Chatter: the chatbot that helps with learning languages

We spoke to Digiteum, the developers behind the language-learning chatbot Chatter, about how they used our API to create their app and the opportunities language APIs hold for delivering increasingly personalized language services on a greater, global scale.

App name: Chatter

Developer: Digiteum

Platform: Mobile

Language: Objective-C 2.0

Tell us about your app!

Tired of searching for an app that would help you improve English and Spanish vocabulary and learn languages using just a smartphone? Chatter is a chatbot of this kind, pure and simple.

This interactive Facebook Messenger app is developed by Digiteum and powered by Oxford Dictionaries lexical data storage through Oxford Dictionaries API. Chatter is armed with a set of tasks, quizzes, and lessons, and applies a score and level grading system to help users monitor their progress and visualize achievements over time.

How have you used the Oxford Dictionaries API in your app?

Objective-C 2.0 was used to build Chatter. Digiteum developed it to prove the concept that an in-messenger chatbot can be practical in learning languages if armed with proper data source. In particular, the app connects through Oxford Dictionaries API to LEAP platform via 2 basic endpoints: Dictionary Entries and Translations for 2 languages (English and Spanish). Thus, Chatter provides the variability of language exercises and lexical data accuracy secured by Oxford Dictionaries.

How do you plan to further develop your app?

Currently, Chatter technology demonstrates how a direct communication tool such as a chatbot can base its functionality and script variability on the integration with Oxford Dictionaries API.

The potential of this and similar technologies is enormous. If further improved, Chatter will grow into a deeply-personalized language tutor, assistant and express translator for a smartphone. Today it provides the information in two languages. However, its scalability will allow us to upgrade the chatbot by more language variations and types of dictionaries.

Integration of chatbot technologies with Oxford Dictionaries API in general has great potential. The access to rich language data may not only close the gaps in chatbot functionality caused by script limitations, but also enlarge the audience capacity due to multilingual capability.