Satori Reader is a Japanese reading and listening app with story series for intermediate learners, all made by its own team. Bubblegum is a reading and listening app. Poppy, your AI tutor, writes Japanese lessons at your level about topics you pick, and she brings your saved words back in new lessons.
How Satori Reader and Bubblegum Compare
Both apps teach Japanese through stories you can mostly follow. Satori Reader's stories are made by hand for intermediate learners, and Bubblegum's lessons are written for you at any level.
| Satori Reader | Bubblegum | |
|---|---|---|
| How you learn | Read and listen to episodes from 43 story series | Poppy writes lessons, stories, and news at your level, and you read and listen |
| How words come back | Make flashcards from any word and review them with spaced repetition | Regenerative Review™: saved words come back in new lessons |
| Who it's for | Intermediate learners | Six levels, from your first words on |
| Who writes and reads it | People write and annotate it, and voice actors record it | Poppy writes it, and AI voices read it aloud |
| Phone apps | iPhone and Android | iPhone and Android |
| On the web | Sign in on a computer | Free guides and kana courses |
| Menu languages | Not named on its App Store listing | 74 |
Satori Reader's site, notes, and translations are in English.
Who Each App Is Best For
Satori Reader
A small team writes, edits, records, and annotates Satori Reader's whole library, with audio recorded in Seattle and Tokyo. If something confuses you, you can ask in the discussion below each episode and its team answers. It works well for learners past the beginner stage who want a long, carefully made series to read.
- More than 1,650 episodes across 43 series.
- Show kanji, kana only, or kanji with furigana, even based on what you already know.
- Each sentence comes with a translation, notes, and grammar explanations.
- Voice actors read every sentence aloud.
- Flashcards
- Teaches Kana (partly)
MobileWeb
Bubblegum
For serious learners, Bubblegum is the best app to learn Japanese. You learn from Japanese you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
Tell Poppy, your AI tutor, what you'd like to read in Japanese, like a visit to a ramen shop or a chat about anime. She writes a lesson at your level, and you can tap any word or ask her about lines that don't make sense yet.
The trade-off is that Poppy writes Bubblegum's lessons and AI voices read them. For stories that people write and record, Satori Reader is the better choice.
- Poppy writes a Japanese lesson for your level about whatever you'd like to read.
- Furigana sits above the kanji in every lesson, so you can read words you haven't learned yet.
- Ask Poppy about a line, and she explains the grammar in it.
- Saved words come back in later lessons through Regenerative Review™.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- You can't import a manga, a novel, or a web page of your own.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
- Teaches Kana
Mobile
Choose Satori Reader if:
- You're an intermediate learner looking for long story series.
- You want stories written and recorded by people.
- You'd like to choose exactly how much furigana you see.
Choose Bubblegum if:
- You're just starting and want lessons from your very first level.
- You'd like each lesson to be about a topic you choose.
- You want Kansai or Fukuoka Japanese, which Bubblegum teaches as their own courses.
Using Both Together
Start with Bubblegum while Japanese is still new, and add Satori Reader's series once you reach the middle levels.
Common Questions
Which Japanese app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Japanese, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Or move to Satori Reader once you reach an intermediate level, since that's who its stories are written for.
Do I need to know hiragana before using Bubblegum?
No, but it helps. Bubblegum has a free hiragana course on the web where each letter has a picture to help you remember it. Its lessons also show furigana over the kanji, so you can read along.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Satori Reader: Stories for intermediate learners
- Satori Reader: Features, episodes, series and kanji display
- Satori Reader: Free and Pro plans
- Satori Reader: How it uses AI
- Satori Reader: iPhone App Store listing
- Bubblegum: Learn Japanese
- Satori Reader
Checked on October 14, 2026 against each app's own pages.
