Coming From LingQ or Readlang: What Is the Same, What Differs
October 13, 20264 min read
If you already learn by reading, you know the loop: open a text, tap what you don't know, keep the words, review them later. pimReader does the same on your Android phone, with your own books and feeds. Here is what carries over and what you give up.
In short: if you learn by reading and tapping words, pimReader will feel familiar. The differences are where it lives (an Android app with an offline reader), what you read (your own files, feeds and films) and what it does not have: no import of other services' word lists, no library of lessons made by other people.
You can learn English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish or Portuguese.
What is the same
- Read real text and tap a word to see its meaning.
- Words have a status. pimReader tracks which words you know. Mark a word known and it stops getting a translation.
- Keep the words you want. Tap the word, tap its translation, tick Memorize, and it becomes a flashcard.
- Reviews. Cards come back on a schedule, with four answer buttons that show the next interval.
What is different
- Your own files. Open EPUB, PDF, MOBI, FB2, TXT, HTML and Markdown, or save a web page. Free classic books are available from public-domain catalogues.
- Feeds. News sites, blogs, Telegram channels and X accounts open in the same reader. Bring your feed list as an OPML file.
- Offline. Reading, downloaded dictionaries and reviews work without internet.
- Translations above the word. Words you don't know get a small translation printed above them, so you read without stopping.
- Films with subtitles in two languages, with line replay, in the same app.
- AI Mentor (optional). Courses, lesson books and quizzes for your own goal, with speaking practice and a pronunciation score. AI is part of Plus.
- No account. Optional sync goes through your own Google Drive.
Moving your reading over
- Install, choose the language you learn and your own language, and let the dictionary download.
- Do the vocabulary estimate that opens at first run (later: Settings → Languages → Estimate Your Vocabulary) so known words are not translated. Scroll through the list of common words to the point where they stop looking familiar, then tap OK. Everything above that point is marked as known and gets no translation, so stop a little early rather than late.
- Copy your books and articles to the phone (EPUB or PDF files, or saved web pages) and open them with Open a file (on Home, or under ＋ in the library).
- Import your feeds from an OPML file: in Feeds, open ⋮ and choose Import feeds (OPML).
- Rebuild your word list as you read. Tick Memorize on the words you keep meeting.
What it won't do
- It can't import your words, statuses or progress from another service.
- It has no library of lessons or texts made by other learners, and no community. You bring your own texts, or ask the AI Mentor.
- There is no browser extension and no web version. It runs on Android phones and tablets; iPhone, Mac and Windows versions are coming soon.
- MP3 audiobooks play beside the text but are not synced to it.
- Scanned PDFs without a text layer open, but their words cannot be tapped.
- Only seven languages can be learned. If you study another one, pimReader is not the right tool yet.
- pimReader is a personal app; it has no class or teacher features.
Reading, translations, feeds and daily reviews (the Exercise card on Home) are free; the AI Mentor and Speaking practice use AI, which is part of pimReader Plus. When you open an AI feature, pimReader offers Try free for a month: no card, no account, nothing renews. Tap Not now to carry on without AI.