# Hourly Kana: Learn Japanese — user reviews > 48 indexed App Store user reviews of Hourly Kana by Radish Retail, LLC, rated 4.60/5 from 324 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hourly-kana-learn-japanese/id6780309160/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hourly-kana-learn-japanese/id6780309160.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 269 · 4★ 26 · 3★ 8 · 2★ 6 · 1★ 15 ## Newest reviews (12 of 48) ### 4/5 — Wonderful *2026-08-21* The only reason I didn't give this five stars is because I don't think that the different types of learners or segments of learners were well considered. For instance I've been speaking Japanese for well over a decade and I love the idea of being able to learn new words. The app is crowded a little bit with some of the beginner stuff, which isn't helpful to me personally. I think all of the functionality is here. It just needs to be either onboarded a little better or through the UX, connected to the experience. For instance I like the idea of creating some decks and having that go into rotation of words I learn using The hourly concept. Also I want it to be really easy to disqualify or hide words that I know very well. I would hope that through the daily practice the spaced repetition memorization concept also influences what words are shown on my screen, for instance, and prompted at me. Perhaps I would like to see a mix of 80% new words but mix in 20% review. Also I forgot to mention I think that having grammar as a separate widget or being complementary to the hour notification. For context I lived in Japan for three years in my 20s. That was about 14 years ago and I am living in the States now. I consume some Japanese media but it's not a central part of my life so I passively and casually maintain and increase my vocabulary. I think this is a great app for people who who want to maintain their Japanese long-term. Finally on the pricing I would be comfortable. Actually I would prefer buying a lifetime access to the app. It would be neat if there was a Discord or something else for users. ### 4/5 — Sentence pronunciation is too fast *2026-08-10* I like how the app is laid out and you can click through words and kana, but when you hear the word used in a sentence, the speaker is WAY too fast. I can barely follow along with what is a word, what is a particle or otherwise. **Developer response:** Hi, Thank you for the feedback! There is an option to reduce speaker speed in the settings, but we are aware that there was a bug making the setting not work on some devices. We are currently waiting for approval for our next update that fixes this bug. It will be in version (2.3). Let us know if you are still having issues after it releases in the next few days! - support@radish.software ### 2/5 — Not free *2026-08-08* App appears as free and then forces you to subscribe. Unfortunate. ### 2/5 — Pronunciation Way Off *2026-08-07* As the title suggests, the pronunciation for the words you learn is completely wrong in the sample sentences. Definitely makes learning difficult when the context is always incorrect. Also a bummer that there’s no free option for this. Interface is clean though **Developer response:** Hi, Thank you for the feedback. We have fixed issues with the example pronunciation in the latest update, version 2.0. We constantly strive to make improvements- contact us at support@radish.software if there are any more issues. ### 3/5 — Great Idea, Some Issues *2026-08-06* I love the app. The lock scree. Widget is awesome, and its actually a pretty solid information layout. The main issue is the sentence pronunciations. I’m not going to say don’t use AI as thats unrealistic for the amount of sentences there are, but the AI voice is not even saying anything remotely close to what the sentence says, nor is it saying anything that could pass as Japanese. It is very prone to hallucinations. I understand its in the beginning stage, but you guys have a big responsibility to tell these new learners that the voice is AI and will most likely mess up. I would also like to see an option to not have the stroke order for the kanji show up as soon as you click the “trace” button. **Developer response:** Hi, Thank you for your feedback. We just released version 2.0, which has fixed the sentence pronunciation issue. We hope you can find the app experience is much better now! We also appreciate your suggestion and will implement it in our next update, alongside changes to how radicals are presented to learners. Thank you for helping us improve the app! -support@radish.software ### 4/5 — I like it, but… *2026-08-05* Is there some way to view all the radicals in the kanji while practicing stroke order? It only shows one with each example. Also, it would help if meanings of individual characters were listed with words including more than one character. **Developer response:** Hi, Thank you for the feedback! Both of these are great suggestions and we will consider adding it in an upcoming update. We are currently delayed by Apple but expect changes soon. Thanks for using Hourly Kana! -support@radish.software ### 3/5 — Good app for learning hiragana and katakana *2026-08-01* Like that there is an hourly word, it makes it fun to learn. The hiragana and katakana learning sections are great. But I noticed the pronunciation when you click to hear it for the grammar section was completely wrong. They are not pronouncing the words correctly making it confusing to learn. ### 4/5 — The Devs Actually Listen *2026-07-30* I reported a small issue and the developers fixed it way faster than I expected. They’re constantly improving the app, and you can tell they genuinely care about the experience ### 5/5 — Tuff ahh app *2026-07-30* Bruh whys this so effective tho ### 5/5 — good for kanji *2026-07-30* The hourly reminders are lowkey genius. I learn a little kana without feeling like I’m studying. My kanji recognition has improved so fast ### 5/5 — The Lock-Screen Widget Is Everything *2026-07-30* Having a new Japanese word sitting on my lock screen is lowkey genius. I glance at it throughout the day and somehow it actually sticks ### 4/5 — I love it *2026-07-30* I just love this app thank you so much for making this app <) ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Fake ratings *2026-08-23* App has been out for 1 month, won’t teach you Japanese, costs too much and yet has a ton of 5-star ratings… AI slop at its finest **Developer response:** Hi, We want to clarify one important point: our ratings are not fake, and we would never fake ratings. The app may be relatively new, but the response is real, and we’re grateful to already have thousands of learners using and enjoying Hourly Kana. Hourly Kana is designed to supplement Japanese study by making vocabulary and regular practice easier to fit into everyday life, not to replace an entire Japanese curriculum on its own. We are actively developing our learning curriculum and have gotten a lot of positive feedback and are always updating it. We also understand that the app and its pricing won’t be the right fit for everyone, but we allow our users to try the app first before committing. We’re always actively developing the app based on learner feedback, so if there are specific areas you felt were lacking, we’d genuinely appreciate hearing them. Best, support@radish.software ### 1/5 — Paid app *2026-08-18* They barely let you try the app before you have to pay to use it. They should atleast have a free version with less tools. Very disappointing. **Developer response:** Thanks for sharing your feedback. We understand that subscriptions aren’t for everyone. We offer a 7-day free trial so you can try all of the app’s features before being charged, along with reminders before the trial ends so there are no surprises. Unlike a one-time product, the app is continuously maintained and improved with new lessons, features, and updates based on feedback from our learners. Subscriptions help us support that ongoing development and continue making the app better for everyone. We appreciate you giving the app a try and wish you the best with your learning! ### 1/5 — Deleted my progress after subscription processed *2026-08-12* Hi, i was really enjoying the app so i purchased the year subscription, but today I logged on to see that my progress has just been erased. There is no “support” to report this issue to, and i honestly want to keep using this but im discouraged because again, the app just completely forgot me! Please let me know if i can get my money back, or if this can be fixed. **Developer response:** Hi, we’re sorry you ran into this. Your progress should not have been reset after subscribing, and we’d like to investigate and get it restored for you. Please contact us at support@radish.software and we’ll work with you to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. ### 1/5 — paid app *2026-08-10* no free version, yikess. instead of just letting you learn kanji, will make you learn hiragana/katakana i wanted an app to practice kanji from my homescreen but to one, pay and two, have to probably sit through all of hiragana/katakana; no thanks **Developer response:** Thanks for sharing your feedback. We understand that subscriptions aren’t for everyone. We offer a 7-day free trial so you can try all of the app’s features before being charged, along with reminders before the trial ends so there are no surprises. We have also recently added a Kanji only mode for learners that want to learn just Kanji. Unlike a one-time product, the app is continuously maintained and improved with new lessons, features, and updates based on feedback from our learners. Subscriptions help us support that ongoing development and continue making the app better for everyone. We appreciate you giving the app a try and wish you the best with your learning! ### 1/5 — paid app!! *2026-08-08* this is a PAID app. you can’t use it without paying for a subscription. you will get a 7 day free trial, but there is no functionality without paying. don’t download if you’re looking for a free option! this is very misleading and scummy. ### 1/5 — No free option and odd pronunciation *2026-08-04* There is a free 7 day period, but there is no free version or anything for that matter, besides, it wants to charge you within the first 2 minutes of usage. Another annoyance in the pronunciation of some of the sentences, you can tell it’s read by AI and not even the AI knows what’s it reading. ### 1/5 — Paid? *2026-08-04* I wanted to use this to brush up on my Japanese and learn some new useful words but as a part of the tutorial it asks me when I want to be reminded that the free trial has ended, so is this a paid app or what? Cause saying it’s free and then locking functionality behind a paywall is just gross ### 1/5 — So many errors *2026-07-30* How can you expect someone to learn if almost every sentence has errors? Clicking to listen doesn’t even give you the word , and half the time they mispronounce things. Caught this in the first 5 minutes … **Developer response:** Hi Kami, Your feedback is important to us. Could you please contact us at support@radish.software with details on the errors you encountered? Accuracy is very important to us. We strive to update our content regularly to ensure the content is correct. ### 1/5 — Audio pronunciation is very off. *2026-07-19* I got this to learn more kanji. I can speak Japanese pretty fluently but never learned how to read or write kanji growing up. I would be pretty upset if I was learning from scratch and chose to pay for an app that pronounced a lot of the words and sentences wrong. Concept is great but needs a lot of tweaks. **Developer response:** Hi Yuwasuke, Thank you for pointing this out. We recently released an update that improves the accuracy of Japanese pronunciations. Please update to the latest version and let us know if you still encounter any incorrect words or sentences, we’d appreciate the examples so we can continue improving. Thanks, support@radish.software ### 1/5 — Information is wrong *2026-07-13* Have been studying Japanese for 3 years. The very first word in this app was wrong. ぴ is not pronounced DO, it is PI. Immediately deleted the app. Being given wrong information is useless for learning. **Developer response:** Hi TLepianka, Thanks for your feedback. Accuracy is very important to our mission. We use official JLPT curriculum and data for our app. We've reviewed the current curriculum and weren't able to reproduce the issue you described, ぴ should be displayed and pronounced as "pi." If you did encounter incorrect content, we'd really appreciate it if you could use the Report Problem button or contact us with a screenshot or the lesson where it occurred so we can investigate. Thanks, support@radish.software ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Mes trajets passent vite *2026-08-21* Je l’utilise dans le bus le matin, avec seulement quelques minutes devant moi. Les exercices sont courts, alors je peux revoir les kana sans sortir un cahier. J’aime bien répéter les caractères qui me posent problème pendant le trajet. ### 5/5 — Great *2026-08-21* Very easy, and los of updates all the time to fix issues, nice app ### 5/5 — Seriously great app *2026-08-21* This is hands-down the very best app I’ve used to support my Japanese learning. The ability to learn a bite-sized piece of vocab, along with the written form AND with additional example sentences that add more practice, vocab, grammar and context, continually throughout the day, at your own pace and convenience, even in the middle of work, is just brilliant. I’d describe it as micro-immersion learning that hits on all fronts. My tutor is blown away at the increase in my vocabulary and my ability to read kanji and hiragana, and frankly, I’m blown away myself. Highly recommend subscribing to this, it is worth every penny. ### 5/5 — Very worth it *2026-08-20* I submit reports and the bugs get fixed the next day... i love the hard work and i think the price is so worth it. ### 5/5 — これは素晴らしいです！🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 *2026-08-17* This is the best Japanese learning app ever! Everything about it is perfect and extremely helpful for my Japanese 🇯🇵 有難う ### 5/5 — It feels good *2026-08-13* The first time I feel fluent! ### 5/5 — Absolutely recommended *2026-08-12* It's good. I like it. Lots of updates definitely worth it. ### 5/5 — such a great learning resource!! *2026-08-10* i’ve been having an amazing time with this app!! the widget is such a fun and useful tool on my home screen. the only issue i’ve had is whenever i try to go into the in game settings, the app will freeze and no longer respond to any touch inputs until you swipe out and fully restart the app. i took the placement test and it put me around N3 (yay!!) but im struggling to see where i could choose and change between past vocab packs (N5/N4) to also have those cycle through my hourly vocab. other than that, its been great and hopefully the price point stays low enough to continue wanting to use this as a fun recreational learning reference :) **Developer response:** Hi, Thank you for the feedback! We will take a look at the freezing issue and fix that ASAP. For changing between past packs, there will be a setting in the next update for that. We will try our best to get it out as quickly as we can. If you have any other questions or suggestions don't hesitate to reach out to us at support@radish.software! ### 5/5 — Best Japanese Learning App For the Cost *2026-08-02* I found this app through an instagram ad and I’m so happy I did. I love being able to learn Japanese passively throughout the day with the widget. One of my favorite features is being able to import my anki deck type files (I use a different app with the same file type) to memorize words of my choice! The cherry on top is that it includes SPACED REPETITION features, which are so important for learning. ### 5/5 — It’s actually pretty good! *2026-08-02* As someone who struggles with retaining my Japanese skills in general (no longer live in Japan). This had been the best tool I’ve found to just have the studying be almost passive. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-28.*