Rimdal

A Swedish reading app for children who are learning to read

The child reads aloud.
The story listens.

Rimdal is full of real stories. A child reads one out loud, and the app follows along in the text, word by word, while they read. No corrections, no points for getting it right — just a story that carries on. The app is in Swedish: the stories, the interface and the speech recognition all are.

Coming to the App StoreNot submitted yet — and the app is in Swedish See how it works
  • No account
  • No ads
  • No tracking
An illustration from one of the stories: a child in winter clothes by a woodshed on a blue winter evening, with something glowing in the snow.

Det var något som lyste i snön. Vega böjde sig ner och tog upp det.

The words are Swedish, because that is what the app reads. Each one lightens once it has been heard.

How it works

Three steps, and then the child is inside the story

The whole experience is built from the child's point of view. There is no login to get past and no placement test to pass first.

  1. Pick a story

    Stories are sorted by how hard they are to read, and the first suggestions follow the child's age. The level is a suggestion rather than a lock — a child may read whatever they like.

  2. Read it out loud

    Sigel, a small snail, travels along the line. A word lights up once the app has heard it. If the child gets stuck, Sigel can sound the word out — and then it counts as dealt with, because the child actively did something about it.

  3. The page turns

    When no word is left, the next spread opens. No score in between, no "3 out of 5 correct". Just the next part of the story.

The stories

Real stories — not word lists with pictures on them

What the child reads is a story with a beginning, a problem and an end, rather than loose words to drill. That is the difference between practising and wanting to know how it turns out.

Some of the stories

  • Draken som var rädd för att flyga
  • Igelkotten som letade efter ett hem
  • Stjärnan som andades
  • Trollkarlen som glömde sina ord
  • Snäckan som havet flyttade
  • Rådjuret i gläntan
  • Fotbollsskorna som försvann
  • Löftet vid eken

The stories are written in Swedish for Swedish children — not translated, and not generated on the fly. They sit inside the app and can be read without a connection. The titles above are left in Swedish here because that is what they are called in the app.

And the books we are drawing

Alongside the stories we are making longer picture books, where every spread has a painted image of its own. Below are spreads from the first one, Det som lyste i snön — "What shone in the snow". It is still in production and is not among the stories in the app today; we show it because it is where we are heading.

A child stands in the snow outside a house whose window glows warm in the winter evening.
The child holds something warm and glowing in their hands, out in the snow.
The child sits on a floor indoors, folding back a blanket by lamplight.
The child stands smiling in a doorway with the light in their hand.
The child and an older person look together at something glowing on a table.
Another spread from the same book, in the same blue winter light.

Spreads from Det som lyste i snön — Vega, the light and the fox.

Reading and screen time

Screen time is the reason to start. The story is the reason to keep going.

We do not think a reading app beats everything else on a phone by being healthier. So Rimdal makes a trade a child understands immediately — and one that the parent sets the terms of.

Reading time becomes screen time

The app measures how long the child actually reads and works out an amount of time from it. Parents see the total in Parent Mode.

You set the ceiling

There is a daily cap, and it belongs to the parent. A child should not be able to read their way to three hours of gaming in one morning.

A hard day is never zero

Children read at different speeds. A genuine reading session always earns a base amount, so that a heavy day does not turn into a failure.

Never paid for right answers

The time depends on how long and how attentively the child reads — never on how many words came out right. A child who struggles earns as much as one who already reads fluently. Mistakes are used to pick stories at the right level, never as a penalty.

What the app does not do — said plainly

Rimdal does not lock other apps and does not switch the phone off. It works out an amount of time and shows it. Turning that into practice is your agreement at home, not something the app takes over.

We say this up front because several apps on the same shelf promise the opposite. Rimdal keeps an honest account of the reading; the bargain itself is between you and your child.

For parents

A parent mode that shows what happened — not what the child is

Reading development cannot be read off in a week, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Parent Mode shows a habit signal: that reading is happening, how often, and for how long.

Freedom overview
Earned by reading, available now, and a manual adjustment if you want to change something by hand.
Daily goal
You set how many minutes of reading a day should hold, per child.
The week's reading
How many of seven days were read — and whether that is more, fewer or about the same as last week.
Several children
Each child has their own stories, their own level, their own streak and their own time.
The microphone
A switch that allows the app to listen. Turn it off and the app stops listening — even if the phone would still permit it.

Privacy

The short version, and then the whole text

The privacy policy is written against a reading of the code rather than against a template. This is the summary — the full text is kept in Swedish, which is the version that governs.

  • No server, no account

    Everything the app saves stays on the phone.

  • No ads, no tracking

    No analytics and no third-party tools inside the app.

  • The voice goes to Apple — and is not kept

    When a child reads out loud, the audio is sent to Apple's speech recognition to be turned into text. Rimdal keeps neither the audio nor the text. What remains afterwards is numbers: how many words, how long, how far into the story.

  • The microphone is optional

    Consent is given by a parent and can be withdrawn at any time. The child can carry on reading without the microphone — and then nothing leaves the device. Without the microphone no screen time is recorded, because the app cannot hear that reading is happening.

  • Deletion that is real

    Parent Mode has a delete function: remove one child, or everything the app has saved. We hold no copy anywhere else.

  • No location, camera or contacts

    The app does not ask for them, and does not use them.

Read the full privacy policy (in Swedish)

Common questions

What you are likely wondering

Can we use the app in English?

Not yet. The app is in Swedish — the stories, the interface and the speech recognition all are. This website is in English so that people outside Sweden can understand what Rimdal is, but the app itself will not be much use to a child who does not read Swedish.

Who is it for?

Children who have started sounding out words and reading on their own. The app asks for the child's age once, and uses it only to choose which stories are suggested first. The level can be changed at any time.

Does the child have to read out loud?

No. The app works without the microphone and the child can read silently. The difference is that the app then cannot hear that reading is happening, and so records no screen time for that session.

Does the app correct the child?

No. There is nothing red, no tick and no score. Words the app has heard light up. If the child gets stuck, Sigel can sound the word out and the reading moves on. Mistakes are used only to choose suitably difficult stories later.

Can a child cheat their way to screen time?

Time is counted from active reading rather than from the app being open, and the daily cap is yours to set. We do not promise a cheat-proof system — we promise that the accounting is honest and that the ceiling is yours.

Does the app switch off Roblox or YouTube when the time is up?

No. Rimdal works out an amount of time and displays it — it does not control anything else on the phone. How the earned time is used is your agreement at home.

Is an internet connection needed?

The stories sit inside the app and can be read offline. The speech recognition — the part that hears the child reading — runs through Apple's service and needs a connection.

What happens to the child's voice?

The audio goes to Apple and becomes text there. Rimdal keeps neither the audio nor the text. What Apple in turn does with the audio is Apple's processing, described in Apple's own text on Siri and Dictation.

What does it cost?

The price is not settled yet. We would rather not publish a figure that turns out to be wrong — it will be on the App Store page when the app is released.

Is there an Android version?

Not now. The first version is built for iPhone and iPad.

Can I add our own books?

Not in this version. The feature is started but not active, so no books are created in the app. We mention it so you know what is on the way — not as something you can use today.

There is a story waiting to be read out loud

Rimdal for iPhone and iPad. No account, no ads, no tracking — and, for now, in Swedish only.

Coming to the App StoreNot submitted yet — and the app is in Swedish

Questions before then — get in touch.