BeChineseHow do you learn Chinese from Instagram?
Follow accounts that post in Chinese, then read their posts in BeChinese: share a post or Reel to it from Instagram, and it opens ready to read. It doesn’t work inside Instagram, because an iPhone doesn’t let one app draw over another. Brush or tap the words you can’t read, and their pinyin appears over them, they’re read aloud, and a card shows what they mean, with a button to save the word.
It’s for learning to read and hear the Chinese yourself, not for translating it: the pinyin shows only on the words you pick.
How to share a post or Reel
- Open the post or Reel in Instagram and tap Share.
- Choose BeChinese. If it isn’t listed, copy the link instead, and in BeChinese, on Scan, tap Import from social media, then Paste.
- BeChinese opens with it. A Reel takes a moment while its lesson is made.
Photo posts and carousels
A photo post comes in as Instagram shows it, with its caption ready to read. A carousel’s other pictures come after it, each a page of its own, and the Chinese in them is read too, so the vocabulary cards and comics that learner accounts post work slide by slide.
Reels
A Reel becomes a lesson: the clip at the top, and under it what’s written or said in it, line by line, lit as it plays. Tap a word, and the clip pauses with its pinyin over it and a card with its meaning, to hear and save.
What you need
An iPhone on iOS 26 or later, and a connection: BeChinese’s server fetches the public post, with a daily limit for each account. Posts from private accounts can’t be imported. You sign in with Apple or Google, then choose a plan, yearly, monthly or weekly, through the App Store. The yearly plan can start with a free week.
BeChinese does the same for 小红书, TikTok and X.
