Get help
E-mail: support@zupzi.io. A person reads every message. We aim to reply within 2 business days.
It helps if you tell us your device (iPhone or iPad), what you tapped, and what you expected to happen. The app version is in Grown-ups, under About; tap Details there for the build number and the iOS version.
Showing us what happened: Zupzi Read has no message form and sends nothing by itself. If we need to see what happened, you can attach the reading diary to your e-mail: in Grown-ups, under Reading diary, tap Share the diary and choose Mail. The diary has no names or pictures, but it does describe your child’s reading (see What is the reading diary? below), so send it only if you want to.
Please do not send photos of your children unless we ask.
Frequently asked questions
What is Zupzi Read, and who is it for?
Zupzi Read teaches reading in English with phonics, one sound at a time, for families with children ages 3 to 8. In the lessons, a teacher’s voice says the sounds, letter names and words, and your child listens, taps, traces letters with a finger, slides under a word to blend its sounds and builds words with letter tiles. There are decodable books, with every page checked against the sounds taught so far, a reading game that suggests where to start, and short sessions for a grown-up and a child together. For ages 3 and 4, the app puts reading with a grown-up first (“Best with a grown-up at this age.”).
Which devices does it work on? Does it cost anything?
Zupzi Read is made for iPhone and iPad with iOS or iPadOS 26 or later, and it is in English (U.S.). It is free: no ads and nothing for sale in the app. There is no account or sign-in: the readers and their progress stay on the device where you add them (and in that device’s own backups, if you make them). It is coming soon to the App Store.
How do we get started?
The first time you open Zupzi Read, you see Welcome! with two buttons. Try a sample lesson lets anyone try a lesson right away, with no microphone and without adding a reader. Grown-ups: add a reader asks for Face ID, Touch ID or your device passcode, then takes up to seven short steps: a first name or nickname and a picture; the age (3 to 8, or Skip); whether your child knows the letters; whether they can read words; whether the app may listen when they read aloud (Allow listening or Not now); if you allowed listening, one optional question; and Where to start, with the lesson the app suggests from your answers. There, tap Start here, or Play the reading game to let a game find the starting point. From then on, the app opens on Who’s reading?, and your child taps their picture to start.
The reading game takes about 8 to 12 minutes, by the app’s own estimate. When your child reads aloud in the game, the app listens if they are 6 or older and you allowed listening; otherwise a grown-up taps Read it right or Not right, so sit with them. At the end, a card For the grown-up shows a Suggested start, with Start here or Choose another level. You can play it again any time: open Grown-ups, tap the reader, then Play the reading game again.
What does my child do each day?
On Who’s reading?, your child taps their picture. Their home shows Today, with the lesson and a Start button (or Continue, if they stopped in the middle: the lesson picks up where it stopped), and three doors: My map, My books and Together. For ages 3 and 4, With a grown-up sits at the top instead of the Together door. When a lesson ends, the app shows All done today! and a Back home button; nothing starts by itself, and after the day’s lesson the home shows Daily done! There are no streaks to lose. To leave a child’s home, tap Leave: it asks for a grown-up.
To limit lessons, open Grown-ups, tap the reader and choose Lessons per day (No limit, 1, 2 or 3). When the limit is reached, the home says “See you tomorrow! You can read your books.”
Can more than one child use it on the same device?
Yes. Add each child as a reader: in Grown-ups, tap Add a reader, or, on Who’s reading?, tap New reader. Each child taps their own picture and has their own lessons, books and progress. Three things are shared by the whole device: the listening setting, the choice under Details of who decides what the reader hears, and the diary that Share the diary sends.
How does listening work, and how do I turn it on?
Listening is off until a grown-up turns it on. On Who’s reading?, tap Grown-ups, find Listening and turn on Allow listening in lessons (or tap Allow listening while adding a reader). It is one setting for the whole device, for every reader on it. The first time your child taps Read it!, iOS asks for permission to use the microphone. The microphone is on only while your child reads aloud, and their voice is never saved.
Two of the app’s four listening engines come inside the app. The other two are Apple’s, and they need Apple’s English speech model: if Listening says Listening needs a one-time download, tap Get the English voice pack while you are online (“Needs internet once.”). When listening already works, the same button is under Details, as an option that makes listening better. Without it, and with the standard All engines together, the app never tells your child that a word needs help: it praises the words it hears, and asks to try again when it isn’t sure.
What your child hears also depends on age. Under 6 (or with no age set), listening only encourages and never says a word needs help. In lessons and books, listening never says a word needs help. Only in the Reading check with a grown-up, from 6 and with All engines together, the app says a word needs help, when, twice in a row, at least three of its four engines heard a different word and none heard the right one; then it reads the word with your child. Reading aloud never decides progress on its own. If the app can’t hear well four times in a row, the lesson switches to tap-to-read, and you get a note in Grown-ups. To turn listening off, turn off Allow listening in lessons.
Is my child’s voice recorded or sent anywhere?
No. When your child reads aloud, the sound stays in the device’s memory only while the app works out what was said, and then it is discarded. It is never saved to a file, and never sent to us or to anyone else. All four listening engines run on the device. What the app keeps, in the reading diary on the device, is the text each engine heard (for example, “sat”).
What can we do together?
On your child’s home, tap Together (for ages 3 and 4, With a grown-up at the top) and confirm with Face ID, Touch ID or the passcode. The screen offers two sessions (“Pick one. About five minutes.”):
- Teach today’s lesson (Start teaching): a short script with what to do, what to say and what to say if they miss it, and Hear the teacher say it when you want the teacher’s voice. On each card you tap Got it, Almost or Not yet; on letter cards, your Got it counts toward what your child has mastered (on word cards, your marks go to the diary). At the end, How was it? (Easy, Just right or Hard): Hard adds practice to the next lessons, and Easy or Hard shows up in Why the app moved.
- Reading check (Start the check): your child reads 10 words aloud, and you tell the app whether it heard right (without listening, you tap whether each word was read right). At the end, a card For the grown-up shows how many words were checked with you and how many times the app wrongly corrected your child.
Where can I see how my child is doing?
Open Grown-ups and tap the reader. You see where they are (the level and the lesson), the number of Lessons done, Books read and Days with a lesson, and, under Progress, how many letter sounds and words they have mastered and how their quick checks went (the chart appears after two quick checks). How we measure explains the rules, and Why the app moved lists the app’s latest decisions in plain words. Easier and Harder move the reader one lesson. When a card says your child could use you, a short session together is the best next step; your child never sees these notes.
What is in the Grown-ups area, and how is it locked?
On Who’s reading?, tap Grown-ups. It asks for Face ID, Touch ID or your device passcode, which iOS checks; the app never sees them. The same check guards adding a reader, Leave on a child’s home and Together. If your device has no passcode, iOS has nothing to check, and these open without asking: set a passcode in the Settings app if you want them locked.
Inside are Readers (tap a reader for their page, and Edit to change the name, picture or age), Listening, Reading diary and About, with the app version and Licenses.
Can the text be bigger, or the animations calmer?
Yes. Zupzi Read follows the text size you set for the device: in the Settings app, Display & Brightness, then Text Size, or, for even larger text, Accessibility, then Display & Text Size, then Larger Text. A few labels stop growing at the largest sizes, so they still fit. With Reduce Motion on (Settings, then Accessibility, then Motion), the app tones down its animations. For a left-handed child, open Grown-ups, tap the reader and turn on Left-handed: the buttons and letters move to the left side.
Do lessons need the internet?
No. Lessons don’t need the internet: the lessons, books, pictures and voices are all inside the app, and two of the four listening engines come inside it too. One optional step needs the internet: Get the English voice pack, which lets iOS download Apple’s English speech model once; do it while you are online.
The sound doesn’t play. What can I check?
First, the volume: when it is all the way down, the lesson shows “The sound is off. Turn it up!” Zupzi Read is set to play its voice even when the device is on silent, so the silent switch shouldn’t matter. If headphones or a Bluetooth speaker are connected, the sound goes there. If it still doesn’t play, close the app and open it again, and write to us with what you see.
What is the reading diary? Should I share it?
The app writes a diary of every session on the device: the steps and answers, the text the listening engines heard, the app’s decisions and your taps in the sessions together. It has no names or pictures, but it has the ages, the device model and the iOS version. Grown-ups, Reading diary shows how many sessions it holds. Zupzi never gets a copy unless you share it (like all app data, it is included in your device’s own backups, if you make them): tap Share the diary and choose where it goes in the iOS share sheet (for example AirDrop, Files or Mail). The file, zupzi-read-diary.zip, holds the diary of every reader on the device, including readers you removed and the sample lesson. Nothing in the app needs you to share it; share it only with people you trust, such as us when you want help. The full list of what it holds is in the Privacy Policy.
How do I remove a reader, or delete everything?
To remove a reader: open Grown-ups, tap the reader, tap Edit, then Remove this reader and Remove. The reader leaves the list on this device, but their progress file and their diary stay on the device (the app says “The diary files stay.”), and their diary is still included when you share the diary.
To delete everything Zupzi Read saved on a device, delete the app: touch and hold its icon, tap Remove App, then Delete App, and confirm. That removes the app and its data from the device (offloading the app, in Settings, keeps the data). A backup of the device made earlier, in iCloud or on a computer, may still hold a copy until that backup is replaced or deleted. We have no copy of anything the app saved, so there is nothing for us to delete, unless you sent us a diary: then just ask.