# Planet Lettra — A word building playground

> Interactive word building playground for early literacy development. (iPhone/iPad app by Gregory McDonald.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/planet-lettra/id992464990 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Gregory McDonald](https://appshunter.io/developer/992464989)
- Category: Education, Entertainment
- Price: Free
- Rating: 4.30/5 from 41 App Store ratings · 12 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 8.1 · 123 MB
- Languages: American English, French (France), European Spanish
- Released: 2015-05-25
- Data updated: 2026-08-27
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/planet-lettra/id992464990/reviews.md

## What is Planet Lettra?

"an outstanding app that will help young readers...in a playful, encouraging environment." --- 5/5 "Best of the Best" Sandra Fleming, BestAppsForKids.com

Bumping bubbles magically build words or invent your own to feed the silly creatures on Planet Lettra.  Kids love this app for experimenting with word building and hearing what they've made.

Imagine a set of letter blocks that your child can arrange any way they want and hear what they've built, blocks that guide your child in building the most important sight words for reading fluency and give him or her lots of exposure to important letter blends, blocks that even form words all by themselves. That's Planet Lettra.

You can even go below the planet surface, into the belly of Lettra, to see the real words you've already fed to the Munchers, hear them read aloud individually or one after the other.  Or rearrange the word bubbles to make silly sentence.

Whatever your child or student's age or reading ability, this app has plenty to discover and play with: green and purple Munchers that love to eat words, silly costumes, musical patterns, creatures with other special powers and more.  

In classrooms and special ed settings, educators use Planet Lettra to scaffold student learning in spelling and phonics.  Special pink bubbles can be assigned values in the Settings area and used to work on building words with specific parts (practice specific blends or rhymes).

Features:

•  Play in English, French or Spanish
•  A short video tour of the planet introduces new travellers to Planet Lettra and guides them in playing with the bubbles and creatures
•  Planet Lettra recognizes over 100,000 words in each supported language.
•  Words important to reading fluency (about 1000) are formed more easily and more often.
•  The sound environment is musical, soothing and non-repetitive.
•  Experiment and play without stress: there are no time limits, no levels to complete, no points to accumulate, no in-app purchases


-- Winner of a Children's Technology Review Editors Choice Award (2016)

-- School Library Journal (slj.com): "Children will be delighted to discover that double tapping on a bubble triggers the narrator to pronounce it, even if it is an invented word. This app supports word recognition as “smart” letter bubbles (when users hold down a bubble) hint at combinations that lead to real terms. The real joy here is in playfully discovering what letters can do. 

-- Commonsensemedia.org: "The open-ended platform allows kids full freedom to explore and empowers them to find words all on their own."

-- Educational App Store Certified, 4 stars, "This app is great for experimenting with word building and hearing what you have made. The app supports fantastic graphics and a unique playing experience."

## Key features

- Interactive letter bubbles for word creation
- Supports English, French, and Spanish
- Recognizes over 100,000 words per language
- Focuses on sight words and letter blends
- Musical and soothing sound environment
- No time limits, levels, or points

## Recent user reviews (10 of 12)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/planet-lettra/id992464990/reviews.md

### 1/5 — Not what I expected

*2018-02-07*

I want a phonics game for my son and this did not deliver. Very disappointed.

**Developer response:** Most kids and adults love Lettra's open-ended play and experimentation, but it isn't for everybody.  I'm sorry the app wasn't what you were expecting.  I hope you find the kind of phonics game you're looking for and that your son can just explore Planet Lettra for fun.

### 5/5 — Victoria

*2016-08-19*

Loving the new updates!  Thank you so much.

This is my new favourite app.  It is super simple but lots of fun and allows students to play with letter sounds and spelling.  It could be used in directed teaching situations but would also be awesome for free play.

### 3/5 — Cute but

*2016-04-30*

The letters go together too easily and gets frustrating.

**Developer response:** You can control how the letter bubbles combine with the ring on the planet in the upper right corner of the screen.  If you pull the ring all the way to the bottom, the bubbles will only blend if you push two of them close together.  Hope that helps.

### 5/5 — Amazing educational tool!

*2016-02-06, version 2.0*

This is a great tool to use with my students that are learning to read. As a teacher, I am always looking for something to scaffold my teaching in a fun and kid friendly way. The Planet Lettra App meets those needs. I would recommend it to all of the parents during interview time.

### 5/5 — Phonics and word building fun

*2015-12-14*

Used this excellent, fun, motivating app in my first grade classroom to reinforce learned skills and to explore and play in the world of letters and sounds. This app was fun for kids at all levels. They love exploring nonsense words and discovering real words. Great for English language learners!

### 5/5 — Burp!  [much laughing while learning]

*2015-12-09, version 2.0*

My kids love making funny words and sounds with the app and watching the bubble  eaters spit out the letters.  To be honest, I have fun doing it too.  Great app for kids and families!

### 5/5 — (have)(fun)(with)(words)(and)(letters)

*2015-12-07, version 2.0*

Our seven-year-old has been having fun with this, mucking around with the words and feeding them to the little critters.  For my part, I've been realizing that there's some neat hidden stuff hidden in there that I completely missed at first, like the way that little two-letter orb says the names of countries when you tap it ... Makes me wonder what else I haven't found.  It's a "sandbox" style, so don't arrive expecting points and timers and best-word-ever scores and all that.  Just play around.  Oh, and worth mentioning in this day and age: you buy it, and you're done, it doesn't ask you for more money, 99 cents at a time.

Upate for new version: I love the new video tour, tres Seuss.

### 5/5 — Une jeu relaxant

*2015-12-06, version 2.0*

L'application Planète Lettra contraste avec beaucoup d'applications s'adressant au jeune publique: elle réussit à être captivante sans pour autant avoir recours à des stimulations visuelles et auditives dissonantes ou violentes.

### 5/5 — Planet Lettra is the start of something big!!!

*2015-12-04, version 2.0*

Planet Lettra is amazing!!!  Do you remember on Sesame Street when they would teach you words by bringing parts of them together.  Planet Lettra is this sort of fun and learning come to life!  I could only imagine how great it would have been to have something like this when I was young.  The library of words is undoubtedly very large and there are several languages programmed in providing tons of learning even for adults learning those languages!  I would love to see a version using numbers and teaching math or names of people, teaching history.  There is a great deal of possibility in the structure of this app being connected to the world of digital information that grows every day.  If your ever stuck figuring out what to name something, fire up this app for inspiration!  I couldn't recommend this app more highly to everyone!  Check it out!!

### 5/5 — Vive le glouton!

*2015-12-04, version 2.0*

Mon petit-enfant de 8 ans adore ce jeu.  Il aime beaucoup les différentes créatures mais surtout celui qui mange de tout.  Il peut jouer à former des mots pendant longtemps.  Une appli exceptionnelle.

## Frequently asked questions about Planet Lettra

### What is Planet Lettra?

Planet Lettra is an educational app designed to help young children build words and develop reading fluency. It features interactive letter bubbles and silly creatures that encourage experimentation with spelling and phonics in a playful environment.

### What languages does Planet Lettra support?

Planet Lettra supports word building and recognition in English, French, and Spanish. The app is capable of recognizing over 100,000 words in each of these supported languages.

### How does Planet Lettra help with reading fluency?

The app prioritizes words important for reading fluency, making them easier and more frequent to form. It also provides exposure to important letter blends and allows children to hear words read aloud, including invented ones.

### Is Planet Lettra suitable for younger children?

Yes, Planet Lettra is rated for ages 4 and up and is designed to be a playful, encouraging environment for young readers. It offers an open-ended platform that allows children full freedom to explore and discover words independently.

### Does Planet Lettra have ads?

No, Planet Lettra is ad-free. The app is designed for an uninterrupted learning experience and does not contain any advertisements.

### Are there any in-app purchases in Planet Lettra?

No, Planet Lettra does not have any in-app purchases. Users can enjoy all features and content without needing to spend additional money.

### What is the update frequency for Planet Lettra?

Planet Lettra was last updated on July 8, 2018, with version 2.3.3. While the app has not received recent updates, it remains a stable and functional tool for education.

### What devices can I use Planet Lettra on?

Planet Lettra is available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices. The app is designed to work across various Apple mobile platforms.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 2.3.3 — 2018-07-08

This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.

A refreshing little update: build "SUMMER" with your young one for a surprise. Remember that tilting the ring all the way down on tiny Planet Permea (upper right corner) will keep the bubbles from blending unless you are touching BOTH bubbles and push them together. Lots of tips in the tour video: tap the button beside "Watch ME!" on the home screen.

Otherwise, just minor bug fixes. Thanks for travelling  to Planet Lettra and have fun bumping bubbles and feeding the munchers.

### 2.3.2 — 2017-01-04

Please take a moment to RATE and REVIEW Planet Lettra on the App Store (or update your rating for the new version).

- fixed bug where touch was moving sleeping potion bubble that was nowhere near the touch
- fixed minor bugs related to text-to-speech
- added speech rate control to iPad Settings, just in case...

For any questions or comments, please email me at greg@goojaji.com .  I'd love to hear from you.

### 2.3.1 — 2016-12-23

Hi Parents and Educators! Please RATE and REVIEW Planet Lettra on the App Store.  It only takes a minute and will really help others discover this unique app (and makes me feel good too...)

Hope the kids enjoy the new Christmas costumes on the Munchers!

### 2.3 — 2016-10-15

- maximum number of different pink bubbles doubled
- minor changes (and a few Easter Eggs to boot)

### 2.2 — 2016-08-19

- Pink bubbles that reappear as soon as they (or a bubble build with one or more of them) are eaten and that have values you can customize in the (in-game) Settings area.  Up to five distinct pink bubbles can be used.  This feature will be especially useful in guided instruction settings.
- Reinforce GPC (grapheme-phoneme correspondence): changes to the values multi-letter bubbles emerging from the planet (graphemes rather than rhymes)

Thanks to our users for the helpful feedback and encouragement.  We love hearing from you: contact@goojaji.com .

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## More apps by Gregory McDonald

- [Teen & Adult Phonics Library](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/teen-and-adult-phonics-library/id1189152100)
- [WordWhile](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/wordwhile/id1250527022)
- [Funny Phonemes](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/funny-phonemes/id1367922163)
- [TAP Library School Edition](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/tap-library-school-edition/id1407324366)

All apps by Gregory McDonald: https://appshunter.io/developer/992464989

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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 2026-08-27.*
