Readlang, ReadLang WatchLang and Readlang Mobile: three products, one confusing name

Why the App Store shows the wrong things for "readlang"

The App Store search box does what it is asked: it looks for apps whose names and keywords contain the word you typed. Readlang has never published an app, so there is nothing of Readlang's to find. What the search finds instead are the apps that do carry the word: ReadLang WatchLang, which as of September 2026 often sits at or near the top of the results for that query, and Readlang Mobile. The store is answering a question that has no exact match.

That is why the confusion is worse on a phone than at a desk. On a computer you type readlang into a search engine and land on readlang.com. On an iPhone the instinct is to open the App Store, which has only look-alikes to offer. Readlang's own answer for phones is a home-screen shortcut, described further down and in detail on the Readlang on iPhone page.

Google Play behaves the same way, because there is no Readlang Android app either; the Android page covers that side, and the download page covers the wider "readlang app download" question. This page only untangles the three names.

What each one is

The Readlang column was checked on 14 September 2026 against readlang.com and its pricing page. The WatchLang column repeats only what its App Store and Google Play listings say, in their own words, because that is all we have verified. The third column is our own app.

Readlang prices from readlang.com/pricing, 14 September 2026, in USD; a Premium Plus tier at $15 a month also exists. WatchLang details quoted from its store listings on the same date. Readlang Mobile prices as shown in the US App Store.

The last row is the one that matters: none of the three shares an account, a server or a word list with the others. The WatchLang column is deliberately thin; we have not used the app and have no opinion on it.

How to get the real Readlang on a phone

If Readlang itself is what you were after, you do not need an app. Readlang's official instruction, posted on its forum in June 2024 as "Install Readlang on your iPhone, iPad or Android home screen", is a shortcut to the website. It takes under a minute.

1. Open readlang.com in Safari on an iPhone or iPad, or in Chrome on Android, and sign in.
2. Tap the share button in Safari, or the browser menu in Chrome, and choose "Add to Home Screen".
3. Name it and confirm. An icon appears next to your other apps and opens readlang.com in its own window.

What you get is the full Readlang web app: your texts, words and flashcards, all hundred-plus languages, on the same account you use at the desk. What you do not get is anything the website cannot do: it needs a connection for every translation, and it feels like a website because it is one. The iPhone page walks through the shortcut and the Safari bookmarklet; the Android page adds the Firefox for Android extension route.

The reliable test whenever a new look-alike appears: readlang.com links to no app store, and the only mobile instruction Readlang publishes is the shortcut above. Anything in a store carrying the name was made by someone else.

How to tell them apart in the store

Every App Store and Google Play listing carries three pieces of information that settle the question in seconds, without installing anything.

• The developer name under the title. Readlang publishes no app at all, so whatever name the store prints beneath an app called Readlang-anything belongs to someone other than Readlang. WatchLang and Readlang Mobile show two different names, and neither is Readlang's.
• The developer website link. Further down every listing there is a link to the developer's site. Open it and see where it goes. Readlang lives at readlang.com, which does not link back to any store.
• The description. Read it against what you were looking for. WatchLang's store wording is quoted in the table above. Readlang Mobile's describes a reading app with tap-to-translate, a graded library and narrated books, and says nothing about a browser extension, YouTube or flashcards, because it has none. Readlang's own description is on readlang.com, not in a store.

Spelling is a small extra clue: the listing writes "ReadLang WatchLang" with a capital L, while the website and our app both write "Readlang". Names can be edited, though; the developer line and the website link are the checks to trust.

If you want a native reader on iPhone

Some people who search "readlang app store" have already decided they want an app rather than a website: installed from the store, opens like a book app, holds the page. That is what Readlang Mobile is for. You open a book from a library graded A1 to C1, or paste a link to an article, tap the word you do not know, and the translation appears in the text. By default, translation comes from Google Translate through the app's server; in Settings you can switch to Apple Translate, which runs on the device. Tap the first and last word of a phrase to translate the whole phrase. Some books are narrated with the current word highlighted, and a tap does not pause the narration.

The honest limits, so nobody installs it for the wrong reason. It covers about twenty languages, the ones Apple Translation supports on the device, where Readlang covers more than a hundred. No video. No export to Anki or anywhere else. No Android version. The free plan is 30 translations a day, which a long evening of reading will use up; Premium is $8.99 a month or $59.99 a year through the App Store, with the first year at $29.99 as of September 2026.

If what you wanted was Readlang's hundred languages, its browser extension or its YouTube player, none of that is in Readlang Mobile, and the side-by-side page says so at length. If WatchLang's listing describes what you were after, that is a different app, and we have nothing to add beyond what its store pages say. The Readlang guide covers the original product from top to bottom.

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