Mobile Apps that are Useful in the Chinese Fields

Updated 2022-09-23

Chinese Dictionary App

Pleco
(native apps for iOS & Android,
allows installation of multiple dictionaries,
including Referenced Theo. Expressions (RTE),
document reader, flashcards, etc.)

App for Mastering Mandarin Pronunciation

Standard Mandarin
(native iPad, iPhone, & iPod touch app,
audio for all Mandarin syllables,
descriptions & anatomy animations showing
how to produce Mandarin speech sounds)

App for Typing Pīnyīn With Tone Marks

Pinyin Typist
(native iPad, iPhone, & iPod touch app,
allows you to quickly & easily type
Pīnyīn with tone marks,
auto-placement of tone marks
over the correct vowels,
tone mark corrections, snippets, etc.)
(Full disclosure: I am the developer of this app.)

Android App for Using EPUB3, etc. Files

[The Gitden Reader app is no longer in the Google Play store. If you have any suggestions for this category, please email me, or contact me on Twitter.]

Apps for Using PDF Files

GoodReader
(native iPad, iPhone, & iPod touch app,
relatively full-featured)

Documents by Readdle
(native iPad, iPhone, & iPod touch app)

Apple Books
(installed by default on
the iPad, iPhone, & iPod touch,
is also the default app for EPUBs)

Adobe Acrobat Reader
(native apps for iOS & Android)

Pinyin Web & EPUB, Cantonese Web & EPUB, & AnnotatedWol

(homepage)

Pinyin Web & EPUB
(native Android app,
“adds Pinyin romanisation to any Chinese website or EPUB, but some work better than others. Tested on, but not affiliated to, JW.ORG and the Watchtower Online Library (WOL) Chinese pages (app was formerly called PinyinWol i.e. Pinyin WOL)”)

Cantonese Web & EPUB
(native Android app,
“adds Cantonese Yale or Sidney-Lau romanisation to any Chinese website or EPUB, but some work better than others. Tested on, but not affiliated to, JW.ORG and the Watchtower Online Library (WOL) Chinese pages (app was formerly called CantoneseWol i.e. Cantonese WOL)”)

AnnotatedWol
(native Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile app,
“App to add pronunciation annotations
to the Chinese text on
Watchtower Online Library (wol.jw.org)
and JW.ORG.”)

Safari Extension for Adding Pīnyīn, etc. to Web Pages

Chinese words separator
(Safari web browser extension,
iOS/iPadOS 15.0 or later required,
“Color, space, pinyin, zhuyin/bopomofo, tone, HSK for Chinese words. Dictionary: read more, hover less with sentence dictionary. Convert between Traditional and Simplified characters.”)