Amikumu is an app for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets that aims to help language learners find people nearby to speak to. It has been developed by an enthusiastic group of polyglots and, after reading about the project to create 1 million Welsh speakers in Wales, they are very keen to see it used to help people learning Welsh.
After downloading the app, you enter the languages you speak and what level you are at. You can then select the language you want to filter by, and the app uses GPS coordinates to find other Users closest to you that have registered the same language.
As itās just getting going in Welsh, there arenāt a huge number of people using it yet, but the more people that register, the more chance youāll have of finding someone to talk to. The interface will also be available in Welsh before too long, but right now itās possible to enter that you speak / are learning Welsh, and to search for other Welsh-speaking Users.
An update to the app was made available for iOS last night with an interface for Welsh - so it is now available if you want to run the app in Welsh.
Iām not sure about Android though. Any Android users able to use the Cymraeg interface on this app yet?
Yes. As it happens I was showing the app to some people last night and was very excited to see the Welsh interface available in Android as well.
Now to get lots of Welsh learners and speakers chatting with each other! Iāve seen there is someone 25 km from where I am now near Caernarfon, and they have put themselves as a Welsh learner. Iāve sent a message to see where they are. If theyāre anywhere on the way between here and Llandysul, Iāll try to meet for a coffee on my way home
I realised this morning that Amikumu lets you write a separate profile for each language you speak. When I went into my profile, the biography section defaulted to āfrancaisā, but when I clicked on that it showed me a list of other languages Iāve included in my profile. I could go into āEnglishā and write a couple of sentences in English, then into āCymraegā and introduce myself in Welsh. Really cool!
And I have my first possible meet up through Amikumu arranged for Sunday - not the first person I sent a message to (they havenāt answered yet), but another person I saw this morning who lives near Aberystwyth. Sheāll be in Dolgellau on Sunday, so weāre trying to organise a mutually convenient time.
On Friday 27th Oct, Iāll be driving across Cymru heading for Derby. Iām going to join in with the one-day Welsh school there on the Saturday. I wonder if I can find others to meet on the way
Iāve met āAnneā (the woman on the first image). She even happened to be wearing that same dress on the day that she pointed out to me that she was the one used for the app screenshot.
She used to live in Hamburg but I think sheās moved now.
There was a problem with iPhones earlier in the week. Apparently there was an iOS update to Version 11 and the app developers were told that changes they made to accommodate that would be backwards compatible, but they werenāt. So people that had earlier versions of iOS found a blank screen when they tried to view people nearby. I also couldnāt see them from my Android phone.
Is there someone using the app on an iPhone that can tell me whether itās working yet? It should be fine if youāve updated to iOS 11, but Iād like to know if itās working on earlier versions as well now.
I created a profile on Amikumu the other day, too. I really hope that more people will populate the database, because at the time of writing this, the ānearestā welsh speaker is listed as being 200km away from me.
Iawn. Weāll have to think of a way to let more Welsh speakers in Germany know. Iām sure there are polyglots living there that have Cymraeg as one of their languages, and there must be more learning with SSiW!
I have an iPad rather than an iPhone, and itās on 10.3.3 (I think it wonāt take iOS 11). Had version 2.0 (6) and could call up a list of Welsh speakers near me (including Hendrik 300 km away).
Had a look in the App Store and found a proposed update to 2.1, installed that and could still see the list of Welsh speakers now with version 2.1 (1).
Diolch @philipnewton. I had a message from the developers this morning saying it should be working for all versions of the iOS now, so your news seems to confirm that.
OK, the app is still having a few teething problems, this time for Android Users, and maybe only those like me still using Android Version 4. The messaging part is working fine, but the searching for nearby users isnāt.
The developers are aware of the problem and working on it, so hopefully it will be fixed before too long.
And Amikumu is working fine for me again today. There was a couple of updates came through yesterday for the Android 4 version, and they seem to have done the trick.
Just to give you all the heads up - there was an update made to the iOS version recently, so Apple users need to update to the latest version. I found I had to manually start the update on my iPad Mini - it didnāt happen automatically. The developers say this is an issue with Apple apps, apparently.
But I also have Amikumu installed on an old Android phone, and recently I found they had got out of sync. I had messages on the iPad that werenāt appearing on the Android - rather weird. The advice from the developers was - as you can probably guess - log out, then log in again (bit like ātry switching it off and on againā). Anyway, I did that on my iPad and my Android phone, and hey presto - they were then both up-to-date and identical.
So if you were getting messages, but lately you havenāt, try logging out and logging back in again!
Watch for some exciting new changes coming through soon - Android users first, iOS a bit later.
On the screen that shows you the speakers nearby, you will be able to see what level their language skills are so you can choose to contact someone more advanced than you to really give your Welsh a boost!
There are also updates being made to the registration and profile pages, to make those easier to complete, and in the not too distant future there will be a feature known as āFlowā. Itās a sort of noticeboard for local speakers of the language youāre learning, so instead of having to contact people individually, you can make a general notice, e.g. advertising an SSiW meetup to any Welsh speakers/learners that happen to be in the area.
Iāll update here as I see changes coming through, with screenshots if my technical abilities stretch that far
There has been an exciting new feature added to Amikumu recently - the Flow. This allows anyone to send a public message out to the 100 geographically closest users of the language they select. So far itās not being used a lot by Welsh learners, who are still fairly scattered in Amikumu. Hopefully it will start to be used more though as more people hear about Amikumu and start to use it, as itās a good way to let other learners in your area know whatās happening and get in touch with them.
Iāve had a contact this morning from someone in Melbourne though, wanting to know if there is anyone learning Welsh there, so I was a bit surprised to find Iām within his 100 closest Welsh speakers! Iāll see if I can pass on information about your group @elizabeth_jane. Do you have a FB page or website?
