Make an app
Make a language learning app for iPhone
The words you need in a new language are your own: the ones from your job, your trip, your partner's family. Describe what you're learning and Borel builds a native iPhone vocabulary app in Swift that says each word aloud in the right accent, quizzes you daily, lets you chat with an AI tutor and saves words from signs you photograph.
Updated
“A Spanish vocabulary app: I add words with the Spanish, the English and an example sentence, sorted into topics. Each word can be spoken aloud in a Spanish voice. Daily practice asks 10 words both ways and repeats the ones I miss. A tutor screen lets me chat in simple Spanish with an AI that corrects my mistakes.”
Screens
What a language learning app needs
The screens Borel builds from the prompt above. Ask for more, fewer or different ones.
Topics
Food, travel, work or your own, each with its words and how many you know.
Word
The word, its translation, an example sentence and a speaker button.
Daily practice
Ten words, asked both ways, with the missed ones coming back at the end.
Tutor
A chat in the language you're learning, with gentle corrections under your messages.
Data
What it keeps
Borel writes these as Swift models. On the phone they work with no connection; in Borel's cloud they follow a signed-in person.
| What | Holds | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| Word | Original, translation, example, topic | On the phone, with SwiftData |
| Progress | Times right and wrong, last practised | On the phone, with the word |
| Chat | Your messages and the tutor's replies | On the phone |
Native iPhone features
What it can use on your iPhone
Written in Swift with Apple's own frameworks, so they work the way iPhone owners expect.
- Built-in AIA tutor that chats at your level and points out mistakes, on Borel's AI.How Borel builds it
- Voice and speechSay a word and see whether the iPhone understood it in that language.How Borel builds it
- Camera and scanningPhotograph a menu or a sign and pick words from its text.How Borel builds it
Make it yours
What to ask for next
Once the first version runs, ask for changes in the chat, in words like these.
- “Switch the app to French, with a French voice and starter words.”
- “Add a listening mode: it says a word and I type what I heard.”
- “Show a streak of days I practised.”
- “Let the tutor play a waiter so I can practise ordering food.”
How to make it
From a prompt to your iPhone and the App Store
- 1
Describe it
Paste the prompt on this page into Borel, or write your own in plain words. Borel plans the screens with you before it builds.
- 2
Try it in your browser
Borel writes the app in Swift and SwiftUI, builds it with Xcode on its own Mac and opens it in a live iPhone simulator in your browser, free.
- 3
Put it on your iPhone
With Pro, Borel Companion for Windows or Mac installs it on your own iPhone with your Apple ID: a cable the first time, then Wi-Fi.
- 4
Publish it when it's ready
Pro publishes to the App Store from the same project. Apple's Developer Program, $99 a year, is the one thing you pay Apple.
Pronunciation and speech recognition depend on the iPhone's own voices, so listen on the real phone. Check the speaker button uses the accent you want; Spanish from Spain and from Mexico are different voices on iOS, and Borel can pick either.
A vocabulary app for one language and one audience, such as nurses learning German, can stand out on the App Store where general apps don't. Pro publishes it, and a subscription for the AI tutor can pay for itself.
Building starts free, with 5 free credits a day, up to 30 a month, and the simulator in your browser costs nothing. Pro, from $20 a month, adds installs on your own iPhone through Borel Companion and publishing to the App Store.
Before you start
Good to know
- The app doesn't come with a full dictionary; words come from you, from scans or from the AI.
- The tutor needs a connection; word practice works offline.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Describe the language, the topics and how you want to practise, and Borel builds a native iPhone app you can try in your browser.
Yes. Borel uses the iPhone's built-in voices, which speak most major languages, with no recordings or API keys.
Yes. The tutor runs on Borel's AI inside your app. People turn AI on in the app, and the app asks for consent before first use.
Yes. Ask for a language picker, and each word keeps its own language and voice.
Make your language learning app
Start from the prompt on this page, change it to fit your idea, and Borel builds it while you watch.