# imiwa? — user reviews > 970 indexed App Store user reviews of imiwa? by Pierre-Phi di Costanzo, rated 4.50/5 from 258 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/imiwa/id288499125/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/imiwa/id288499125.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 209 · 4★ 21 · 3★ 3 · 2★ 6 · 1★ 19 ## What do users think of imiwa?? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Excellent dictionary with comprehensive features - 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface - 💡 Offline functionality is very useful - 🚀 Fast lookup and analysis of text - 👍 Detailed kanji information including stroke order **Cons** - 🐛 Occasional crashes and stability issues - 🔋 App takes up a lot of storage space - 👎 Some translations and example sentences are unreliable - 👎 Lack of handwriting input for kanji lookup **Commonly reported bugs** - Search function sometimes becomes unresponsive - Settings menu not fully accessible on some devices - Clipboard auto-paste feature can be distracting **Most requested features** - Add option to change app theme/color scheme - Improve export/sharing capabilities for vocab lists - Implement handwriting recognition for kanji lookup - Expand example sentences and improve their translations ## Newest reviews (14 of 970) ### 4/5 — 名詞の性 *2026-08-26* 結構前はドイツ語で男性名詞か中性名詞か女性名詞か分かるようになっていたけど、いつのまにか分からない仕様になっていたのが残念。 ### 2/5 — The new UI *2026-08-07, version 5.2.0* This was my fav app but I’m sorry the new UI is so annoying. Before it would automatically copy and paste into the app and literally show you the whole translation word for word and you click on the words you want to dissect. Now you gotta slap it into the tiny search bar and go to a tab to do it. It’s a small thing but the previous one was so perfect now I’m salty. ### 3/5 — Superbe mise à jour, mais… *2026-08-02* Bonjour. Une excellente appli depuis des années déjà, de très bonnes mises à jour, cependant, je trouve l’ordre des kanjis (trait par trait) beaucoup trop lent… Etant en boucle, il ne serait pas gênant que ce soit un peu plus rapide, voire comme c’était avant. ### 3/5 — What happened? *2026-07-29* Someone thought it would be a good idea to update the UX. Big mistake. It was perfect as it was. I’ve used this app for over 15 years now. I used it for 13 years living in Japan. It helped me out and I’ll be forever grateful but it’s ruined now. Not intuitive, hardly any information on a page and just clunkier. Please go back to the old interface! ### 4/5 — Dev is Listening *2026-07-25* I’ve written 2 reviews post big update July 2026 before this and at first the dev added the auto paste feature but it was bugged but after a recent update they fixed it. So it’s clear they are paying attention to all of the recent bad reviews based on the big update. I can’t give it 5 stars again yet because of the overall performance downgrade of the new version but at least I can now use imiwa how I used to. Hopefully there’s minor performance improvements over time. Also I do appreciate some of the features like pitch accent that were added. I do think there’s like a strong politically motivated anti ai bias at play that goes past the functional downgrades leading to a lot of the strongly negative reviews, that said there is still a noticeable performance downgrade compared to the previous version which is why I’m still only giving 4 stars for now even though it seems like the dev is trying. ### 4/5 — Analysator: Furigana and Romaji way too small *2026-07-22* It‘s great that you keep updating the app! First and foremost though:the furigana and also the romaji in the Analysator and example sentences are almost impossible to read - the letters are tiny. Please make them bigger! ### 1/5 — 酷くなった *2026-07-14* 何年も前からこの辞書で勉強していたんですけど今はバグだらけで遅い。気に入りリストは使えにくくてアニメーションは壊れているようです。今日は言葉をリストに追加するのはできなくなった。 酷い。 ### 1/5 — Ruined by the 2026 Update *2026-07-12, version 5.1.0* I used to really like imiwa. It was my go to Japanese dictionary app. Offline, fast lookups, good kanji resources, example sentences, the works. I used it all the time. Then it auto updated in July 2026 and now it’s trash. ABSOLUTE TRASH! The new layout looks bad and is not intuitive to use. Search is messed up, it stutters when you scroll, and stuff like the clipboard auto search is gone. I have to tap around just to do basic things that used to be instant. I turned off auto app updates I was so mad. A bunch of other people are saying the same thing because it is vibe coded garbage. Bring back the old app!! ### 3/5 — Old version was better *2026-07-11, version 5.1.0* I’ve been using this app for over 10 years and loved it for its simplicity. This new version just seems way overcomplicated. Everything takes way longer than it used too and is way more fiddly :( ### 1/5 — Conjugation table gone??? *2026-07-11, version 5.0.1* Conjugation table gone? I don’t understand why you would get rid of such a simple and effective resource????? All the “examples” don’t help. It’s clutter and visually unappealing. “AI” doesn’t make up for it. I’ll go to a real ai resource if I want that. ### 4/5 — I hate it, but I love it more *2026-07-10* I have been using Imiwa? for over 12 years, and it's been the most cherished Japanese language tool I had. The recent redesign is eh... I liked when it was a bit more retro and academic, but I don't mind getting used to it because it just became more informative, ergonomic and customizable. I will be using it even more than I already had. The dev 100% deserve support, because their work shows they love languages and learning. ### 1/5 — Why ruin it? *2026-07-10, version 5.0.1* Used to be the gold standard for Japanese apps, but this new interface and colour scheme looks cheap and feels like a downgrade… and that new logo is frankly ugly ### 1/5 — new UI is so bad *2026-07-09* I hope we can revert to the old UI, the current UI is soo bad (so white and bright), difficult to use, and slow. My main concern is that this app is 1 second slower to open after the new UI. Not sure you can fix it, it seems the feature is bloated now, at least can you make a mini app? that still use the old UI. also can you make it dark mode option? ### 1/5 — Bring back the old interface! *2026-07-07* The new interface makes the app so much more difficult to use. This app has been the backbone of my Japanese learning experience for years and now I may need to find an alternative. I would gladly pay to add a toggle that lets me revert to the old interface. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Do all good things have to go? *2026-08-18* What a shame to have changed such a wonderful app, that worked perfectly and helped us so much for so many years. Please someone else, make the same design and functionality as before again! ### 1/5 — How to ruin an app *2026-08-01* This is amazing example how to ruin something that didnt need an update. Kanji search is mow terrible, radical search is unintiutive and silly, handdrawing getting it wrong every single time. Verb conjugation lookup is just gone, i repeat, VERB CONJUGATION IS GONE! What the hell?! Not going back to this app ever, this is beyond saving, looking for alternatives now, thanks developers! ### 1/5 — Great app turned bad *2026-07-27* I hate writing this as this used to be such a great app. But with the recent revamp there are so many bugs it’s not worth trying to use the new features. I like the flash cards but the constant issues with pasting from other apps makes it not worth it. I adjusted the settings as suggested to make paste automatic as it used to be. It worked for a while. But now it doesn’t actually look up the words until I hit search. Then sometime it brings up the word but won’t actually show the definition. Just too many bugs now for prime time unfortunately. I’m happy to donate to these guys and have in the past as it’s my go to app for Japanese but please fix these bugs. ### 1/5 — 更新してすごく遅くなった！ *2026-07-24* 本当に遅くなって全然無駄となった！:’( ### 1/5 — AI Slop *2026-07-22, version 5.2.0* Please just revert to the old version. You ruined everything that was good about the old version. ### 1/5 — AI junk and swiped *2026-07-20, version 5.1.0* They swiped from the Japanese app too. Just stick with jisho.org ### 1/5 — That is the end *2026-07-20* The app new version’s dictionary is basically gone, it doesn’t find even simple words anymore. I wonder who was able to hijack the app and turn it into this kind of useless bs. There are already hundreds if not thousands of better Kanji-learn apps, but there wasn’t any app better in combining Kanji related info with a multi-language dictionary. “Was”, past tense because the dictionary is just gone. ### 1/5 — AI slop *2026-07-17, version 5.1.0* New update ruined a perfectly good app. Forcing AI results into searches ### 1/5 — Turned into AI-generated junk *2026-07-15, version 5.1.0* Used this app for years since it was dependable and rock solid. Now they replaced the entire codebase (or at least the front end) with some AI generated trash that’s glitchy, unresponsive, and has a whole host of design and performance issues with it. Into the trash it goes. Way to ruin something great. ### 1/5 — Auto Clipboard Look-up doesn’t work IOS *2026-07-14, version 5.1.0* The dev seemed to try and add this feature back but it doesn’t even work. It’s like they didn’t bother to test it, it says “imiwa? pasted from application” but the text isn’t entered into the search bar just a total development failure bug where the testing was clearly not done. Like you still have to click the copy paste button. The old version it just lightning fast instantly searched whatever was in the clipboard without any button press. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — S’il n’y a qu’une application à garder, c’est celle-ci *2026-08-28* J’utilise imiwa? depuis maintenant plusieurs années. Mais ces dernières semaines ont apporté tellement de nouveautés fabuleuses : les flashcards, la grammaire de Tae Kim, un analyseur bien plus puissant… Et c’est gratuit. Entièrement. Sans pub. Même pas besoin de connexion internet. C’est un outil formidable pour apprendre le japonais, de loin le meilleur que vous pourrez trouver sur l’App Store. Un grand merci à l’équipe fantastique derrière imiwa? ! 本当にありがとうございます！ ### 5/5 — Very good but a suggestion *2026-08-11* Hey, this is very awesome, could be the best in the category, all for free! How generous but I have one suggestion since the search is running for lots of things, the result comes a little delayed. Other app would instantly shows the result on character input I wonder if we can have a settings to narrow the search I don’t need it to search example text, most of the time I just want to search for the vocab and will see the example text within the word card Regards ### 5/5 — Best Japanese dictionary app ever since iphone was a thing *2026-08-08, version 5.3.0* Super stoked the app is getting an update, been using it since maybe 15 years ago. I don’t need to look up Japanese as often now as I’m better with the language but I will forever keep this amazing app ### 5/5 — Simply the best *2026-07-15* Imiwa a toujours été très utile au Japon, bien mieux que d'autres applis, par son interface et ses fonctions. Pas encore vraiment testé la version 5, mais à priori, elle semble être une amélioration majeure. ### 5/5 — Best app ever *2026-07-10* Any chance this is coming to android? I recently switched to android and there is just no good app like imiwa? available. I would love to see a FOSS version of imiwa on Github. ### 5/5 — Fantastic app. The new update could have been explained better but still my go-to Japanese app. *2026-07-08* Update: I’ve continued to use the new version. It is quite good, and the new capabilities are helpful. I appreciate that it is completely free and that the developer is responsive to bug reports. I will continue to use this as my primary Japanese dictionary app, as I have for many years. Original: I have been using this app for 5 years as my go-to Japanese dictionary, and creating vocabulary lists of words I’m studying. Today, I open it and EVERYTHING has changed, without warning. I can’t find anything. I wasn’t sure it was even the same app. I thought my vocabulary lists were gone until thankfully I found them under the “learning” tab. I’m not against progress or change and I think over time, it will probably be an improvement. But to roll out a complete revamp without any sort of tutorial or explanation on an app that so many have depended on for language learning for so long is very disruptive. I think it would have been fine if there was an explanation that your old data is still in the app and instructions on where to find it. ### 5/5 — Excellence for years *2026-07-04, version 5.0.0* Still my primary method for looking up things going on 10+ years. Zero ads or weirdness. Examples are largely pulled from normal Japanese usage. Let’s you save and export “favorite” word list. ### 5/5 — Can you bring back *2026-07-04, version 5.0.0* Auto paste from clipboard, please? ### 5/5 — 5 stars for app, 0 for new interface *2026-07-04* I’ve been using this app since it was called “Kotoba” and it has always been a great dictionary, probably the best I’ve used. However the new “iOS 26” interface is dreadful. The developers are free to do with their app what they like, but it would be appreciated if they could provide a classic version or an option to use the old interface. ### 5/5 — Latest update on fire *2026-07-03* 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻 --- *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 2026-09-02.*