How to use Echo Korean

1Install it

Android only for now. iPhone isn't supported yet.

Install the app (recommended) #

1. On your phone, tap Get the Android app. (It has to be the phone, not a computer.)
2. If you see "This type of file can harm your device", tap OK — it's the standard warning for any file downloaded outside the Play Store.
3. When the download finishes, tap the notification to install.
4. If Android says the app is from an unknown source, follow Settings → Allow from this source → Back → Install.

These steps exist only because the app isn't in the Play Store yet. They go away once it launches.

If the install is blocked #

If it still won't go, open your Downloads folder and tap echo-korean.apk directly. That's the way in when the notification has disappeared.

Or use it on the web, no install #

Don't want to install anything? Open it in the browser — almost everything works the same.

On the web, keep the screen on while you use it. If the screen switches off, the browser pauses the page.

2First run

A one-time setup. Three minutes.

Sign in with Google #

Translation goes through a server, so you need to be signed in. Tap the person icon 👤 at the top right, then Sign in with Google.

Once you're signed in your sentences are saved to your account, so they follow you to a new phone or a reinstall.

Allow the microphone #

The first time you press Start, Android asks whether the app may use the microphone. Tap Allow. Allow notifications too if you're asked — while the app is listening it shows a "Listening" notification, which is how you can tell it's still running.

Say your first sentence #

1. Press the big 🎙️ Start button in the middle.
2. Speak English, normally. While you talk, the words appear at the top under "Listening…".
3. Stop talking. After about 1.5 seconds the app decides that was one sentence.
4. A moment later the Korean appears — with its romanization — and plays out loud.

3The main screen

Every button, in one table.

Button	What it does
🎙️ Start	Starts listening. Turns into Stop.
🔊 / 🔇	Korean audio on and off. With it off, sentences pile up silently on screen. Pressing play turns it back on automatically.
👤	Account — sign in and out, sync now
⚙️	Settings
📅 Today	Pick a date. You can show several days at once.
🎓 Practice	See English, say Korean · spaced review · weekly report · ✨ sentences made for you
📔 Diary	Write about your day in English and get it back in Korean (section 6)
📌 Daily	Adds today's 10 everyday sentences, or jumps to them if they're already there

Missing buttons on a fresh install? That's normal

The buttons at the top (📅 🎓 📔 📌) appear once you have a sentence — on a brand-new install, today's 10 everyday sentences usually arrive within a few seconds, so they show up straight away.

The row above your sentences #

A sentence card #

Each card holds three lines: what you said in small text, the Korean in large yellow text, and the romanization underneath. Tap 💡 at the top right to open the explanation.

4🔤 Romanization

You don't need to read Hangul to start using this app.

Under every Korean sentence there's a line of Latin letters, split syllable by syllable so you can follow the sounds:

The hyphens are there on purpose. Korean is written in syllable blocks, and seeing where each block starts and ends is most of what makes Hangul click later on.

It also follows what Korean actually sounds like rather than how it's spelled — 먹었어요 is written meok-eoss-eo-yo letter by letter, but it comes out of a Korean mouth as meo-geo-sseo-yo, and that's what you'll see.

5💡 Explanations

A translation alone is just a translation. Knowing why it's said that way is what makes it come out of your own mouth next time.

Tap 💡 at the top right of a card and you get two or three lines about the parts English speakers trip over:

• Particles — why it's 은/는 here but 이/가 there, when 을/를 shows up
• Word order — why the verb always lands at the very end
• Endings — how -요 makes it polite, how tense is built in

• Tap 💡 again to close it.
• An explanation you've already fetched is saved, so it opens instantly next time.

These are written by an AI, so once in a while one is awkward or not quite right. If you spot a bad one, tell us — it genuinely helps.

6📔 Diary & 📌 Daily sentences

Your own day, in Korean — and something to practise even on days you don't talk much.

📔 My Korean diary #

1. Tap 📔 Diary at the top.
2. Write a few lines about your day in English — or tap 🎤 Speak it and just talk. About 3 minutes is plenty.
3. When you stop speaking, or tap somewhere else, it turns into Korean on its own. Every Korean sentence has its romanization right under it.
4. Press ▶️ Listen in Korean. Tap any Korean sentence to start from there, ⏮ to start over.

• One diary per day. Pick an earlier date at the top to read back.
• Under today's diary you'll see today's sentences as cards — tap one to drop it into your diary and use the expression yourself.
• Each translation counts as one of your 30 a day. Changing the English and translating again counts again.

📌 Today's everyday sentences #

If you haven't said anything yet today, the app puts 10 everyday Korean sentences on a topic at the top of the list — at a café, at the clinic, on the subway. Play them, repeat after them, practise and review them just like your own sentences. They don't use up your translations.

Already talked today? Tap 📌 Daily to get them anyway.

In ⚙️ Settings → 📌 Today's sentences you can choose Beginner or Intermediate, pick the topics you care about (they take turns, one a day), turn them off, and set a morning reminder on the Android app.

7🎓 Practice & review

You only own a sentence once you've said it yourself.

See English, say Korean #

Each card shows only the English. Tap 🎤 Speak and say it in Korean (or type it), and it's checked straight away:

• Your answer, then the right answer with the parts you got in green and the parts you missed in red, its romanization, and a score.
• Tap 🔊 next to the answer to hear it.
• No idea? Tap I don't know and the answer is shown.
• Cards stack up below each other, so you can scroll back to the ones you missed. At the end you get your average.

Want to listen and repeat instead? That's what 🗣️ and ▶️ on the main list are for (section 3).

Your phone has to recognise Korean speech for this. Almost all Android phones do; if it doesn't, install the Korean language pack under Settings → General management → Language.

Review comes back on its own #

Sentences you get right return after 1 → 3 → 7 → 16 → 35 days, spacing out as they stick. Ones you miss come back the next day. The idea is to meet each sentence again right about when you'd have forgotten it.

Start today's review takes whatever is due today first. If that's fewer than 20 sentences, it tops up with recent ones you haven't practised yet — so there's always something to do, even on a day with nothing due.

Want specific sentences instead? Tick them in the list and press Practice selected sentences.

Sentences you said yourself come first; today's sentences and ones made for you come after.

✨ Sentences made for you (Premium) #

On the same screen, ✨ Make 10 sentences for me looks at what you've actually been saying lately and writes 10 new Korean expressions that fit your life. They land in today's list with their own heading. You need at least 5 sentences of your own first, and you can make up to 5 sets a day.

Weekly report #

Lower down the same screen: how many sentences you recorded this week, how long you had the app running, and how many days in a row you've used it.

8⚙️ Settings

The defaults are fine. Come here only when something bothers you.

Setting	What it's for
When to translate	Right away by default. Pick after 3 / 5 / 10 seconds if you'd rather guess first, or Save only, no sound when you're somewhere quiet. (Play them back later.)
Show romanization	On by default. See section 4.
Premium	At the top. Subscribe, restore a purchase, or manage your subscription (Android app).
Korean voice	Female or male, and Slow / Normal / Fast. If the Korean goes past you, put it on Slow — you'll catch far more. The pause in repeat-after-me gets longer with it.
Repeat each sentence	How many times each sentence plays before ▶️ moves on: 1, 2, 3 or 5. With 🗣️ on, you get a pause after every play.
📌 Today's sentences	On/off, Beginner / Intermediate, your topics, and the 🔔 morning reminder (7 AM – 8 PM, Android app only).
Pause before a sentence ends	How long the app waits after you stop talking before it calls that one sentence. Default is Normal (1.5s).
Pause listening while Korean plays	On by default. Stops the app from hearing its own voice through the speaker. If you use earphones you can turn it off and it'll never miss a word.
Export	Saves every sentence — English, Korean and romanization — to a text file.

Your daily allowance #

The free plan translates 30 sentences a day, and it refills at midnight. To see how much you've used today: ⚙️ Settings → Translation.

Playing back, reviewing and practising sentences you've already translated doesn't count against it, and neither do today's sentences. Each diary translation counts as one. Premium removes the limit.

9Getting the most out of it

What we've learned from using it every day.

• Don't try to study. Leave it running and talk normally. That really is the whole method.
• Talking to yourself counts. "What should I eat today" is exactly the kind of sentence you'll need a hundred times.
• Somewhere quiet? Use Save only, no sound and listen back later with ▶️.
• One sentence at a time works better. Long unbroken speech can get cut off partway.
• Leave the romanization on for the first week or two, then turn it off. Trying to read the Hangul with the answer one line below is where it starts to stick.
• Leave 🗣️ repeat-after-me on and actually say each sentence out loud in the pause. Set Repeat each sentence to 2 or 3 for the ones that won't stick.
• Write three lines in 📔 Diary at night. Your own day, read back to you in Korean, is the most personal textbook there is.
• Five minutes of 🎓 Start today's review before bed is enough.

10When something breaks

Tap a question to open it.

11Your privacy

• No audio is stored. Speech becomes text and the sound is gone.
• What's saved on your phone: the text of what you said, its Korean translation, the time, your review schedule, your practice scores, and any explanation you've fetched. Signed in, that syncs to your account only.
• The "time listening" figure stays on your phone and is never uploaded.
• You can delete anything at any time with 🗑️, or delete your whole account from 👤 Account.

The full text is in the privacy policy.