Rihla is our language-learning app: fifteen languages on the web, fourteen on iPhone, an interface in French or Arabic, no account to create, and everything works offline on iPhone. This page describes what it contains and the choices that shape it: a concrete example of what we build.
For many learners in Morocco, mobile data is limited and a subscription is out of the question. Rihla started from that constraint.
French and Arabic speakers, first in Morocco, who want to learn the vocabulary and basic phrases of other languages.
Free, no account, and still working when the network is slow or missing: the app carries everything it needs.
A travel journal: a language is a destination, a lesson is a stage, and each finished destination earns a visa stamp in a passport.
The essentials of what the app contains, on iPhone and on the web.
Each language is a course of 24 stages in five levels, from survival to nuance. A stage is played in two steps, word cards with pronunciation and then a quiz, with eight exercise types: understand, listen, produce, spell, read the script, recognise from a picture, write from dictation, put a sentence back in order.
Learned words come back, spaced further and further apart: a right answer moves a word up a rank, a mistake sends it back to the first, and the intervals run from 1 to 90 days.
Pairs to match, words to find against the clock, spelling, pure listening comprehension, and a two-player duel on a single phone.
Destinations run from Granada to Tokyo: fifteen on the web, fourteen on iPhone. Each has its own illustration drawn in the app and its visa stamp. On the web, city photos, credited one by one, are added.
No account to create, no in-app purchases, no ads to date and no analytics. Progress, points and the notebook stay on the device.
Fonts and content are built in: on iPhone, no connection is needed, and the web version keeps the app on the device from its first opening. Only the web version's optional online game needs the network: it sends a nickname and scores to a server.
The interface is available in French and Arabic, with a genuine right-to-left layout. On the web it picks Arabic on first launch if the phone is set to Arabic, French otherwise; on iPhone it starts in French and can be switched in Settings. The language in which words are explained is chosen separately.
Pronunciation uses the system's speech synthesis, without any paid service. If no voice is installed for a language, the app stays silent rather than pronounce it with another language's voice.
The same app runs on iPhone, published on the App Store, and on the web, installable from the browser: a single code base to maintain.
More than 300 tests run before every web release, including content tests: each language has its 24 complete stages, a word appears only once, and romanisation is mandatory for non-Latin scripts.
Rihla is available, free, on the App Store and on the web. The app contains no analytics, so we publish no usage figures.
Its limits: no Android version (on Android, the web version installs from the browser); the content is basic vocabulary and phrases, not a certified course.
Languages to explore, from Granada to Tokyo
Lessons, review games and a spaced-repetition notebook, on iPhone and on the web, with a French or Arabic interface.
A similar app to build? Describe your needs in a few lines: we reply within two business days, and the quote is free.