The best apps for Taiwanese Mandarin, by what you need

There's no single best app for Taiwanese Mandarin, because many Mandarin apps are built around the mainland standard: simplified characters and pinyin. Pick by what you need. For a structured course in traditional characters with zhuyin, DangDai Chinese, from a Taipei university's Mandarin center. For listening and repeating real Taiwan sentences, Glossika has a separate Mandarin Chinese (Taiwan) course. For reading in traditional characters with zhuyin, Du Chinese. For looking words up, Pleco. For writing characters, Skritter. For a free start, Taiwan's own Huayu 101 app. For conversation, a tutor from Taiwan.

One thing to know first: we make Bopomo, an iPhone app for speaking Taiwanese Mandarin, and it isn't out yet. It's at the end of this page, with what it does and what it doesn't. Every other claim here comes from the app's own App Store listing, help pages or website, checked in October 2026. Prices are the US prices those pages showed; they change, so check before you pay.

What an app needs for Taiwan

Taiwan Mandarin and mainland Mandarin are one language, but an app built for the mainland misses four things you'll meet on your first day in Taipei. Our guide to Taiwanese Mandarin goes through them in detail.

• Traditional characters. Taiwan writes 謝謝 and 學習; the mainland writes 谢谢 and 学习 (simplified, shown for comparison). Signs, menus and phones in Taiwan use traditional. See traditional vs simplified Chinese.
• Zhuyin. Taiwan's own sound alphabet, also called bopomofo: 37 signs that every child in Taiwan learns before characters, and what many people type with. Here's the zhuyin chart with sounds.
• Taiwan's accent and words. 捷運 for the MRT, 機車 for a scooter, fewer 兒 endings, softer zh, ch and sh.
• Speaking. Mandarin has tones, and you only get them by saying words out loud, again and again.

Watch for the word "Taiwanese" in an app store or on a tutor site. It often means Taiwanese Hokkien, a different language. Ling's Taiwanese course teaches Hokkien (Ling), and italki's "Chinese (Taiwanese)" tutors mostly teach Hokkien too. Our article on Taiwanese Hokkien vs Mandarin explains the difference.

The apps at a glance

Duolingo

Duolingo's Mandarin course uses simplified characters. Its own blog lists Mandarin Chinese "with Simplified Characters" for English, Japanese and Vietnamese speakers, and its only course in traditional characters is Cantonese (Duolingo blog). It's free to start and fine for a taste of Mandarin, but it won't teach you to read in Taiwan or show you zhuyin.

HelloChinese

A full beginner course on iPhone and Android. Its App Store listing says "simplified and traditional Chinese (Mandarin) are both supported" and that speech recognition checks your pronunciation; it doesn't mention zhuyin, and the course isn't Taiwan-specific. A year costs $69.99 (App Store).

Du Chinese

Short graded stories and dialogues to read, each with native speaker audio. You can switch between simplified and traditional characters and show pinyin, tones only or bopomofo above the text (App Store). That makes it one of the few apps where a beginner can read traditional characters with zhuyin. It's for reading and listening, not speaking.

Pleco

The dictionary most learners keep on their phone. It's free, with paid add-ons up to a $59.99 bundle, and its listing says readings "can be shown in Pinyin and Zhuyin" (App Store). One setting switches its entries and example sentences to traditional characters (Pleco manual). It isn't a course, but it fits beside any of them.

Skritter

For writing characters stroke by stroke. Its settings let you study simplified, traditional or both, and display zhuyin instead of pinyin (Skritter help). It costs $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year (Skritter). Worth it if you want to write by hand; skip it if you mostly want to talk.

DangDai Chinese

The app version of A Course in Contemporary Chinese (當代中文課程), the textbook series from National Taiwan Normal University's Mandarin Training Center in Taipei, founded in 1956. It supports traditional and simplified characters and gives every word in both pinyin and zhuyin. The first three lessons are free; each part of a book after that costs $4.99 to $12.99 (App Store). It's the closest thing here to a classroom course made in Taiwan.

Glossika

Glossika has a course labelled Mandarin Chinese (Taiwan), separate from its mainland course, with audio from native speakers, sentences from A1 to C1, and a 7-day free trial (Glossika). You listen to sentences and repeat them. Its page doesn't say whether it shows traditional characters or zhuyin.

LingQ

For learners past the basics who want real material: LingQ has a Taiwanese-Mandarin library with "1000's of hours" of audio lessons with transcripts, from podcasts to news, and you can start free (LingQ). Too much for day one, useful from your second or third month.

Huayu 101, free from Taiwan

Taiwan's Mandarin Educational Resources Center makes Huayu 101, an app for iPhone and Android with conversations for 12 everyday situations, from making friends to asking for directions; tap a sentence to hear it (announcement). It's a free download (Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines). It's a phrasebook more than a course, but it's made in Taiwan, for people learning Taiwan's Mandarin.

A tutor from Taiwan

No app replaces a person who answers back. On italki you can book tutors who live in Taiwan; each sets their own price, and many offer a cheaper trial lesson. Look among the Chinese (Mandarin) teachers for ones from Taiwan (italki), not in "Chinese (Taiwanese)", which is mostly Hokkien (italki).

Bopomo, the app we make

Bopomo is an iPhone app for speaking Mandarin out loud with Lin, an AI tutor, on a trip around Taiwan. Lin plays every line in a Taiwanese voice, the tone shape is drawn above each syllable, and when you answer, she replies to what you actually said. It teaches traditional characters, and reading zhuyin is part of the same path: you say a line, then learn its signs and join them into syllables. The zhuyin lessons, all 37 signs and a final test, are free.

What it doesn't do yet: it doesn't score your tones one by one, and it isn't on the App Store. It's in testing with a waitlist, and it's iPhone only. Until it's out, the apps above are what you can use today, and our free zhuyin trainer works in any browser.

How to combine them

Most people who get far use two or three tools at once: one to speak, one to read, and a dictionary. A simple setup for Taiwan is DangDai Chinese or Glossika as the course, Du Chinese for reading in traditional characters with zhuyin, Pleco for every word you look up, and a weekly lesson with a tutor from Taiwan. Learn zhuyin in your first week; the zhuyin vs pinyin article explains why it's worth it if Taiwan is where you'll use your Mandarin.

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