# Modu: Chinese Reader — Learn Mandarin with Stories > Learn Mandarin with Stories (iPhone/iPad app by 雪寒 周.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/modu-chinese-reader/id6788653501 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [雪寒 周](https://appshunter.io/developer/1892756116) - Category: Education - Price: Free - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 15.5 · 147 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2026-07-29 - Data updated: 2026-09-29 - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/modu-chinese-reader/id6788653501/reviews.md ## What is Modu? Read Chinese stories, understand unfamiliar words, and build vocabulary from what you read. Modu combines graded reading, a tap-to-lookup dictionary, and spaced-repetition review in one app. Choose a graded story or import your own EPUB and TXT books. Tap unfamiliar words for pinyin and meanings, save vocabulary in context, and review it later. READ WHAT INTERESTS YOU • Explore a library of graded retellings of public-domain stories. • Import EPUB and TXT books to read with built-in learning tools. • Generate AI stories based on your selected topic and level, with vocabulary you are due to review. • Follow RSS feeds. Available article text depends on the source; some feeds provide summaries only. UNDERSTAND AS YOU READ • Tap words for pinyin, meanings, and measure words. • Use AI explanations to explore a word in the context of a sentence. • Translate sentences and paragraphs into English on your device, or read with a bilingual chapter view. • Listen to text with read-aloud tools. REMEMBER WORDS IN CONTEXT • Save vocabulary from your reading and review it with spaced-repetition flashcards. • Mark words as known to focus highlighting on unfamiliar vocabulary. • Track your reading and vocabulary progress, and export your vocabulary. OFFLINE READING AND YOUR ACCOUNT Read and save books on your device as a guest, without creating an account. Books already on your device and core reading tools work offline. On-device translation requires an initial language-model download. AI features and natural online voices require an internet connection. Sign in to back up your vocabulary. Modu Plus also syncs reading progress and other learning data across devices. Imported book files remain on your device; import the same books on another device to continue reading there. FREE + MODU PLUS Free features include reading, dictionary lookup, on-device translation, bilingual reading, vocabulary review, book imports, RSS, the story library, and basic read-aloud. Limited AI explanations and story generation are included. Modu Plus adds higher AI usage allowances, natural multi-voice read-aloud, and additional learning-data sync. AI and natural-voice usage limits apply. See the in-app purchase screen for available plans and current allowances. Start with a story, and build your Chinese one reading session at a time. Terms of Use (EULA): https://modu-ai-proxy.zhouxuehan101.workers.dev/terms Privacy Policy: https://modu-ai-proxy.zhouxuehan101.workers.dev/privacy ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 1.7.0 — 2026-09-26 A cat skin • Modu now has skins. The first one is Watermelon (xīguā in Chinese), a grumpy grey tabby. He was a stray who came home with me six years ago, and he has kept me company ever since. I hope he keeps you company while you learn, too. • Hand-drawn cards, his own icons, a paper texture, and Watermelon turns up around the app: peeking over your review card, asleep at the end of a chapter. • New installs start with the cat. If you already use Modu, nothing changes until you want it to: switch from the Skin row in Profile, and back again any time. • With the cat skin, the third reading background is a warm amber instead of green. Mark's Firsts in China • The everyday reads are now one story: Mark, an American student, and twelve of his firsts in China, in the order a newcomer meets them. Paying by phone, ordering by QR code, bubble tea, food delivery, picking up a parcel, the metro, shared bikes, the high-speed train, seeing a doctor, hot water, dinner with Chinese friends, square dancing. • Each one is a 6–8 minute read, kept mostly to beginner vocabulary. The reading route now follows all twelve, and each has its own cover. Fixes • When you select a phrase that runs across two sentences and save a word, the example sentence now covers your whole selection, not just the first sentence. • The app language list no longer overflows on small phones. Tell me what breaks If something does not work the way this page says, tell me: Profile → About & feedback. Be blunt. I read every message. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone. ### 1.6.0 — 2026-09-10 Paste anything you want to read • Copy Chinese text from anywhere, paste it into Modu, and it becomes a book you can read, tap and save words from. Give it a title or let Modu take one from the first line. No account, no network. • Paste the same text again and you get the same book back, still at the place you had reached. Everyday Chinese · three short reads • A fixed three-part route through everyday situations: ordering coffee, ordering delivery, asking for directions. They ship inside the app, so they work offline. Finish one and Modu points you at the next; finish all three and you can reread them or go over the words you saved. Long-term review • A separate session for words you have already mastered, so they do not quietly fade. Off by default — turn it on in Settings. At most five words a session. • It only picks up words that graduate from here on. Words you marked as known by hand, and words that graduated before this update, stay out of it. Folding phones, tablets, landscape • Unfold your phone, rotate your iPad, or drag a split-screen divider, and you stay on the line you were reading. This used to break: in page mode you could be thrown to the end of the chapter. • On a wide screen the main tabs move from the bottom to the left edge. That includes most phones held in landscape, where the screen is short and a bottom bar costs more than it gives. • On a foldable held half-open like a book, the text moves off the crease. Settings • Regrouped. App language and dictionary now sit together under Language, About has a place of its own, and the list no longer stretches the full width of a big screen. Fixes • In bilingual view, translations arriving could push the paragraph you were reading off the screen. • The AI limits on the paywall now say what they actually count — requests per day, and retries count too. • The writing screen could overflow in a small window. Tell me what breaks If something does not work the way this page says, tell me: Profile → About & feedback. Be blunt. I read every message. ### 1.5.0 — 2026-09-08 Account data and reliability • Signing in automatically adds guest books and learning data on this device to your account, preserving existing account data. • Improved cross-device sync, read-aloud, reminders, iPad sharing and subscription trial information. Read a chapter beside its translation. • Bilingual view (Plus): each paragraph gets an English translation under it, folded away until you tap. It runs on your device — the first use downloads a language model, and after that it works offline, with nothing leaving your phone. Turn it on from the reader's top bar or from Settings. • While you read one chapter the next one is translated in the background, so moving on is instant. Read-aloud keeps going • Lock your phone and read-along keeps reading, one sentence after the next. Play, pause and skip sentences from the lock screen, Control Centre or your AirPods. On your home screen • A widget for your streak and how many words are due today. Add it from the widget gallery. Fixes • Daily reminders were on by default but were never actually scheduled unless you had opened the reminder settings at least once. If you switched reminders on and never heard from Modu, this is why. • Turning down the notification permission left the switch showing "On" while nothing was ever sent. Modu now tells you, and points you at the system settings. • Quitting the app halfway through your first book made it start over from the introduction next time. • With a native-language dictionary in use, the small tag beside a definition still read EN. • The vocabulary tab at the bottom was the one label left in English in Japanese, Korean and Russian. Small things • The review card now flies off in the direction you graded it, and there is a moment for finishing a character. Grading, writing and celebrating all give you a tap you can feel. Tell me what breaks If something does not work the way this page says, tell me: Profile → About & feedback. Be blunt. I read every message. ### 1.4.0 — 2026-08-29 Real iPad support, and sync that stops losing things. • iPad: a proper large-screen layout instead of a stretched phone app. Lines are capped at a readable width so you never lose your place jumping to the next one, and the bookshelf finally uses the room it has. Sync fixes Every one of these failed silently. No error, no warning — it just quietly stopped working. • Words you deleted on one device came back from another one. They stay deleted now. • Reading on two devices in one day only counted the longer session. Ten minutes on your phone plus twelve on your tablet showed twelve, not twenty-two — enough to break a streak you had actually earned. • Two books with the same title shared a single reading position, and renaming a book lost your place. Books are now identified by their text, not their title. • A book you imported on a second device never picked up the position you had reached on the first. "Pick up where you left off" was broken in exactly the case you would use it for. • Closing the app from the app switcher lost your place in the chapter. Your position is saved the moment the app goes to the background now. • When you send text to Modu from another app, one piece that failed to open used to silently break everything you sent afterwards, until you restarted the app. Nothing already lost comes back — these fixes stop it from happening again. Tell me what breaks If something does not work the way this page says, tell me: Profile → About & feedback. Be blunt. I read every message. ### 1.3.0 — 2026-08-23 Your language, everywhere in the app. • The interface now speaks 12 languages. If your device is set to one of them, Modu switches automatically — no setup. • Native-language dictionaries for 12 languages, each with about 120,000 entries. Tap a word and read its meaning in your own language instead of English. • The Japanese, Korean and Russian dictionaries are much bigger now. Words like 一个 and 妈妈 used to show up in English. They no longer do. • Dictionaries download in the background the first time you need them, and work offline afterwards. Fixes • The review buttons and the "learn these first" list on a book page still showed English when the app was set to another language. Fixed. Tell me what reads wrong Nine of these languages are brand new, and I cannot judge them myself. If a sentence sounds off, a definition is wrong, or your language is missing — tell me: Profile → About & feedback. Be blunt. 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User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-29.*