Bamboo Island 1.6.1: quieter, faster, ours

Bamboo Island — learn Chinese island by island

Bamboo Island 1.6.1 is out. It's not a dramatic release — it's a better-behaved one. Those are the releases we're proudest of.

What 1.6.1 is about

Most of this release is invisible: faster starts, quieter screens, fewer taps between you and the thing you wanted to do. A settings page that says what it does. A fresh install that works the first time, every time — we tested this one obsessively on clean devices before letting it go.

The engine under the hood

Some background, because it explains why the app feels the way it does: Bamboo Island on Android runs entirely on your phone. No server, no network, no accounts. The dictionary (CEDICT plus our course vocabulary), the word segmentation, the pinyin, even the spaced-repetition scheduler — all of it ships inside the app and runs offline.

That's not a marketing feature. It's why the app works on a plane, in a basement classroom, on a phone with no SIM — and why nothing you write ever leaves your device.

What we removed

Every release we try to delete as much as we add. This time: another chunk of on-screen text nobody read, one confirmation dialog that just made people nervous, and a loading spinner that lied about progress. Good riddance.

Get it

1.6.1 is rolling out now on Google Play. If Bamboo Island is already on your phone, it will update itself quietly — which is exactly the point.

— The Bamboo Island team

Get 1.6.1 on Google Play 🏝️

Free to try — no account, no ads, works offline.

Get it on Google Play   Visit the guide

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