The app, screen by screen.
Everything below is in the free app. Nothing here is behind a purchase.
Your daily plan
Every day the app builds a plan for you: the word of the day, the next class in your course, your bookmarked words, any words you met outside the course, a review of your weakest words, and your mix-ups. You choose how long it should be, from five words to fifty. Skip a day and the plan is still there tomorrow.
One card, five ways to know a word
The study card asks each word in five ways: read it, give its meaning, pick its tone, hear it and write it. A new word is asked only by reading until you know it, then the other skills join in. It looks simple because it is; the thinking is all underneath.
A memory that works
MidMando uses spaced repetition, the same method behind the best flashcard systems. Every answer moves that word's next review earlier or later. Words you keep getting right drift out to months. Words you miss come straight back. Your You page shows how many words are solid, warming and shaky at every level.
The word profile
Tap any word anywhere and you get its page: the character in large serif, the reading with audio, every meaning, example sentences, words it is not the same as, tone traps, the pieces it is built from, and your own history with it. From here you can bookmark it or practise writing it.
All HSK levels, 1 to 9
Every character in the course, across all nine HSK levels from 1 to 9, coloured by how well you know it. It is where you see your progress, find a class to open, or spot the words that need attention.
Classes with nine parts
Each class in the course is about fifteen words and nine short parts: learn, quiz, type, sentences, listening, tones, translation, write, and a test to unlock the next one. Do the parts in order or dip into the one you need.
Translate anything
The plus button opens Translate. Type or paste English or Chinese and you get the translation, the pinyin, how many of the words you already know, and a list of the new ones with a box beside each. Tick the ones you want and they go into today's plan or tomorrow's. Every message you translate is kept, with the new words underlined, so you can come back and read it again.
Search everything
One search box covers words, idioms, poems, songs, places and your own translation history. Type in English, pinyin or Chinese.
Bookmarks and mix-ups
Bookmark any word and it joins your plan. When you confuse two words, the app notices and keeps them as a pair to drill together.
Streaks and achievements
A calendar of every day you studied, a streak count, and 155 achievements that mark the milestones as you pass them.
Settings worth mentioning
Choose your daily goal, set a reminder time, find your level with a two-minute placement test, switch the app's labels between English and Chinese, and pick the voice. That is the whole settings page; there is nothing to buy in it.
Works everywhere, syncs everywhere
Everything is on your device and works offline. Your progress syncs through your own iCloud account to your other iPhones and iPads. I never see it. The app works inside mainland China without a VPN.
All of this is on the Mac too.
The same course, library and memory, in a window built for a desk — with system-wide lookup of any Chinese on your screen. See the Mac page.