Ukrainian couple launches Iterum vocabulary app for iOS and Android; 5,000 installs in five weeks

EdTech marketer Ksenia Snitko and her husband, developer Vlad, have released Iterum, an app for learning vocabulary from articles, books and videos, DEV.UA reports. It is available on Google Play and the App Store and syncs with a Chrome extension. According to Snitko, 5,000 users installed it within five weeks of release. dev.uaDEV.UAdev.uaOpen source ↗

Snitko describes her English as a confident B2 and wanted to read harder articles and books without the risk of forgetting unfamiliar words. The couple built the tool for their own needs. She said they entered the crowded language-app market because no product offered an ideal methodological chain, existing ones were overloaded with extra functions, and price did not match the service.

Context instead of word lists

The app follows the principle "context instead of endless lists": the aim is to remove the need to study words separately from their source. It supports YouTube videos with synchronized subtitles, articles opened by link, and books in EPUB and PDF, both inside the app and through the Chrome extension.

While reading or watching, a user can tap an unfamiliar word or a whole phrase. The system translates it according to the specific sentence and determines its CEFR level and frequency of use. dev.uaDEV.UAdev.uaOpen source ↗

Instead of a self-rating of how well a word is known, the system analyzes the correctness and speed of answers and builds an individual review schedule. The app supports English, Spanish, French and Polish; German and Italian were added recently.

Development, launch and pricing

Development took about three months. Beta testing began in early September and drew 287 applications by the third day; Snitko said such targeted attention would not have been possible without Threads. The official release followed at the end of September.

At the end of October the app reached 25th place in the Ukrainian App Store. In the first five weeks after release it was installed by 5,000 users, according to Snitko. dev.uaDEV.UAdev.uaOpen source ↗

Iterum uses a freemium model. Basic trainers, saving materials and creating personal collections are free, while extended personalization features are part of the paid Iterum Advanced subscription. The app is available for iOS and Android.