Wokabulary 8 — A Prettier Interface and Faster Syncing Underneath
By Gabriel —
We’ve spent over 9 months working on Wokabulary 8 — quite a bit longer than we had expected. However, this update goes deeper than most before it. We’ve completely rewritten the iCloud sync and given Wokabulary a fresh, redesigned look.
Completely rewritten syncing
If you’ve opened Wokabulary 7 with a somewhat larger vocabulary on a new device for the first time, you’ll know that the initial sync can feel like it takes forever. This is something that has bothered us for a long time — and understandably frustrated many of our users, too.
The reason for this ran deep in the system: until now, we relied on Apple’s Core Data framework for syncing and data management, which handles data storage and syncing automatically and autonomously. But unfortunately, not particularly efficiently. For Wokabulary 8, we decided to rewrite syncing and data management completely from scratch ourselves, so have full control over it. As a result, the initial sync on a new device now takes just a few seconds, or at most one to two minutes — depending on the size of your vocabulary.
A redesigned, calmer look
Wokabulary looks even better now, and fits even better with Apple’s new Liquid Glass design. Redesigned cards, softer shadows, and an updated color palette make the whole interface feel calmer, clearer, and more consistent. And this is just the beginning: more design improvements are already in the pipeline.
More playful illustrations
Alongside the interface, the illustrations throughout Wokabulary have also changed fundamentally. The new illustrations by Jieun Park now accompany you throughout the app. The central characters are a small Haetae from Korean mythology and his friend, a radish, who appear together in all kinds of cute and funny situations. They're meant to lighten up Wokabulary’s rather technical approach and add a bit more fun to your learning.
Further improvements
Beyond syncing and design, we’ve also worked on many smaller things:
- Restore your vocabularies from a backup right in the app
- A clearer, redesigned explanation of how spaced repetition works
- Improved translations across many languages
- Numerous fixes and performance improvements under the hood
We’re very proud of this update and hope you, our users, love it too.
Wokabulary 8 is available now as a regular (free!) update on the App Store.
