Have you heard of Skritter? It's been around for quite some time now, but recently had some major updates so we wanted to see what it's all about! Skritter is first and foremost an app for learning how to write Japanese characters. It does a great job of teaching the stroke order of kanji, and it's very satisfying to watch your ugly strokes get transformed into beautiful typography when you write something correctly. In this new version of the app, writing practice for kana is also supported — a welcome addition.
If you're the kind of person who likes that tactile feeling of writing and you want to make sure you've got the stroke order down, Skritter is a good option for you!
The app is built around vocabulary decks, which are further broken down into themed sections for more manageable studying. For decks based on specific textbooks, each section corresponds to a chapter or lesson in the book. Other decks, such as the "COVID-19 Terms" deck that I practiced with, are categorized into logical groupings based on concepts or shared meanings. Since this app is primarily a platform for learning how to write characters, the major way you are tested on your knowledge is whether you are able to write each word character by character. For some words that contained a lot of kana, I found myself skipping ahead and marking my answer as correct. It's nice that you can do this, but it makes it very easy to cheat!
This app is great if you want to practice writing kanji. While it may not be the best way to study vocabulary in general, if you're the kind of person who likes that tactile feeling of writing and you want to make sure you've got the stroke order down, Skritter is a good option for you!