Once you’re finished with hiragana apps, you’ll be ready for Katakana study apps! But should you just use the same apps or are there katakana focused ones that you should be learning with?
The criteria I judge katakana apps on is the same as hiragana: includes a fun way to learn, allows reviews and has a clean design. Once you finish with katakana you won’t need these apps anymore so they just need to motivate you enough to get you through the second stretch!
Some of these apps will be the same that you used for hiragana and some are just katakana focused. Make sure you click the links to get the right ones because they all have very similar names!
These guides will change over time as I update them with new apps I’ve tested. If you’re looking for an idea of how long it will take to learn katakana check out my earlier post.
Best Free Apps To Learn Katakana.
The first category of katakana study apps we’re looking at is completely free! These apps don’t have paid upgrades and are just as good as thier paid counterparts. Learning Japanese on a budget can be tough but it is definitely do-able. It’s better to put money into learning kanji than kana because it’s a longer part of your journey and can be very tedious if you don’t have a way to keep it fun.
Katakana Memory Hint.
This app will be familiar to you if you did hiragana with it’s counterpart. The series is made by the Japan Language Institute and includes mnemonics, quizzes and kana tables. This is one of my favourite apps because it features visual mnemonics drawn with the characters. A native speaker pronounces the character and you can flip the cards to see the drawings side by side.
Quizzes include reading, listening and reversed multiple choice. They have a review period after each answer so you can really secure things in your memory. There is also a quiz for similar looking characters which is a great point for beginners.
Once you finish with your katakana there is also a follow up with beginner kanji. It’s great to be able to grow within a series of apps once you find your ideal learning methods.
Covers: Katakana
Design: Nice design, coloured backgrounds with black and white illustrations that stand out.
Learning style: Review the mnemonics at your own pace then try the quizzes.
Mnemonics included: Yes, illustrated.
Good: Clean modern design.
Bad: Some of the mnemonics are a bit of a stretch, it would be nice having a voice over to read the captions.
Price: Free download
This is the best free option for katakana! The mnemonics are a big plus and the design is clean and easy to use. I think this is the best of all of the katakana apps and it’s free!
Kana – Hiragana and Katakana.
This is a great app for revising and tracking your learning. It features detailed statistics on your time reviewing so you can adjust your study. The downside is that there are no mnemonics or ways to learn outside of staring at the kana table. Within the kana table you can select a character for more information, try drawing it and listen to pronunciation.
The app features a variety of tests including multiple choices, type in answers and drawing. Like most apps, the drawing tests are self marked against the guides. I find the most useful tests to be typed in answers, it’s a nice middle ground between multiple choice and writing. It also helps link the character in your brain with how you will usually be using it.
Covers: Hiragana and katakana
Design: Clean, modern and simple. Easy to read.
Learning style: Learn via a kana chart, then various quizzes.
Mnemonics included: No.
Good: Great design, lots of statistics about your learning. Reminders and written answers available.
Bad: No mnemonics or interesting ways of learning the characters.
Price: Free download
Definitely worth downloading, this is a great way to track your reviews and how you are progressing.
Kana Mind.
This is a really interesting app as it focuses on learning through quick guided repetition. When starting a new game you are presented with a number of customisation options. You are then shown a character with 6 answers. When you are learning, only the correct answer is clickable. As you review, more items are clickable and you can only progress with the right answer. It’s an effective way to build up quick recognition.
My favourite part of this app is the speed that you can review items. The animation is really quick so there’s no waiting around for the next question. The faster you go through the better you will be at reading.
Covers: Hiragana and katakana
Design: Clean and simple.
Learning style: Learn via guided repetition and speed reviews.
Mnemonics included: No.
Good: Simple design, speedy, fun reviews.
Bad: No mnemonics, no kana chart and no sound.
Price: Free download
Fun for reviewing and getting yourself speedy with recognition. As there is no sound you will need to already know how to pronounce the kana.
Honourable mentions:
Kana School– Another great app for revisions with both hiragana and katakana.
Best paid katakana study apps.
The free resources are great but sometimes it’s worth paying extra for curated content. The apps in this section are fantastic learning tools but they average around AU$15 to unlock. You may already have them from learning hiragana so the prices aren’t that bad when you can learn both.
Dr Moku’s Hiragana Mnemonics.
Dr Moku is a popular system of Japanese apps known for their mnemonics. The lessons are katakana mixed with pictures and funny captions to help them stick in your mind. You view the picture while Dr Moku reads the mnemonic. His over the top voice acting and annunciation helps keep things memorable. If you flip the card you can view an animation of the stroke order.
For revising katakana you’ve learned, there are multiple choice quizzes for reading and listening. Writing practice is via a self graded test.
Additional quick reference and audio charts are included along with some common words and phrases. If you enjoy the style of the app, there are other apps for kanji and phrases once you finish katakana.
Covers: Katakana (25% included in free app, the rest unlocked with paid upgrade)
Design: Bright and simple. Easy to see each item for review. Fun drawings.
Learning style: Review at your own pace, then timed multiple choice quiz.
Mnemonics included: Yes.
Good: Good mnemonics, written practice included. Family of apps available if you like the style.
Bad: Lots of upgrade banners and ads for the other apps. The app design can get tedious with several selection screens before you start most options.
Price: Free download, AU$7.99 upgrade to unlock all hiragana. Bundle in the app store with the katakana and phrases apps for $12.99
A fun way to learn katakana via mnemonics. The free version is ok to test but you will need to upgrade to learn the whole alphabet. The bundle is good value if you are also needing hiragana.
Learn Japanese!!
You might be familiar with this app as it covers hiragana, katakana and also some vocabulary grammar and kanji. The lessons are worked in sections and the style of learning via repetition.
The app doesn’t include mnemonics but there are a variety of multiple choice formats to teach you with active repetition. The reviews are in an SRS style but I’m not sure on the frequencies.
During the quizzes you can toggle an option for written answers which begins with you tracing as you learn and then progressively fades the character until you are remembering how to write it. I find this to be a really effective way to memorise as it holds your hand a bit without being annoying.
Covers: Basic katakana (5 items available free per lesson, others unlocked via paid upgrade)
Design: Dark, clean and simple. Easy to see each item in quiz.
Learning style: Learn via repetition, writing and quizzes. Review with the same methods.
Mnemonics included: No.
Good: Clean, modern design. Writing reviews are useful.
Bad: No mnemonics or learning options other than repetition.
Price: Free download, AU$2.99 upgrade for katakana only or $12.99 for all lessons (hiragana, katakana, some kanji, vocabulary and grammar)
Great dark design, worth downloading with the full unlock for the amount of content. If you don’t learn well via repetition then I would look for an app with mnemonics.
Great apps to practice katakana.
Pastel Kana.
I still think this app is a bit expensive compared to other apps but the design and speed of reviews make up for it. The app revises katakana (and hiragana) through timed multiple choices. The timing makes you answer fast and it’s really good for improving your recognition times in reading. The design is clean and simple which I love. If you are looking to learn katakana then I would stick to other apps but if you just want to speed revise then this might be great for you.
Covers: Katakana and hiragana (katakana via paid upgrade)
Design: Clean and simple. Easy to see each item in quiz.
Learning style: Learn at your own pace via kana chart, then timed multiple choice quiz.
Mnemonics included: No.
Good: Clean modern design, fast pace for improving reading.
Bad: High unlock price, no spoken pronunciation during learning, no mnemonics.
Price: Free download, AU$7.99 upgrade to unlock hiragana with modifiers and katakana.
Worth it if you want to do speed reviews but it’s too fast for learning katakana from scratch.
Katakana Kwiz.
This is the app you need when regular flash cards are too boring. Ok so it’s still just a regular flash card app but there’s also a ninja and some kind of skeleton viking… When you get answers correct the ninja does some sweet moves with his sword to celebrate! If you get one wrong he… kills himself… So, you know, that’s fun.
There is also a reference chart which has stroke order animations for each character.
Covers: Katakana
Design: Nice and simple.
Learning style: Multiple choice quiz with a reference kana chart.
Mnemonics included: No.
Good: Funny animations, standard revisions.
Bad: Just a plain old no frills quiz system, nothing to help you actually learn.
Price: Free download
Worth downloading if you just want to do your reviews but you also need a laugh!
Kana Drill.
This app pretty much does what it says: it drills kana. It’s a multiple format multiple choice app without much customisation. You unlock 1 row of kana at a time as you progress with reviews.
The only downside I found is that when you exit a test half way through, it’s supposed to punish you with an ad but the the button only seems to work sometimes. If it’s not working then there’s no way to exit the test without closing the app.
Covers: Hiragana and katakana
Design: Minimal and red.
Learning style: Not much learning, just lots of multiple choice questions.
Mnemonics included: No.
Good: Clean modern design, fast pace for improving reading.
Bad: Obviously requires sound to use so you can hear the beat.
Price: Free download, possibly ad supported but I could find any.
Easy way to review kanji quickly but I would stick to a different app for actual learning.
Honourable mentions:
Hiragana Pixel Party– A fun way to test your kana knowledge with a rhythm based jumping game. Very cute, AU$2.99 to unlock all levels including katakana.
Katakana study apps not to waste time with.
With so many katakana apps available there is definitely a wide variety of quality too. The apps in this section are ones that I didn’t like or found unhelpful. While they may not be terrible, they are here because there are better options in the apps listed above so don’t waste your time with these ones.
Katakana Practice Quiz.
I was a bit sad about this app because it looked like it had promise. The layout is fairly clean and it has interesting stats included about reviews. The problem is that a lot of the buttons don’t seem to work. Full screen ads pop up at random through reviews and when I went to pay to remove them, the link was broken. I would revise this when the app is updated to fix the bugs. Regardless of what I was doing in the app the “End game” screen would randomly show up.
Covers: Katakana
Design: Nice design but not currently working.
Learning style: Not really focused on learning, there is a kana chart but if you click it just takes you to an immediate quiz.
Mnemonics included: No.
Good: Interesting stats.
Bad: Lots of ads, weird pop ups, pretty broken.
Price: Free download, ad supported, unsure of cost to remove ads.
Could be a decent review app but currently broken.
Hiragana and Katakana- Complete Basics of Japanese.
While this app had good reviews on the app store, I didn’t have a good experience. On opening there’s an ad for a Japanese ebook which I couldn’t close without signing up. The design is very dated and the layout is distracting. The quizzes are standard multiple choices.
It features study and test areas. The information in the study areas is good but to get to each item you have to click through several screens. On the plus side there are a lot of vocabulary items included as examples.
Covers: Katakana, hiragana and vocabulary.
Design: Cluttered and annoying to use.
Learning style: Review at your own pace, then multiple choice quiz.
Mnemonics included: No.
Good: Lots of information.
Bad: Hard to use design, annoying to find information, no mnemonics.
Price: Free download, ad supported or $1.49 to remove ads.
Don’t bother, just get one of the other apps that has both good information and good user experience!
My favourite katakana app study plan of attack
By now, you will have mastered hiragana and so you should have an idea of what kind of study works well for you. Mnemonics are definitely the quickest and easiest way to power through katakana so continue on with either Katakana Memory Hint or Dr Moku. You might like the swap to the one you didn’t use for hiragana to prevent yourself zoning out.
After you’ve gotten through the basic learning, it’s time to get quick with revisions. Move onto a combination of Pastel Kana, Kana Mind or Learn Japanese!!. Do reviews until you can speed read the characters.
The biggest tip for katakana study apps is to review as often as possible and try to get your speed up. The faster you can recognise the characters, the faster you will be able to get into proper reading.
Having to slowly sound words out makes reading boring. If you can recognise katakana quickly then it will be less tempting to quit later!
Now if you’re ready to move on, take a look at how long kanji will take you to learn.
