You can install Mandarin Temple as an app on a phone, tablet or desktop. What you cannot do is study on a plane — this article is honest about the difference, because "installable" and "works offline" get conflated and only one of them is true here.
Installing it
- iPhone or iPad — Open the site in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. It has to be Safari — other browsers on iOS cannot install a web app.
- Android — Chrome offers an install prompt, or use the browser menu and Install app.
- Desktop — Chrome and Edge show an install icon in the address bar.
Installed, it opens in its own window with no browser chrome, gets a home-screen icon, and behaves like an app. It is the same site with the same account.
What works offline: not much
Being clear about this rather than optimistic. The content is not available offline. Lessons, the dictionary, grammar, audio and your flashcards all need a connection.
What is stored on your device is a small shell: the app icons, and a fallback page shown when you open it with no connection. That page exists so you get a sensible message rather than a browser error — not so you can study through it.
On a poor connection
A patchy connection is different from no connection, and the site handles it reasonably: pages you have already loaded stay usable, and progress you have earned is recorded as you go rather than at the end of a lesson.
If a page fails to load entirely, wait and reload rather than pressing on — a half-loaded lesson can leave a section that will not complete.
On iOS specifically
Installed on a recent iPhone, the app respects the Dynamic Island and the safe areas around it, so nothing is hidden behind the notch.
What it cannot do is put anything into the Island — that is not available to a web app, on any site, and no setting will change it.
No push notifications
Installing does not add push notifications. Nothing here will interrupt you on your phone: the bell in the header and email are the only two routes, and both are things you go and look at.
Uninstalling
Remove the icon like any app. Nothing is lost — your account, progress and everything else live on the server, and the site is still there in a browser.
Common questions
No. Lessons, the dictionary, audio and flashcards all need a connection. What is cached is a small shell and a fallback page so you get a sensible message rather than a browser error.