Best Apps to Learn Japanese in 2026

Bubblegum suits learners who want Japanese built around their own lives. Tell Poppy, your AI tutor, what you want to learn. She writes lessons for your level and helps you understand the words and grammar. You can read and listen, and ask her about anything that is unclear. News and stories give you more Japanese to read about anime, food, and other things you care about.

The trade-off is that Bubblegum does not replace real Japanese voices or a fixed course. For recorded speakers, Pimsleur and LingoDeer are the better fit, and for conversation, try the apps in Learn With People.

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Duolingo suits learners who enjoy short, game-like exercises.

LingoDeer suits beginners who want to understand why a sentence works. You can download the whole Japanese course and study without a connection.

Busuu's Complete Japanese course has more than 570 lessons. A separate Japanese for Travel course teaches the phrases you need for a trip.

Memrise offers its official Japanese course in two versions, one written with Japanese characters and one written in romaji. The kanji course includes Hiragana and Katakana topics.

Talkpal offers Japanese conversations on topics you choose, along with lessons on idioms and culture. It is built around conversation, so it suits learners who already read some hiragana and katakana.

Praktika puts you in spoken conversations with AI characters, and you can slow the speaking speed when the Japanese goes by too fast. Its own Japanese guide says it is not a kanji tutor and suggests a flashcard tool for the characters.

Pimsleur suits learners who want to start speaking before they read much. Its Japanese course has five levels, from first words to an intermediate level.

JapanesePod101 lets you study through short recordings and lesson notes. Choose a lesson pathway and work through it at your own pace.

italki has a page of Japanese tutors. Some teachers use textbooks such as GENKI and Minna no Nihongo.

Preply has a page of Japanese tutors. Read profiles to find a tutor who fits your level and goals.

HelloTalk has a page for finding Japanese language partners. Start with messages, then try a voice room when you want to speak.

Tandem is also built around language exchange, and it has Japanese pages for cities such as Tokyo and Osaka. Agree with your partner on how to share the time between both languages.

Anki suits learners who like control over their review. Cards can include sound and pictures as well as text. Use the links on Anki's official site to find AnkiMobile for iPhone or AnkiDroid for Android; similarly named apps are not all the same product.

Drops teaches more than 2,000 Japanese words through short, illustrated games. Use it to meet useful words, then look for them in Japanese you read or hear.

WaniKani gives you an ordered path through kanji and the words that use them. It explains each item with a memory aid before testing you in later reviews.

Bunpro organizes Japanese grammar by JLPT level and lets you review it through example sentences. Its feedback explains what to change when an answer is close. Its kana practice page helps you review hiragana and katakana.

Satori Reader's stories are written for learners, and you can open explanations of grammar and culture as you read. It is one of the apps that inspired Bubblegum.

LingQ suits learners who want to bring in videos, books, and articles they chose themselves.