BeChinese

BeChinese Support

BeChinese (called Meow Chinese until November 2026) helps you learn Chinese by just using your phone. Press the Action Button in any app and that screen freezes into a reading lesson. Try reading it first, then brush a finger across any word to flash its pinyin, hear it, and see what it means. Save the words you want to keep, and they come back as short daily reviews.

Text recognition, the dictionary, speech and translation run on your iPhone; importing a post from social media goes through our server. You sign in with Apple or Google before you set the app up, then choose a plan, yearly, monthly or weekly, through the App Store. BeChinese needs an iPhone with iOS 26 or later.

Try it first

On Scan, the app's first tab, tap Read from screenshot to open any screenshot from Photos, or Read from camera to point your camera at Chinese in front of you, like a menu or a sign. Then brush across the text.

Set up the Action Button

Do this once, so one press reads whatever is on your screen.

  1. Add the shortcut. On Scan, under Finish setup, tap Set up on the Action Button's card (or any time, in Settings, the gear on Profile, tap Set up the Action Button). Tap Add shortcut, choose Shortcuts in the share sheet, then tap Add Shortcut.
  2. Put it on the Action Button. Open Settings → Action Button, swipe to Shortcut, and pick Show Pinyin.
  3. Allow it the first time. Open any app with Chinese text and press the Action Button. Shortcuts asks whether Show Pinyin can share the screenshot with BeChinese. Tap Always Allow.

BeChinese then opens with that screen ready to read. To go back to the app you were in, swipe right along the bottom edge of the screen.

No Action Button? Use Control Center

The Action Button is on iPhone 15 Pro and every iPhone since. On other iPhones, Show Pinyin goes in Control Center instead:

  1. On Scan, under Finish setup, tap Set up on the Control Center card (or in Settings, tap Add to Control Center). Then add the shortcut as in step 1 above. This one is called Show Pinyin (Control Center), and it closes Control Center before taking its screenshot.
  2. Swipe down from the top-right corner to open Control Center. Tap +, then Add a Control. Search Shortcut, tap it, tap Choose, and pick Show Pinyin (Control Center).
  3. In any app with Chinese text, open Control Center and tap Show Pinyin (Control Center). Control Center closes, and a moment later BeChinese opens with that screen. Tap Always Allow the first time.

Troubleshooting

It asks for permission every time. You probably tapped Allow Once. Next time it asks, tap Always Allow.

"That file isn't an image." The shortcut is missing its Take Screenshot step. Delete Show Pinyin in the Shortcuts app and add it again: in BeChinese's Settings, tap Set up the Action Button or Add to Control Center.

Control Center opens in BeChinese instead of the app. You have an older Show Pinyin shortcut, which left Control Center for you to close. Delete it in the Shortcuts app and add it again from BeChinese: the new one closes Control Center itself.

"No Chinese text found." BeChinese reads printed Chinese on screen, in simplified or traditional characters. Very small or stylized text can be missed: zoom in on the page and press the Action Button again.

Your privacy

Your screenshots, their text and the words you save stay on your phone. A post you import from social media goes to our server to be made into a lesson, and your account, made when you sign in, is kept there. Unless you switch off Share usage with the developer in Settings, the app sends counts of what you do, like screenshots read and words saved, to help us improve it. The privacy policy has the details, including what beta versions send.

Contact

Questions, problems or ideas: support@meowchinese.com.