What's Hiding? vs READING MAGIC 5
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
What's Hiding?
This educational app helps young learners practice basic addition and subtraction. It uses visual aids like discs presented in frames, with some hidden to test number sense. The app supports numbers up to 20 and offers options for counting or subtilizing.
- Addition and subtraction practice
- Visual disc counting
- Numbers 1-5, 1-10, or 1-20 support
- 5-frame and 10-frame formats
- Counting or subtilizing options
- iPad specific features
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Practice basic addition and subtraction concepts. Discs are counted, then covered, and some slide out from under the cover. Your job is to tell how many are still hidden under the cover. Work with numbers 1-5 or 1-10. Discs are displayed in a 5-frame or 10-frame format. The iPad version includes an option to use numbers to 20 in two 10 frames. This option was added at the request of elementary education teacher candidates at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL who were working with kindergarten students. The iPad version also includes an option to count or subtilize the number of discs. That option was added in response to a user request. Developed as part of the NumberSense Project at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL.
READING MAGIC 5
This educational app teaches children the rules of the silent final 'e' in English phonics through engaging games. It helps develop essential reading skills like blending and segmenting, fostering phonemic awareness and phonological processing.
- Teaches silent final 'e' rules
- Develops phonemic awareness
- Enhances phonological processing
- Includes engaging blending and segmenting games
- Discourages picture guessing
- Offers lesson tracking (deluxe version)
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Unlock the Magic of Reading with READING MAGIC 5! Transform your child into a confident reader with READING MAGIC 5! This app makes learning to read an exciting adventure through interactive activities focused on words containing silent final e words. Meticulously designed to provide an advanced boost to your child’s phonemic awareness, this app combines three foundational pillars of literacy science into one powerful, interactive ecosystem: Blending (Listening), Segmenting (Speaking), and Decoding (Reading). Grounded firmly in Science of Reading principles and utilizing University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) guidelines, READING MAGIC provides specific, precise training with extensive repetitions to help young brains bridge the gap between spoken sound units and complete words. IDEAL FOR BOTH BEGINNING PRE-READERS AND STRUGGLING READERS For Beginning Pre-Readers: A stress-free launchpad. By practicing words through pure sound sequences first, your child masters the internal mechanics of reading without cognitive overload. This keeps them from being frustrated by trying to learn separate, difficult skills at the same time. For Struggling or Remedial Readers: If your child's reading is hesitant or choppy, or if they guess at words, this app provides the targeted intervention recommended by modern reading science to help young brains bridge the gap. THREE CRITICAL SKILL-BUILDING PILLARS While many phonics programs completely overlook the auditory mechanics of reading, our program systematically guides your child through the complete progression of decoding: Skill 1: Blending (Listening): Interactive listening activities train your child’s neural processing ability to hear isolated sounds in words and join them together mentally. This builds the vital auditory runway required for future fluency. Skill 2: Segmenting (Speaking): True spelling and reading independence require the ability to pull spoken words apart into their individual sound units. These exercises build explicit awareness of the acoustic structure of language. Skill 3: Decoding (Reading): The ultimate bridge to literacy. Your child applies their mastery of blending and segmenting directly to text, smoothly moving from spoken sounds to visual words. STRUCTURAL SPACING & INSTRUCTION (Science-Backed Layout) Our app builds the actual findings of reading science directly into the user interface for maximum visual clarity: Anti-Crowding Design: Peer-reviewed research, including Marinus et al. (2016) and Wery & Diliberto (2017), demonstrates that generous letter spacing is critical for early decoding. By placing each letter on its own isolated card with distinct physical gaps, our layout eliminates visual crowding, allowing your child to isolate each sound unit cleanly. True Comprehension: The app strictly discourages picture guessing, forcing children to rely purely on their decoding skills to foster true comprehension and build lasting confidence. INDEPENDENT LEARNING & AESTHETIC SIMPLICITY Distraction-Free: Our minimalist design eliminates overstimulating audio-visual clutter, excessive sound effects, and animations to keep your child entirely focused on the mechanics of reading. Stress-Free Growth: Built-in natural feedback loops offer gentle corrections, nurturing self-discovery and independent learning at your child's own pace. EXPERT RESEARCH BACKING "Before a child can read fluently with their eyes, they must be able to blend fluently with their ears. Weakness in auditory blending is one of the strongest early predictors of later reading failure." — Dr. Joseph Torgesen, Florida State University. "Teaching students to blend and segment benefited their reading much more than did a multiple-skills approach... and teaching phonemic awareness with letters created effect sizes almost twice as large as teaching children without letters." — The National Reading Panel (NRP) Meta-Analysis
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: READING MAGIC 5 at 90% against What's Hiding?'s 33%. READING MAGIC 5 also leads on rating (4.8 vs 2.0) and ratings volume (11 vs 3). What's Hiding?'s advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (8.1 vs 13.7). On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. READING MAGIC 5 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. What's Hiding? asks for nothing beyond the download.
READING MAGIC 5 holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 2.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 11 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of What's Hiding?'s written reviews are positive against 90% of READING MAGIC 5's.
What's Hiding? ships an update every 10 months, READING MAGIC 5 every 11 months. Both last shipped on November 1, 2026.
| Parameter | What's Hiding? | READING MAGIC 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.0 (3 ratings) | 4.8 (11 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 33.3% of reviews | 90.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 11 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 10 months — better | Every 11 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.1 — better | 13.7 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 37 MB | 226 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Classroom Focused Software | PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY |
Customer experience
What's Hiding?
READING MAGIC 5
In-app purchases
What's Hiding?
No in-app purchases
READING MAGIC 5
- Deluxe Upgrade$3.99
Questions
Is What's Hiding? free?
Is READING MAGIC 5 free?
Which has better reviews, What's Hiding? or READING MAGIC 5?
Do What's Hiding? or READING MAGIC 5 have ads?
Which is updated more often, What's Hiding? or READING MAGIC 5?
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