes the card — meaning, example sentence, pronunciation.
From a photograph
Point the camera at a page and every line becomes a card. Point it at your desk, your lunch or a street and it names what is in the picture — you tap the ones you want to keep.
By coming back
Cards return on the day you are about to forget them, and only then. Reading, listening, typing and speaking, so a word is learned rather than recognised.
What it actually does
Reads your working day
Google Chat today, more to come, plus notifications from the apps you choose. Only the language you are studying is ever sent to be read.
Take & Learn
Photograph a page and get its list. Photograph a room and get its nouns, marked on the picture so you can see which chair it means before you keep it.
Cards that arrive finished
A meaning in your own language, a definition in the one you are studying, a sentence that uses the word, and the sounds it makes.
Review that respects your time
Scheduling built on FSRS. Twenty due words on a Tuesday rather than four hundred on a Sunday.
Folders that hold a word twice
A word belongs to every topic it belongs to. File it under Meetings and Unit 4, study either, lose neither.
Twenty languages, both ways
Pick the language you think in and the one you are learning. Everything — every meaning, every example, every question — is written between those two.
Your messages stay yours
This app reads private conversations, so the answer to "where does that go" has to be short and checkable.
- Notification text is never written to our database. It passes through to be read for words and is discarded.
- Messages are held for about a week, and only until your devices have a copy. After that your phone holds the only one.
- The copy on your phone is encrypted, and backups are turned off.
- Verification codes, passwords and account numbers are thrown away on the phone, before anything is sent.
- No advertising, no tracking, no analytics on what you tap.
Questions people ask first
Is VocNova free?
The waitlist is. Pricing is not decided yet, and when it is, this page will say so before anybody is charged. You can also bring your own model key, which means the reading of your words is billed to your own account rather than ours.
Does it read all my notifications?
Only the apps you tick, one by one, and only after you grant Android's permission yourself. Anything that looks like a verification code, a password or an account number is discarded on the phone and never leaves it.
Which languages does it work in?
Twenty, in either direction: English, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Thai, Indonesian, Malay, Hindi, Arabic, Dutch, Polish and Turkish. You choose the language you think in and the one you are studying.
Do I need to be online?
To collect new words, yes. To study the ones you have, no — your collection lives on the phone.
Is there an iPhone version?
Not yet. Android first, because that is where the notification reading is possible at all.
When does it open?
It is in testing now. The waitlist gets one email on the day it opens, and no other email at any time.