Finding the right tools to study Mandarin Chinese can save you hundreds of hours of trial and error.

Many popular language apps teach you useless phrases and completely ignore the importance of Chinese tones.

You need tools that actually help you communicate with native speakers and understand real-world conversations.

Here’s a breakdown of the five best apps to learn Mandarin Chinese effectively.

1. Talk in mandarin

Talk In Mandarin is our own platform, and it’s the absolute best place to start your Mandarin journey.

We built this app specifically to solve the problems that other generic language apps ignore.

Instead of teaching you how to say useless sentences like “the apple is red”, we focus on practical vocabulary.

You’ll learn exactly how native speakers talk in everyday situations.

Our platform covers speaking, listening, and essential grammar using a highly effective methodology.

It’s designed to get you comfortable speaking Mandarin as quickly as possible.

2. Pleco

Pleco is a mandatory download for anyone studying Mandarin.

It’s primarily a dictionary app, but it’s incredibly powerful.

You can look up words using pinyin, English, or even by drawing the character on your screen.

Pleco also offers a brilliant optical character recognition (OCR) tool.

This lets you point your phone’s camera at a Chinese menu or sign to instantly see the translation.

It’s free to download and works completely offline.

3. Hellochinese

If you want a gamified experience, HelloChinese is an excellent choice for beginners.

It’s similar to other popular green-owl apps, but it’s built specifically for Mandarin Chinese.

This means it actually teaches you tones and stroke order properly.

The lessons are broken down into bite-sized games that make learning fun.

It also includes video clips of real native speakers saying the phrases you’re learning.

This helps you get used to different regional accents and speaking speeds.

4. Skritter

Learning to read and write Chinese characters takes consistent practice.

Skritter is the best application available for memorizing characters.

It uses spaced repetition software to test you on characters just before you forget them.

The app actually tracks your finger as you draw characters on your screen.

It forces you to use the correct stroke order, which is essential for writing Chinese correctly.

If you care about reading and writing, this app will save you massive amounts of time.

5. Italki

You’ll eventually need to speak with real human beings to reach fluency.

italki is a platform that connects you with native Mandarin tutors around the world.

You can book 1-on-1 video lessons for a very affordable hourly rate.

It’s completely flexible, meaning you can take lessons whenever it fits your schedule.

You can find professional teachers to guide you through a textbook, or community tutors just for conversation practice.

Speaking practice is mandatory, and this app makes it highly accessible.

Summary table of the best mandarin apps