BetterLang — how common learner tasks work

How to use BetterLang: import YouTube videos and texts, save words as Cards, practise with spaced repetition, move from Readlang, plans and account.

BetterLang — how common learner tasks work

Product summary

BetterLang (https://betterlang.app) is a language-learning web app built on real content: you read texts, watch YouTube videos and read books in the language you are learning, tap any word to save it as a Card together with its sentence, and practise your Cards with spaced repetition (FSRS-6) at a target recall you choose. It runs in any phone or computer browser; an iPhone app is in development and a Chrome extension is in private testing. You can learn and translate between English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Arabic and Dutch. BetterLang is free to start with no credit card; every Practice mode is free except the AI chat tutor, and a few AI features need the Premium or Pro plan. The main areas, in the top menu, are Learn, Library, Discover, Words, Chat and Settings, plus the Import (+) button.

What people ask

Create an account

  1. Go to https://betterlang.app/login and choose Create account (or open https://betterlang.app/login?mode=signup).
  2. Fill in Name, Email, Password and Confirm password — the password needs at least 8 characters with letters and numbers.
  3. Press Create account. By creating an account you agree to the Terms and acknowledge the Privacy Policy. If you saved words or imported texts before signing up, BetterLang moves them into the new account and tells you how many were added. Sign-in is by email and password only; there is no Google, Apple or magic-link sign-in.

Get started after signing up (onboarding)

  1. Answer "What language are you learning?" and "What is your native language?" — this sets your language pair.
  2. "Set your daily goal": Casual (5 cards), Regular (10) or Serious (20).
  3. "Bring something to learn from": Import content now opens Import, Already learning somewhere else? opens Import Cards for Readlang or LingQ. You can also choose Skip for now, then Go to Learn.

Reset a forgotten password

  1. On the sign-in page choose Forgot password?.
  2. Enter your email and press Send reset link (a quick verification check may appear).
  3. Open the link in the email, choose a new password and press Set new password, then sign in. For privacy the page always says a link is on its way, whether or not the email has an account. If no email arrives, check spam and that you typed the address you signed up with.

Change your name or password

  1. Open Settings, then Edit profile (or go to https://betterlang.app/settings/profile).
  2. Change Display name and press Save changes.
  3. For the password press Change password, fill Current password, New password and Confirm new password, then Update password. Your email address cannot be changed (it is shown as read-only), and profile photos are not available yet.

Change the language you are learning or your native language

  1. Click the language-pair pill in the top bar and pick Learning and Native — or open Settings → Basic → Languages and set Learning language and Native language.
  2. The change applies at once. Each learning language works like its own space: your Library lists, Cards, counts and the new-word allowance follow the active learning language, so switching back shows the other language's Cards again — nothing is deleted.

Import a YouTube video

  1. Press Import (the + button) in the top bar, or go to https://betterlang.app/import.
  2. Paste the YouTube link into Source; BetterLang detects it as a YouTube video.
  3. Under Transcript choose YouTube captions (free, the captions YouTube has) or AI transcript (precise, timed, made from the audio; Pro plan, costs credits).
  4. Optionally set a Title, then press Prepare Content. The video opens in the video reader with its transcript next to it. If BetterLang says "Automatic caption import isn't available" or "Couldn't import captions automatically", the video's captions could not be fetched: bring the subtitles yourself (paste an SRT or VTT file) or use AI transcript on Pro. Verify in the product: caption availability depends on the video.

Import a text, subtitles or a book file

  1. Open Import and paste the text into Source, or press Upload a file.
  2. Pasted text, SRT and VTT subtitles are detected automatically; if the guess is wrong set Format to Plain text, .txt file, SRT or VTT.
  3. Add a Title (and optionally a Source title such as the article or episode name), then press Prepare Content. A TXT, SRT or VTT file up to 100,000 characters goes into the Source box; longer text, an EPUB or a PDF becomes a book. TXT, SRT, VTT and EPUB are free; PDF needs Premium. Web page links cannot be imported yet ("Web page import not available yet") — copy the article text and paste it instead.

Import when signed out

You can use Import and the Reader without an account: your imports stay in that browser ("Your imports stay in this browser") and you pick your learning and native language on the page. When you create an account, those imports and saved words move into it.

Read a book on another device

Book text never leaves the device that imported it — it is stored in that browser, not on BetterLang's servers. On another device the book shows "This book is on another device". To read it there, open Import on the new device and add the same file again; your Cards and your reading place are already in your account.

Save a word or a phrase as a Card

  1. Open any Content in the Reader and tap (or click) a word. It is highlighted, its translation appears, and it is saved as a Card with its sentence right away — there is no separate save button.
  2. To save a phrase, drag across the words, or tap the word right next to one you already tapped (with Merge Phrases on, the default) — they join into one phrase saved as one Card.
  3. Open the reader panel (the ☰ button) → Explain tab to see the word, its translation, the sentence, an Edit button and an Open in Wiktionary link. Use Save to Words there if a word has no Card, or the trash icon ("Remove card") to delete it. Tapping a saved word again removes its Card by default. To make a second tap only hide the translation, open the panel's Settings tab → "On Deselect Word/Phrase" → Keep Flashcard.

Turn off translations or change how they show in the Reader

  1. Open the reader panel (☰) → Settings tab → Translation Behavior.
  2. Choose Translations On or Translations Off (monolingual) — with Off, tapping still saves the word, without a translation in the text.
  3. Pick the display: Highlight, Underline, Replace or Popover; and Merge Phrases or Don't Merge. Account-wide reader defaults (Font size, Line spacing, Translation display — Source only, Both visible, Hidden until tap, Blurred — and Word color) are in Settings → Basic → Reader.

Switch to dark mode or change the reader's look

  1. For the whole app: Settings → Basic → Appearance and pick a theme (it is stored on that device).
  2. Inside the Reader: open the reader panel (☰) → Settings tab → Change Appearance: E-Ink, Light or Dark; Change Size adjusts the text size. Auto-Highlight Words in the same tab colours words you saved: None, Ready To Learn, or All Your Words.

See a translation of every line or sentence

  1. In the text reader open Display settings; in the video reader open Subtitle settings on the player bar.
  2. Turn on Translate Lines ("Add a translation under each line"); Sentence View shows the transcript one sentence per row. The first time, BetterLang asks for consent to use AI for the translation.

Get an AI explanation of a word or sentence

In the reader panel's Explain tab press Explain with AI. The explanation comes in your native language (you can switch it to the learning language in Settings → Basic → Languages → AI explanations). AI explanations are a Premium feature; free accounts see "AI explanations are a Premium feature."

Mark a word Known, Learned or Ignored

  1. Open the Card: in the Reader use the panel's Words tab, or open it from Words in the top menu.
  2. In the Card editor set Card state to Learning, Known, Learned or Ignored and press Save Card. Ignored Cards never come up in Practice. There is no Known or Ignore button on the tap translation itself.

Find, edit or delete your Cards

  1. Open Words (https://betterlang.app/words) — "Your Cards". Search by word, meaning or tag, and filter by state (Learning, Known, Learned, Ignored) or list.
  2. Click a Card to edit Target text, Synonyms (accepted as typed answers), Translations, Short meaning, Contexts, Grammar tags and Notes, then Save Card.
  3. To delete, select Cards with the checkboxes, then Actions → Delete (or Delete Card in the editor). Deleting asks "Delete this Card?" first and has no Undo afterwards. Deleted Cards are kept for 30 days: Export & backup has a "Deleted" scope to export them, and a connected AI agent can restore them; for help, contact support. A Card with no context sentence cannot be used in Typing, Sentence order or Audio Drill — add a sentence in Contexts to enable them.

Organise content into collections

  1. Open Library → New Collection, enter a name and press Create.
  2. Add a material from its row menu (⋯) → Add to collection, or select several rows and use the bulk "Add to collection".
  3. In a collection use Add Content, or its options menu to Rename or Delete collection. A material can be in several collections. Deleting a collection, or removing an item from it, keeps the materials in your Library. Library tabs All, Videos, Books and Texts and the state filter (Not started, Learning, Learned) narrow the list.

Delete content from your Library

From the material's row menu (⋯) choose Delete (for a saved Discover item: Remove from Library). The material and its transcript leave your Library; Cards you saved from it stay in Words.

Start Practice

  1. Open Learn and press Practice. By default this runs Today's Practice: Flashcards, then Sentences, then Write, in blocks — each block has Skip.
  2. On a flashcard press Reveal (Enter or Space), then grade Not at all (1), Almost (2) or Yes (3). Q plays the word, W the sentence, E the translation, T toggles the translation.
  3. The gear in a session ("Session settings") changes Auto-Audio, sentence translation and audio, audio order and speed, Typing mode, Sound effects and Notes display. Leaving mid-session keeps every graded Card; the rest stay Ready. An unfinished session is offered back later ("Continue where you left off?") with Start over as the alternative. To make the Practice button run flashcards only, set Settings → Basic → Practice → Practice button to Flashcards only.

Practise other ways: Typing, Sentence Order, Writing, Audio Drill, Chat

From Learn → Practice Modes:

Practise only certain Cards

  1. Open Words, filter or search, and select the Cards (or select all).
  2. Actions → Practice these Cards, then choose a level: Default (spaced repetition decides), Easier (word → meaning), Harder (meaning → word) or Hardest (meaning → type the word). Up to 300 Cards per hand-picked session.

A Card is not showing up in Practice

Practice shows Cards that are Ready. Check, in order:

  1. Its state is not Ignored (Ignored Cards never come up).
  2. It is not scheduled for later — open Words → See your schedule (https://betterlang.app/words/schedule) and look under Next session, Ready, Coming up and New words.
  3. Today's New words per day allowance is not used up or set to None (Settings → Basic → Practice). New Cards are capped by it (default 10); about a quarter of each session is kept for new words while the allowance lasts.
  4. It belongs to your active learning language — Cards of another language only appear when you switch the language pair. Old Cards come first, most overdue first. Among new words, the order is: saved in the last 3 days, starred, seen in the most texts, most frequent, oldest saved.

Too many Cards are Ready at once after an import

A word list with no schedule — including Readlang's own Export menu file — arrives Ready, so every word can come up in Practice at once. Lower Settings → Basic → Practice → New words per day or Session length, practise in short sessions, or undo the import (Undo this import on the result screen) and re-import Readlang words with the bookmark flow, which keeps the schedule.

Change how often words come back (spacing)

Settings → Basic → Practice → Spacing: Closer · 95%, Standard · 90% (default), Wider · 85%, Widest · 80%. A higher target recall brings Cards back sooner and means more Practice per day. Other options there: Session length (4, 8, 15, 25, 50 Cards; default 8), New words per day (None, 5, 10, 20; default 10), Card direction (Auto by Card stage, Word → meaning, Meaning → word), Typing (Optional or Required), Sentences and Write block sizes, New sentences per day, and Voices per language.

Keep your streak

A day counts once you give 15 answers that day — every graded flashcard or typing answer, Audio Drill active-recall grade, Sentence Order answer, finished Writing answer and chat message counts; reading and ungraded listening do not. Learn shows "N of 15 answers" until then and "Streak protected" afterwards. An unfinished today does not break the streak until the day is over. Days follow your device's time zone (shown on Edit profile). Stats shows Day streak, Cards practised today, Active days and New Cards, with Download CSV; Achievements lists 11 badges.

Move your words from Readlang

  1. Open Words → Import Cards → Move from another app → Readlang (or https://betterlang.app/import/cards?tab=apps&from=readlang).
  2. On a computer, drag the green "Save my Readlang words" button to your bookmarks bar and press the "It's in my … — next" button.
  3. Press Open Readlang, click the bookmark on the Readlang tab, wait for the box to count your words, then come back — "Your words arrived from your Readlang tab." This brings your words, example sentences, practice schedule and streak; Learned words stay Learned. If the bookmark is not possible, upload the readlang-words-YYYY-MM-DD.json file it saved. On a phone, or without the bookmark, Readlang Word List → select all → Actions → Export → Export File and upload it — that brings words only, all Ready. Do not use Readlang's own Export menu if you want to keep the schedule.

Move your words from LingQ, or import a word list

  1. Open Words → Import Cards.
  2. For LingQ: Move from another app → LingQ. LingQ keeps a level, not an interval, so the schedule is approximated.
  3. For a list: Import a word list → paste it or choose a file under "Your word list", answer "Which language are these words in?", check the column mapping (Word, Translation, Synonyms, Example sentence, Notes, Practice interval (days), Next practice date, or Skip this column), preview, then Import N words. The result shows Added, Merged, With a schedule, Ready now and Not imported, with Undo this import. Files over 64 MB or binary files are refused. If an import stops partway, nothing is lost — run it again and it picks up where it left off. Duolingo import is coming soon.

Export your Cards or back up your account

  1. Open Words → Export Cards (https://betterlang.app/words/export, "Export & backup").
  2. "1. Choose a format": Full JSON, Full CSV, Anki TSV, Anki CSV or BetterLang import file. "2. Choose what to export": All Cards, a state, Starred, Ready now, Deleted, a collection or one Content — press Export on the row.
  3. Back up everything downloads the account backup; Restore Cards restores Cards from a backup. The backup does not contain the text of imported Content (books stay on your device), passwords or tokens. Export is free.

Delete your account

  1. Go to Settings → Edit profile (https://betterlang.app/settings/profile) → Danger zone → Delete my account.
  2. Enter your password, type DELETE (capitals) and press Delete my account. Deletion is immediate: no confirmation email, no grace period, no undo. It removes your account, Content, Cards, Practice history, settings, tokens and shares, and signs out the phone app and extension. Export your Cards first if you want a copy. If you cannot sign in, email [email protected] from the account's email address. The full list of what is deleted and kept is at https://betterlang.app/account-deletion.

Use Discover (free public content)

  1. Open Discover (https://betterlang.app/discover) and pick a language and a section: News, Stories, Guides, Videos or Music.
  2. Narrow with the Level chips (A1, A2, B1, NATIVE), Topic, Published date and Search.
  3. Open an item to read or watch it; it is saved to your Library automatically — the top bar shows In Library (tap to remove) or Save. Discover content currently exists for German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Turkish. If your learning language has nothing yet, Discover says so and offers to change the language pair.

Share your own content on Discover

From a material's row menu in the Library choose Share on Discover (and Stop sharing to take it down). On the Import form a pre-ticked share box appears while community sharing is open. Publishers who want their content removed use https://betterlang.app/content-removal. Verify in the product: community sharing may not be open for every account.

Chat with the AI tutor (Premium)

Open Chat. Choose New chat and a Chat mode (Conversation, Quiz, Drill, Ready Cards); Suggest proposes opening lines, Adjust sets level, topic and focus (a collection or all your Cards). Replies are marked Correct, Almost or Not quite with a "Better:" correction. Chat messages count toward today's Write and streak. Chats are saved on that device only — BetterLang's servers keep none of them.

Plans, credits and AI limits

Plans are Free, Premium and Pro; your plan shows next to the logo and in Settings → Account.

Connect your own AI agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code)

  1. Open Settings → Advanced Lab → AI agents → Connect an agent (https://betterlang.app/settings/agents/connect).
  2. Pick your agent, read what it will be able to do, give the token a Name and Expires date, and press Make a token for {agent}.
  3. Copy the snippet for your agent (the token is shown once). Your agent can read your Cards, collections, Library titles and progress, Practice settings and history, and propose Card changes. With Safe mode on (default), every proposed change waits in the Agent inbox until you Approve, edit and Approve with my edits, or Reject change; turning safe mode off applies changes at once. BetterLang provides no AI here and stores no AI key. One-click connect for Claude Desktop, claude.ai and ChatGPT is coming but not available yet. Verify in the product: AI agents are in beta — if the page says "AI agents are not open for your account yet", it is not enabled for you.

Create a personal API token

Settings → Advanced Lab → Personal API tokens (https://betterlang.app/settings/advanced-lab) → New token: a Label, Permissions (Read Cards, Write Cards, Read Content, Import Content, Export, Translate words, Read/Change preferences, Read/Manage collections), and Expires → Create token. The secret is shown once. Rotating replaces the secret; revoking stops anything using it at once, including the browser extension.

Use the Chrome extension

The Chrome extension is in private testing and not yet in the Chrome Web Store. Once installed, connect it from Settings → Advanced Lab → Browser extension → Connect extension. It saves a page, a selection or YouTube captions to your account (right-click "Save to BetterLang" or Alt+Shift+S) and saves words as Cards with tap-to-translate on web pages.

Use BetterLang on a phone

Open https://betterlang.app in your phone's browser and sign in; everything works there. You can add it to your Home Screen from the browser's share or menu options. The iPhone app is in development.

Reader keyboard shortcuts

Good to know

When to contact support

Email [email protected] for anything you cannot do yourself: plan questions (Premium, Pro, credits), an account you cannot sign in to or want deleted without signing in, a bug or a lost import, privacy and data requests, or a missing feature. Include your account email, the device and browser, the language pair, and the exact message you saw. Support cannot see your password and will never ask for it. Copyright holders use https://betterlang.app/content-removal.