For the love of the game
Some features ship because users asked. Some ship because the data screamed for them. And some ship because we thought it'd be sick.
This week had all three, here’s what changed.
Sessions, reborn
The session and lesson flow got a top-to-bottom rebuild this week. The headline is simple: never make a casual learner think, never cap a serious one. One tap drops you straight into a smooth, well-paced session. Or, if you like knobs (we see you), every knob is still there. Plug-and-play on top, full cockpit underneath.
What actually changed:
Brand-new session & lesson flow — one tap into a smooth, auto-paced run, with full per-item picking still available for power users.
Adaptive Study Goal — Kumi now measures how long you specifically take per module, per lesson type, and uses your pace to decide what fits in a time budget. "Give me 20 minutes" finally means twenty of your minutes.
Auto-mode pauses intelligently — it now waits long enough for you to actually read whether you got it right (and why) before moving on.
Tier-up celebrations — individual lessons keep the splash; multi-domain sessions end with one clean container surfacing every KMT you bumped. Dopamine preserved, flow preserved.
Sharper grading, smoother typing
A big chunk of this week went into how Kumi evaluates you and how it talks to you. Less rigid, more honest, and finally on speaking terms with your keyboard.
What actually changed:
Writing grading has three modes now — Lenient, Default, Strict — and they're not just cosmetic. Each affects your mastery differently. Strict is harder to please and grows mastery faster when you nail it. Risk and reward, calibrated.
External IME support — the system-level Japanese keyboard you already use on Mac, Windows, iOS or Android works seamlessly inside Kumi instead of fighting it.
Furigana cleanup across the app — a lot of small readings that were slightly off are now correct. You probably won't notice the individual fixes. You'll just notice the app feels more right.
Spoilery modules: removed — a few question types were quietly leaking the answer through context clues. They're gone. What's left actually makes you recall.
Quality-of-life folds
The grab-bag section. Small, but deliberate.
In-module settings — anything toggleable (Kumi IME, writing leniency, adaptive furigana, etc.) is now adjustable straight from the lesson or review module. No more bailing out to settings mid-session.
Past the review cap, unlocked — for the gremlins. Use responsibly. Or don't. Not our business.
That’s it for this week.
What does it feel like, the exact moment you realize you've been studying long enough to notice a word in the wild?
— The Kumi Team