Help & FAQ

Izwi is a daily SA word discovery app. Each day you get one new South African word, phrase or saying - sourced from across SA's languages, regions, and subcultures. The companion app on your phone is the deep-dive view; the home-screen widget is the quick daily prompt.

The library is curated for the "deep cuts" - words that don't appear in tourist phrasebooks. Tier A entries are rare regional gems, Tier B are well-known but rich in context.

Each day Izwi picks one entry from the library based on the date - so everyone in your timezone sees the same word that day. The widget on your home screen shows it without needing to open the app.

If you want to see something different than today's pick, the Surprise me button on the Today screen pulls a random word that respects your maturity preference. Tap Today's word to come back to the canonical daily pick.

The library spans 11 official SA languages plus several creoles and minority languages: SA English, Afrikaans, isiZulu, isiXhosa, Sesotho, Sepedi, Setswana, Xitsonga, siSwati, Tshivenda, isiNdebele, Tsotsitaal, Kaaps, SA Indian English, Hindi, Tamil, Malay, Yiddish, and Nama.

Inside the app, the language pill on each entry has a small coloured dot indicating the family - warm orange for Nguni, green for Sotho-Tswana, gold for Afrikaans / Cape varieties, and violet for everything else.

1. Long-press an empty area of your home screen until the icons jiggle.
2. Tap the + in the top-left corner.
3. Search for "Izwi".
4. Pick a size - Small, Medium, or Large - and tap Add Widget.
5. Tap Done.

Tip: place the medium widget near the top of the home screen so the day's word is the first thing you see in the morning.

Yes. Long-press your lock screen → Customise → tap the lock-screen preview → tap an empty widget slot → search for Izwi. Three lock-screen styles are available:

• Inline - a single text line above the clock with the term and language.
• Rectangular - term, definition, and a small gold accent rule.
• Circular - a brand glyph that looks intentional on Always-On Display.

The widget refreshes when iOS reloads it (usually overnight or when you unlock the phone). If yours hasn't updated:

1. Open the Izwi app once. The widget syncs with the app whenever you open it.
2. Force-quit Izwi and re-open.
3. Remove the widget and add it again from the widget gallery.

If that doesn't help, please email us with your iOS version.

Tapping a home-screen widget opens Izwi straight to the full entry for that day's word - definition, examples, origin notes, related terms.

On any entry detail page, tap the speaker icon next to the IPA pronunciation guide. Pro users hear it instantly. While playing, an animated waveform shows next to the speaker.

The audio files are professionally generated and bundled into the app. Keeping them gated is part of the Pro value - alongside the full archive, unlimited saves, the quiz, and the daily history.

You're not wrong. The current bundled audio uses a single multilingual voice that doesn't always nail clicks (Nguni languages), Afrikaans diphthongs, or the cadence of longer phrases. We're aware of it.

A re-recording pass with per-language native voices is on the roadmap. If a specific entry sounds particularly off, please report it from the entry detail page (the "Spot something wrong? Report it" link at the bottom) so we can prioritise.

• Full archive - all 430+ words including the SAFFA diaspora set (free tier sees a curated subset).
• Unlimited saves - free tier can save 3 words.
• Unlimited search results - free tier shows 3 per query.
• Pronunciation audio - bundled native-style recordings.
• All theme lenses - Cape Town, Joburg, Township Talk, Campus, Corporate, Sport, etc.
• Test Yourself quiz - 5-question multi-choice on saved or random words, with a best-score record.
• Full daily history - every word you've seen on previous days. Free tier sees the last 7 days.

R19.99 per month with a 3-day free trial, or R99.99 per year (works out to ~R8.30/month). Both are billed through your Apple ID. You can switch or cancel any time from Settings → Manage Subscription in the app.

The most common cause is that the App Store hasn't synced yet. Try:

1. Open Izwi → Settings → tap Unlock Pro → tap Restore Purchases at the bottom of the paywall.
2. Force-quit Izwi and re-open.
3. Make sure you're signed into the App Store with the same Apple ID you used to subscribe.

Still stuck? Email us with your Apple receipt and we'll sort it out.

In the app: Settings → Manage Subscription. That deep-links to the iOS Subscriptions screen where you can cancel or change tier. Or directly: iOS Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions.

You'll keep Pro access until the end of the period you've already paid for.

Open Settings → Daily Reminder → Word of the Day. iOS will ask for notification permission the first time. Pick any of the 8 preset times to receive that day's word straight to your lock screen.

Once notifications are enabled, a Send a test notification action appears in the Daily Reminder section. It schedules a one-off notification for 5 seconds out so you can swipe back to the lock screen and confirm.

Paste any text - a WhatsApp message, a tweet, a paragraph of an article - and Izwi highlights the SA terms it recognises. Tap a highlighted word for its definition. Useful when a friend uses slang you don't know.

It's a record of every Today entry that's been shown to you on this device. Free users see the last 7 days; Pro users see the full archive going back to when they installed the app.

A 5-question multi-choice quiz. Each question shows a term and four definitions; pick the right one. You can run it across the full library or only your saved words (you need at least 4 saves for that mode). Best score, perfect runs, and total runs are kept.

It tracks how many consecutive days you've opened Izwi. The flame badge shows up above the daily word once you've reached 2 days in a row. Miss a day and it resets to 1 on the next visit. Hitting 7, 14, 30, 60, 100, 200, or 365 days flashes a small celebration.

Tap the Region filter and you get a tappable map of SA's 9 provinces. Tapping a province filters the entry list to terms tagged with that region. Tap All regions to clear.

Nothing personal. Izwi has no backend in V1 - your saved words, history, streak, and search history live only on your device. No analytics, no tracking, no telemetry.

The only piece of personal data Izwi handles is the App Store / Google Play subscription receipt, processed by Apple/Google directly when you subscribe.

Full details in the privacy policy.

Not for the daily word, the archive, the quiz, the history, or pronunciation audio - those are all bundled. The only things that need internet are App Store subscription operations and (if you ever tap one) external links to the website or App Store.

Tap Try Again on the error screen - most crashes recover from a single retry. If it keeps happening on the same screen, please tap Report this crash on the error screen. That opens your mail app pre-filled with the error details so we can fix it quickly.

1. Open iOS Settings → Notifications → Izwi and confirm Allow Notifications is on.
2. Inside Izwi, Settings → Daily Reminder → toggle Word of the Day off and back on.
3. Use Send a test notification to verify the schedule works.

Saves are stored in app-private storage and survive updates. If yours appear to have disappeared, try force-quitting and reopening - Izwi reads them from disk on launch. If that doesn't help, please email us - it's not expected and we want to look at it.

Settings → Data → Reset Izwi data. That clears your preferences, saves, search history, streak, daily history, and quiz best score. Your subscription is unaffected.