# Immersion Reader — Japanese reader & dictionary

> Japanese ebook reader and dictionary with vocabulary export. (iPhone/iPad app by Mathew Chan.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/immersion-reader/id6443721334 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Mathew Chan](https://appshunter.io/developer/1441199099)
- Category: Education, Books
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.00/5 from 26 App Store ratings · 13 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 13.0 · 80 MB
- Languages: English
- Released: 2022-11-15
- Data updated: 2026-07-23
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/immersion-reader/id6443721334/reviews.md

## What is Immersion Reader?

Look up Japanese words as you read!

Features
- One tap to look up words in Japanese Ebooks. Tabs to help you look up neighboring words
- Import Yomichan dictionaries and frequency dictionaries
- Export saved vocabulary to Anki via Anki Dojo
- Light mode, dark mode, and other themes for the dictionary

## Key features

- One-tap word lookup in Japanese ebooks
- Import Yomichan and frequency dictionaries
- Export vocabulary to Anki
- Light and dark mode themes
- Lookup neighboring words

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Immersion Reader Premium | $4.99 | one-time |


## Recent user reviews (10 of 13)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/immersion-reader/id6443721334/reviews.md

### 1/5 — Title

*2025-09-05*

Just stopped working. When I open an epub, it’s just blank.
Shame.

### 1/5 — Jank

*2025-07-07*

Just a wrapper around the ttsu reader (and not that great to be honest). It’s janky and this especially does not work well on a MacBook.

### 4/5 — Best Japanese reader for ios with some minor caveats

*2025-07-05*

This is the best simple reader app for Japanese if you are a more advanced Japanese learner whomdoesn,t want much more than to display a book and have a nice dictionary. The only things I wish it had are continuous scrolling mode like the browser version of the ttsunreader that it uses. And also when you delete a book, the statistics should be deleted. Because when you add a new book ttsunis going tomuse the lowest available ID and then the statistics for multiple books get all garbled up. Similarly, if you skip to another part in a book, maybe because you read a certain amount in another app or debice, it is going to skyrocket the reading speed stat.

### 4/5 — Great! With a couple small gripes

*2024-05-18*

I much prefer this to the bloat and confusion of Manabi reader. It would be absolutely perfect to me if there was iCloud sync for the books you’re reading and where you are in them. There is that one issue where when you swipe out without pressing the bookmark button it doesn’t save your spot, but it doesn’t bother me too much. Haven’t tried the premium browser within, so I can’t speak on that, but I may try it in the near future. Thank you for developing this! So so useful to have these tools on iOS.

### 1/5 — Saving broken

*2024-02-28*

Book position no longer saved and developer is not responding to bug reports via email. Additionally the app overheats easily and saps battery life.

### 4/5 — Promising but needs some work

*2024-02-19*

This app does what it advertises — it’s a great tool for Japanese learners to read books and makes learning vocabulary much easier. Crucially, it imported the epub I tested correctly, with vertical text and right-to-left reading. (Surprisingly, some other similar apps failed to do so.)

However, there are a few issues that are quite big to me. When looking up a compound word like 無邪気 the dictionary doesn’t treat the whole word as a single tappable “link”. Meaning, if I tap 無, I get the whole compound word. However, if I tap 邪, I get 邪気. And similarly, 気 gets the single character. The expected behavior, from many other apps, is that tapping on any character of a compound word will give the definition of the whole compound word.

Also annoying: swiping the book does close it, but doesn’t save the page you were on. To do that, you have to tap the exit button. I also couldn’t find a way to go to a specific page (though there is a table of contents).

For more minor issues, the e-reader is just not very refined at this point. It’s not exactly fair to compare this to the pre-installed Apple Books app, but it would be nice to have features like auto day-night mode, tap to flip pages, and page flipping animations.

That all said, I’m very glad this app exists and I’m hoping to see future updates resolve these issues. At it’s core, I think this is a great app.

### 2/5 — Doesn’t work on ipad mini

*2023-12-26*

It used to work on my phone, but now whenever I try to upload epubs on my ipad mini, the screen just goes blank. It’s disappointing because this was my favorite JP reading app.

### 5/5 — 10/10 recommend

*2023-09-10*

Super useful. That being said, I don't think the font change works.

### 3/5 — Almost perfect…

*2023-08-25*

But having to guess/look for the last place I left off at can be quite annoying. It would be nice if the bookmark worked! Doesn’t work on updated iPad or iPhone.

Because of this, I don’t use the app as much as I would like to, even though I would love to. So I hope it’s something that can be fixed in an update soon. An automatic spot-saving feature would be nice and convenient, if that can be done!

Another issue I notice is in the “smoothness” of using the app like having to tap multiple times for the top bar to show up… then after adjusting settings there, it restarts the book and I have to find where I left off at again. 

Besides those two things, I think it’s an amazing and super helpful resource for studying/reading Japanese. I love how easy it is to export saved words to the flashcard app I use. 

Not only that, but the fact that if you tap on a word in your saved words, you can see the sentence that you first found it in— this is extremely convenient, as well.

### 4/5 — Dictionaries Issue

*2023-08-12*

I've downloaded some dictionaries and even though the uploading worked the dictionaries do nothing and won't work. 
The standard ones work though.

## Frequently asked questions about Immersion Reader

### What is Immersion Reader?

Immersion Reader is a Japanese reader and dictionary app that allows you to look up words with a single tap while reading Japanese ebooks. It supports importing custom dictionaries and exporting vocabulary to Anki.

### How does Immersion Reader help with learning Japanese?

It facilitates vocabulary acquisition by providing instant definitions for words encountered in ebooks. You can also export saved vocabulary to Anki for spaced repetition, enhancing memorization.

### Can I use my own dictionaries with Immersion Reader?

Yes, Immersion Reader allows you to import Yomichan dictionaries and frequency dictionaries, enabling a personalized reading and learning experience.

### Does Immersion Reader have ads?

No, Immersion Reader does not contain advertisements, providing an uninterrupted reading experience.

### What devices is Immersion Reader available on?

Immersion Reader is available on iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices.

### What is the age rating for Immersion Reader?

Immersion Reader has an age rating of 4+, making it suitable for a wide range of users.

### How often is Immersion Reader updated?

The app was last updated on January 25, 2026, indicating recent development and support.

### What are the pricing details for Immersion Reader?

Immersion Reader is free to download and use, with optional in-app purchases available for additional features or content.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 3.13 — 2026-04-06

Added lookup support for Chinese and Korean.

### 3.11 — 2026-01-25

Updated flutter and package versions

### 3.10 — 2025-05-14

Patched an issue where the menu would not come up in the browser.

### 3.9 — 2025-05-12

Added search (beta) for ebooks.

### 3.8 — 2025-05-09

Fixed a bug where bookmarks would show the wrong page when the audio reader is also loaded

## Apps similar to Immersion Reader

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Yomu Yomu: Read&Learn Japanese](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/yomu-yomu-read-and-learn-japanese/id1636640840) | 4.9 (174) | Free | Education |
| [Ringotan](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ringotan/id1633001064) | 4.9 (558) | Free | Education |
| [Numbiro](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/numbiro/id1610373472) | 4.4 (7) | Free | Education |
| [Japanese Flashcards – Manabi](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/japanese-flashcards-manabi/id1180710626) | 4.2 (33) | Free | Education |
| [Learn Japanese: Manabi Reader](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/learn-japanese-manabi-reader/id1247286380) | 4.3 (140) | Free | Education |
| [DaKanji](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/dakanji/id1593741764) | 4.7 (12) | Free | Education |

## Related topics

[immersion reader](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/immersion-reader) · [immersive reader](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/immersive-reader)

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*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 2026-07-23.*