Mobile App Changelog

Release notes for the SentiaRead iOS and Android app.

Mobilev1.17.0

Better PDF Import & Reading, Read-Aloud in Review

New Features

  • Review definitions now support read-aloud and translation

Improvements

  • Improved PDF table of contents and chapter recognition for more accurate navigation
  • Improved reading order in multi-column PDFs, sidebars and mixed text-and-image layouts, with better preservation of captions, small body text and list numbering
  • Reduced broken words, fragmented paragraphs, unusual spacing and some garbled text in PDFs; improved paragraphs spanning pages and reduced interference from repeated headers
  • Improved EPUB paragraph, heading and list layout

Bug Fixes

  • Improved PDF import reliability on Android and recovery of reading positions and highlights after books are updated across devices
  • More reliable file imports from other apps and cloud sync
Mobilev1.16.0

Better Context, Smoother Video Learning

New Features

  • Lookups can recognize a complete phrase around the selected word and update the highlight and definition together
  • Choose the search engine used to search selected text in the reader
  • Adjust YouTube video playback speed and sync watch history and playback progress across devices
  • Added automatic service region selection, with connection switching when network problems occur

Improvements

  • Word definitions make better use of surrounding context in books, podcasts and video subtitles
  • Improved review passage generation using the word meanings encountered while reading
  • Improved YouTube video subtitle timing and app startup performance

Bug Fixes

  • Improved reliability when importing files, syncing your library and updating purchase status
Mobilev1.15.2

Loading, Import & Playback Improvements

Improvements

  • Improved startup, home screen and book cover loading
  • Improved sentence splitting in YouTube subtitles and added explanations when subtitles are unavailable
  • Improved retries for podcast subtitle generation and audio playback

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed some links failing to import through iOS sharing and improved multilingual support
Mobilev1.15.1

Catalog Fix

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed podcasts and video channels outside the featured selection appearing in the catalog and home recommendations. Search results are unchanged
Mobilev1.15.0

New Home Feed, YouTube Channels, Podcast RSS & Podcast Subtitles

New Features

  • Home is now a single feed: pick up where you left off, see what's new, and browse books, podcasts and videos, each with its own full catalog page
  • Add any YouTube channel by pasting its link. New videos from channels you follow show up automatically
  • Add any podcast by its RSS link, not just the shows in our catalog
  • Podcast episodes without subtitles can now get them: on iOS 26 and later they're generated on your device while the episode downloads; on other devices, Plus members can generate them in the cloud. English shows only for now
  • Search for podcasts by name. Beyond our catalog, results also include shows from the Apple Podcasts directory: tap one to listen and follow, no RSS link needed. Shows you already follow are marked
  • Search has been rebuilt: swipe between All, Books, Podcasts and Videos, with a preview of each on the All tab
  • A new Storage screen in Settings shows how much space books, podcast episodes and read-aloud audio take up, and lets you clear each one

Improvements

  • Review: in recall mode you now see the answer before rating yourself, can mark a word as mastered right from the answer, and can translate the example sentence from its source line
  • In auto review, newly added words get fewer fill-in-the-blank questions
  • Player: on phones in landscape the controls auto-hide and the video gets bigger; on tablets in landscape the video is sized so subtitles stay readable. The subtitle block being played always stays fully in view
  • YouTube subtitles now line up with when each sentence is actually spoken
  • When playback fails, the player now says why and lets you retry
  • Book downloads show real progress instead of an estimated percentage
  • You can open these release notes from Settings > About

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed large books crashing on open on Android, and large book downloads failing partway on iOS over slow connections
  • Fixed the reading page shifting sideways while you select text
  • Fixed the search screen flashing on iOS and the keyboard switching from dark to light when it opens
  • Fixed a crash on iOS when saving images to Photos
Mobilev1.14.14

Smoother Audio Playback & Refined Onboarding

Improvements

  • Audio playback is more reliable and less likely to buffer, fail to load, or drop on weak or fluctuating connections
  • The commitment step at the end of the onboarding quiz now uses a simple "Press and hold to commit" button instead of the stamp seal
  • Contextual word lookup is more dependable, reducing occasional endless loading or missing definitions in tricky sentences

Bug Fixes

  • Switching away to another app and coming back to SentiaRead now resumes your reading seamlessly without unexpected reloading
  • Fixed a minor visual flicker on the subscription screen when it loads
Mobilev1.14.13

Manual Update Check, Webpage Import Polish & YouTube Playback Sync

New Features

  • Added a manual "Check for Updates" option in Settings > About, and refined update prompts across platforms
  • Added direct links to FAQ, Fair Use Policy, and Security & Trust resources in Settings

Improvements

  • Enhanced webpage import preview with persistent block selection during removal and improved reader safe area background styling
  • Improved update checks to automatically re-evaluate upon resuming the app from the background on e-ink devices

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed YouTube video playback controls and position synchronization on Android for more reliable audio-text tracking
  • Fixed dialog and modal width consistency across varying phone screen sizes and aspect ratios
Mobilev1.14.12

Refined Centered Panel Dimensions for Tablets & Large Screens

Improvements

  • Refined the width hierarchy and proportions of centered panels—including word lookup, sentence breakdowns, and reader formatting—for more comfortable viewing and interactions on iPads, tablets, and e-ink devices
  • Polished header rows and dismiss controls for centered cards on large screens to improve two-handed reading ergonomics
Mobilev1.14.11

Dedicated Auto-Pronunciation Settings & Review Flow Polish

New Features

  • Added a dedicated Auto-Pronunciation settings screen with unified cloud sync across devices
  • Enhanced the vocabulary review flow to guide learners through targeted word drills before repeating passages

Improvements

  • Faster cloud TTS voice synthesis with dedicated low-latency routing and automatic fallback for users in mainland China
  • Localized contextual explanations in the onboarding demo into all five supported languages

Bug Fixes

  • Automatically repairs and refills missing sentence contexts and definitions during synchronization
Mobilev1.14.10

Vocabulary Review Native Explanations & Tablet Layout

New Features

  • Vocabulary review now has its own toggle for native-language explanations, independent of reader settings
  • Android tablets now support landscape orientation and wide-screen reading layouts

Improvements

  • More reliable connections and faster data loading for users in mainland China
  • Faster app startup and smoother reader transitions on iOS

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where reader content could occasionally get stuck loading indefinitely
  • Improved stability and startup recovery when opening the app on locked devices
Mobilev1.14.8

Bigger PDF Imports, iPad Fix

Improvements

  • PDF imports now support much larger files

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed font and review-mode pickers not opening on iPad
Mobilev1.14.7

Reading Layout Polish

Improvements

  • Clearer reading fonts across the app, with an extra font-weight tune-up for e-ink screens
  • Fixed inline vocabulary meaning labels overlapping or sitting in the wrong place
Mobilev1.14.6

E-ink Experience Refinements

Improvements

  • Screen stays awake while you're reading
  • Vocabulary search adds a clear button and dismisses the keyboard when you exit search
  • Refined e-ink reading: a cleaner interface, larger tap targets, and smoother volume-key page turning
Mobilev1.14.3

Learning Methods Redesign & Experience Polish

A video-first Learning Methods tab and a batch of fixes across purchases, review, and background playback.

New Features

  • New Learning Methods tab with a videos-first layout and in-app playback, plus new learning videos for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean readers

Improvements

  • Vocabulary review now mixes in more example-sentence words for better balance
  • Better support for Android devices without Google Play Services

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed vocabulary review quiz cards sometimes showing too few options, or an always-correct one, when few words were due
  • Fixed background audio mode not resetting correctly after playback finished
Mobilev1.14.1

E-ink Mode & Vocabulary Upgrades

E-ink reading mode, widget shortcuts, and a smoother vocabulary workflow.

New Features

  • E-ink reading mode for e-paper devices
  • Tap the home widget to jump straight back into your last book
  • Add highlighted words from Reading Assist to your vocabulary
  • Floating bottom tab bar on iPad

Improvements

  • Plus voice quota increased to 120 minutes per month
  • Vocabulary review uses native iOS 26 sheets
  • Podcast and vocabulary playback pauses automatically when you start reading or reviewing

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed database connection errors on Android
  • Cancelling Apple sign-in no longer shows an error
  • Fixed home discover list layout glitches
Mobilev1.14.0

Onboarding quiz and e-ink power profile

First launch now starts with a short quiz that sets up your level and goals, and e-ink devices get a books-only low-power profile.

New Features

  • First launch is now a step-by-step quiz: pick your level and what you want to read, and try tapping a word, a reading-assist card and a review card before you sign up — your answers set the app up for you
  • A welcome screen before sign-in shows the books, podcasts and videos you can start with
  • E-ink mode now runs a power-saving profile: home, history and search keep to books, audio and video pages stay out of the way, and switching the mode restarts the app to apply it

Improvements

  • iPad and iPhone use the system top bar and sheets: header actions sit in glass capsules, iPad gets a floating bottom tab bar, and review sheets open as native iOS sheets
  • The home screen widget has its own settings page, with a guide for adding it
Mobilev1.13.0

Widget shortcut and vocabulary playback polish

New Features

  • Tap the home screen widget to jump straight back into the book you were reading, with the choice synced across your devices
  • Add a word to your vocabulary straight from a reading-assist highlight, and see its status and occurrence count update right away

Improvements

  • Redesigned vocabulary playback screen — the floating mini bar is gone — plus cleaner review cards and end-of-session summary
  • Single-tap pronunciation is more reliable and no longer fights with podcast or read-aloud playback
  • Podcast and video detail pages reopen faster and use less memory, and your account details refresh once the network is back
Mobilev1.12.0

Vocabulary audio loop and reading assist rework

Listen to your vocabulary on repeat while you do something else, and work through a rebuilt AI reading-assist panel and review flow.

New Features

  • Play your vocabulary as an audio loop — word, phonetics and meaning on repeat — in a dedicated player you can leave running while you do something else
  • Meanings and explanations in Chinese, Japanese and Korean are now read aloud with a matching voice

Improvements

  • Rebuilt AI reading-assist panel: a sentence is laid out in clearer grammar groups that are easier to scan
  • Redesigned vocabulary review flow, with review settings and audio autoplay synced across devices
  • Reader tips now walk you through selecting a sentence and marking a word
Mobilev1.11.0

Review preferences

New Features

  • Choose which review modes you want from a new review preferences panel

Improvements

  • Clearer tab names in the reading-assist panel, and the original sentence expands automatically on the structure tab
Mobilev1.10.0

YouTube videos, PDF books, and read-aloud

Six weeks of work: a home built around discover and search, English YouTube videos with tappable captions, PDF import, whole-book read-aloud, and review passages written from your own vocabulary.

New Features

  • Home now holds the discover feed and a search box that looks across your library, books, podcasts and videos at once; the library gains categories, a card/list switch, collections for grouping books, and a notebook view with your highlights grouped by chapter
  • Watch English YouTube videos with their captions below the player: tap a line to jump there, follow the active line as it fills in word by word, browse channels by level, and find watched videos in your reading history
  • Import PDF books, and find new ones without leaving the app: search built-in book sites in one tap, or browse a site in the in-app browser, where book links are detected and added to your library
  • Have a whole book read aloud with the sentence you're hearing highlighted as it plays (experimental), and EPUB3 read-along books are tagged as audiobooks in your library
  • Vocabulary review can generate a short passage built from the words you're learning, pitched just above your current level, and adds a produce mode where you recall the word yourself

Improvements

  • Daily reading reminders you can turn on, a banner that tracks imports and downloads anywhere in the app, and an app-wide text size setting
Mobilev1.9.1

Now on Google Play

New Features

  • SentiaRead is available on Google Play, so Android users can install it and get updates from the store instead of downloading the APK from our site
Mobilev1.9.0

Vocabulary review

Your vocabulary list becomes something you can practise: a spaced review flow with two card types, and explanations in your own language.

New Features

  • Review your saved words in a dedicated flow built on the FSRS-6 spaced repetition scheduler: it works out which words are due and spaces them out over time, with progress synced across your devices
  • Two card types — pick the right meaning, or recall the word yourself — mixed according to how solid each word already is
  • Hear the example sentence read aloud on a review card, not just the word
  • Vocabulary entries can explain a word in your own language, and each meaning can pull up its own example sentences

Improvements

  • Reorder the buttons in the text selection toolbar so the ones you use most come first
  • Better default reading fonts per platform, and review screens show placeholders while cards load
Mobilev1.8.0

Android and e-ink support

SentiaRead comes to Android phones, tablets and Android e-ink readers, with a reading mode built for slow-refresh screens.

New Features

  • SentiaRead runs on Android: reading, dictionary lookup, vocabulary and podcasts, with Android-native navigation, bottom sheets, immersive full-screen reading and the home screen widget
  • An e-ink mode for Android e-readers: high-contrast pages without animation, adapted to slow-refresh screens, with faster page turning in long chapters
  • Sign in with Google or Apple, and see which sign-in methods your account uses in settings

Improvements

  • Large libraries and vocabulary lists sync in pages, so they load faster
  • Rename a book in your library, and choose whether word explanations use your native language
  • Check how your credits have been used in a usage history, and subscribe through web checkout on Android
Mobilev1.7.0

Podcast subscriptions and iPad layout

Follow the shows you listen to, see their new episodes in one feed, and get an interface that fits iPad properly.

New Features

  • Subscribe to podcast shows and find their new episodes in a what's-new feed, with a subscriptions page and your listening position carried over
  • A notes page collects your highlights and notes, reachable from settings
  • Import Markdown files alongside EPUB and TXT

Improvements

  • On iPad, dialogs open as sheets, settings pages use the full width, and text keeps a comfortable line length in landscape
  • Translation, explanation, history and invite screens show placeholders while they load instead of a blank page
  • A rebuilt empty library screen that points you to importing a book or browsing the catalog
Mobilev1.6.0

Continue reading section and media settings

New Features

  • Pick up where you left off from a continue section on the home feed, filter your library, and check what's new in a sheet
  • A media settings sheet for podcast playback, with theme display on podcast pages fixed

Improvements

  • Podcast screens show placeholders while loading, and the reader interface gets a round of visual fixes
Mobilev1.5.0

Podcast highlights and faster lookups

Podcast transcripts become as workable as books, and word lookups get noticeably faster from mainland China.

New Features

  • The podcast transcript highlights the word being spoken as the audio plays
  • Highlight lines in a podcast transcript and attach notes, then find them in the highlights list as you do with books
  • Show pages move to tabs with an episode detail sheet, and there are more podcasts to choose from

Improvements

  • Word lookups, translation and reading assist respond faster from mainland China
  • Choose your service region manually in account settings if the automatic choice isn't the fastest for you
Mobilev1.4.0

Podcasts, iOS widget, and share extension

Listen to English podcasts with a transcript you can look words up in, send pages to SentiaRead from Safari, and see your reading days on the home screen.

New Features

  • Listen to English podcasts with a synced transcript: tap any line to jump to that moment, and let the transcript follow your reader theme
  • Select and look up words right in the transcript, with your saved words highlighted and their meanings shown inline
  • Send a page or selected text to SentiaRead from Safari and other apps, through the iOS share sheet or the action extension
  • An iOS home screen widget showing how many days you've completed your reading, updating as you read

Improvements

  • The vocabulary list loads in pages, shows how many words are in each status, and has a pronunciation button on every row
  • The reading assist panel gets a sentence-chunking toggle, and the quick lookup toolbar shows a placeholder while it fetches
Mobilev1.3.0

Reading assist and reading tracker

Break a long sentence into thought groups before you read the translation, and see your reading tracked day by day.

New Features

  • Ask for help on a long sentence and get it broken into thought groups, so you can see how it's built
  • See how much you've read each day, with the record kept across your devices
  • Tapping a word can expand the selection to the whole sentence, and a word split by a hyphen across lines looks up as one word

Improvements

  • Books sync more often and more reliably, with a check that everything arrived intact
  • Clearing local data and resyncing runs in stages you can follow, and App Store purchase problems come with a clearer message
Mobilev1.2.0

Native-language quick lookup

New Features

  • Quick lookup can show the meaning in your native language, not only in English
  • Saved words in the text can show their meaning inline, without opening a card
  • Pick American or British pronunciation from a reader preferences panel

Improvements

  • Reader panels sit better with the toolbar, and settings now link to the macOS download
Mobilev1.1.0

Marking words from quick lookup

New Features

  • Mark a word as known or still learning straight from the quick lookup toolbar

Improvements

  • Quick lookup results appear immediately after a page turn
Mobilev1.0.0

SentiaRead 1.0 for iPhone and iPad

The first release of SentiaRead on iOS: bring in your own English books, read them with a tap-to-look-up dictionary, and build a vocabulary list that follows your account.

New Features

  • Build a library from your own material: import EPUB and TXT files, or bring in a web page and read it as clean text; covers, files and reading data sync to your account
  • A reader that paginates the whole book: swipe to turn pages, a hierarchical table of contents, page numbers, adjustable theme, font and spacing, and a two-column layout on iPad
  • Tap a word to look it up without leaving the page: bilingual definitions that take the surrounding sentence into account, US and UK phonetics with pronunciation, example sentences, and translation of a selected sentence
  • A vocabulary list that fills itself: words you look up repeatedly are added automatically, saved words are highlighted wherever they appear in your books, and each entry keeps its phonetics, source and how often you've met it
  • Highlight passages — including across paragraphs — attach notes, and find them all in one list that syncs to your other devices
  • Sign in and continue on another device: reading position, settings and vocabulary follow your account, and setup asks for your CEFR level and native language so lookups match you