Chinese in Flow

Owen Dwyer

About this app

Learn and review simplified Chinese characters with a fast matching game organized by HSK level.

Chinese In Flow helps you build recognition of 汉字 through repeated matching of characters, pinyin, and English. Content is grouped into HSK 1–5 vocabulary sets (30 characters per set). Progress is saved so you can see how far you have come on each set.

THREE STUDY MODES

• Learn — Work through characters in stages, from single-item recall up to larger sets. The app adjusts how many options you see as you improve.

• Practice — Timed game mode: match the prompt to the correct character before the clock runs out. Sudden Death mode adds extra challenge when you are doing well.

• Review — Flashcard-style review: think of the meaning, reveal the answer, then mark Good or Again.

CUSTOMIZE YOUR STUDY

In settings you can show or hide pinyin, English, and audio. Study with hanzi as the prompt or as the answer — whatever combination helps you most. Character audio is included for HSK 1–3.

TRACK YOUR PROGRESS

Each set shows learn, practice, and review progress. Earn bronze, silver, and gold marks as you complete activities. Long-press a set on the main screen to reset progress for that set.

FREE TO USE

No ads. The same vocabulary content as the Chinese In Flow website, in an app designed for focused repetition and spaced-style review on your phone.

Developed by Owen Dwyer / Games To Learn English.

Ratings and reviews

This is probably the most overlooked app for learning Chinese. Let me compare this to PLECO's flashcard game. You can put thousands of cards into a PLECO set, but you need to circulate through all of the cards before you see the card again. If you get one wrong, you will get it wrong when you see it again hours later. Although In Flow had only preset flashcard sets, the benefit to using this one is that if you forget a character, you will see it again 10 sec later, and again until its mastered.

Great app! My only complaint is that you can't actually turn off the pinyin/English in Review mode. It gives you the option to disable one of these, but either way you get both the pinyin and English with every character. So the options menu doesn't work for Review. If you fix this, I'd give the app 5 stars.

I absolutely love this app! It's a challenging and fun experience for someone who has only studied it on my own time. My only wish to better the app is that the options remain permanent. Having to turn on sound and turn off pinyin and translation every session is distracting and takes time from study. Thank you for making this free though!!! <3

What’s new

Bug fixes and polish:

• Game settings (pinyin, English, audio, and related options) now save correctly between sessions
• Review mode clears hidden answer text before each new card
• Practice timer pauses during the Sudden Death intro message
• Confirmation before resetting progress from the main grid
• Rate this app opens the Play Store listing

If you update from version 6.0, your progress and medals are kept.