Watch, listen and read4 picks
The best learning apps for iPhone
Merlin Bird ID is the learning app to install first, since it is free, works offline and has no ads.
Merlin Bird IDPick it if you hear birds every morning and want their names with zero birding experience.FreeMerlin Bird ID names birds from their song, a photo or 3 quick questions, and it is free with no ads and works offline. These 4 apps teach very different things, so pick by subject: Duolingo for starting a language, Anki for making exam facts stick, and Sky Guide for naming stars and planets.
How we chose
- 1Free without ads or upsells
- 2Works offline when you're outdoors
- 3Daily practice that actually sticks
Compare at a glance
Tap a name to jump to its write-up.
| App | Price | How you pay | Mac | iPhone | iPad | Watch | App Store | Developer | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Merlin Bird ID | Free | Free | 4.9 | ||||||
 Duolingo | Free to start | Free, with paid upgrades | 4.7 | ||||||
 Anki | Free, open source | Free | 4 | ||||||
 Sky Guide | Free to start | Free, with paid upgrades | 4.8 |
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The picks, in order
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Pick it if you hear birds every morning and want their names with zero birding experience.
Hold your phone up to a singing tree and Merlin names the birds as it hears them, or snap a photo, or answer 3 quick questions about what you saw. Apple's Visual Look Up can guess a bird from a photo, but it can't tell you who is singing. It is free from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology with no ads and works offline, though it covers birds and nothing else.
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Pick this if you're starting a new language and need a daily streak to keep you practicing.
Anki drills vocabulary harder, but Duolingo is better at getting a beginner to practice every day, with short lessons in 40+ languages that mix speaking, listening, reading and writing. Every course is free with ads and limited energy, and Super Duolingo removes both from $83.99 a year. It won't get you to real conversation on its own, so add a tutor or a language exchange once the basics stick.
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Pick it if you're studying for an exam and will build your own flashcard decks to remember thousands of facts.
Free and open source on the Mac, with free AnkiWeb sync, this spaced-repetition app shows each card right before you're likely to forget it and copes with decks of 100,000+ cards. The only thing you pay for is AnkiMobile at $24.99 once, which beats the subscription copycats its developer warns about. Expect a learning curve, because you build or import decks and tune the settings yourself.
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Pick this if you get clear night skies and want every star, planet and satellite named.
You spot a bright dot in the night sky and can't tell whether it's a star, a planet or a satellite. Hold your iPhone up and Sky Guide names it, draws the constellations over the real sky in AR and warns you before the Space Station passes. Identifying stars, planets and satellites is free and works with no signal, while PLUS and PRO add bigger catalogs that casual stargazers won't miss.
