v1.5.0 - ChangelogChangelog, Development • May 7, 2025KanjiKen has been updated and the learn path got a serious overhaul! Gone are the slow loading times and endless scrolling. Here are the highlights:
Summary• 🎓 Major learn path overhaul (Levels, Performance, Animations, Learn order)
• 📡 Improved network performance (6x less network data)
• 🎵 2 new sound effects
• 🐛 Bugs have been squashed
The Learn Path had quite a few issues and was due for an upgrade. Here are some things that made the old one less appealing:
• Endless scrolling was daunting for new users.
• Only Kanji in path. No progress when learning bushu or words.
• The scroll was laggy (especially on android).
• No animations.
• Decorations (trees) would sometimes overlap the path.
• No interaction with path elements
The new learning path solves all this!
KanjiKen LevelsThe new learn path is separated into multiple levels, each level containing ~40 things for you to learn. Words are now added to the learning path as well, and if you hide content like hiragana or katakana, they will disappear but no longer “shrink” your learn path. The result is a consistent leveling up experience that you can compare with your friends, regardless if they know kana already or not.
New animationsThe new learn path is much more responsive and snappy. There is a new animation showing you what new learnables you’ve discovered last session, and the objects like trees and bushes no longer visually block the path. Scrolling is animated instead of instant as well, and the whole experience should feel much more fluid.
InteractableYou can now click on a learnable to “inspect” it! This will show you the kanji (or kana or word) and it’s meanings. Only if you’ve already unlocked it, of course. There is also a level select screen if you tap the level label on top, in case you want to go back and check your progress.
Faster StartupWhen KanjiKen launches, it syncs with the server to load your latest save data. On slower connections, this can be sluggish due to the save file’s size.
In v1.5.0, we’ve tackled this head-on:
• Smarter Syncing: The app now checks if syncing can be skipped, making repeated startups much faster.
• Slimmer Save Files: We’ve moved some data to local storage and removed redundant info.
• Compression: Save files are now compressed before syncing.
These changes can reduce the filesize of synced data by up to 600%, meaning up to 6x faster sync times, especially noticeable on slow networks.
Your app launch experience should now feel much smoother and more responsive.
Minor ImprovementsA bunch of bugs where fixed, resulting in more words and characters showing up in the app, compared to before. KanjiKen now also has new sound effects for when you level up in the learn path, and when you run out of hearts.
Next updateThis overhaul of the learning path and network performance should make the app load faster and give a better sense of progress. The next update will focus a bit more on performance, especially on android. The goal is to eliminate the lag spike when switching exercises in a session. So look forward to that!
Check out the appThanks for reading! If you’re interested in learning Japanese, check out KanjiKen on the App Store or Google Play. It contains Hiragana, Katakana, 2000+ Kanji and 10000+ words with interactive exercises and a spaced repetition algorithm built in. Essentially, everything you need to go from beginner to proficiency!