What is Soomlish?
Soomlish is an educational technology app that helps Somali-speaking learners improve their English through structured lessons, games, speaking practice, and social motivation — designed to be accessible, engaging, and culturally relevant.
Our mission is to make English education more practical and affordable for learners across Somalia and East Africa.
App features
- Structured lesson paths — A1 through advanced levels (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2) with grammar, phonics, vocabulary, conversation, reading, listening, idioms, phrasal verbs, and accent training
- Speaking & pronunciation — Practice with feedback and teacher audio guidance
- Focus Mode — Choose one skill (grammar, phonics, vocabulary, conversation, idioms, phrasal verbs, accent) and follow a dedicated path with level selection toggles
- Games — Somabot (AI opponent practice), ClosePlay local multiplayer, Remote Play (online 1v1), and unified score screens
- Classmates & leaderboard — See classmates on your level, search by name, view streaks, XP, lessons completed, and weekly progress with podium rankings
- Alphabet & sounds path — Dedicated A1 alphabet learning with chained sound practice
- Premium & Focus store — Unlock advanced paths via secure local mobile money (Sifalo Pay) with lifetime access options
- Offline support — Download lessons and continue learning without constant internet
- XP & Streak system — Earn XP for lessons, maintain daily streaks, and track progress with detailed explanation sheets
- Profile customization — Upload profile photos, edit name, district, country, and gender during onboarding
- Social features — Add classmates, send friend requests, peer chat during Remote Play games, teacher chat for real-time lesson support with admin panel access, and WhatsApp support
- Weekly Tournament — Compete in weekly tournaments with matchmaking, leaderboards, and cash prizes for winners
How Soomlish works — step by step
This section is written for anyone reviewing the app (including Play Store and App Store testers) who wants to understand exactly what each part does and how it behaves, without needing to click through the app first.
1. Sign-up & onboarding
New users sign in with Google (Firebase Authentication) or a phone number. During first-time onboarding they pick a display name, English level (A1–C2, or take a placement flow if unsure), country/district, and optionally a profile photo. No payment or personal financial data is collected at sign-up — only what's needed to personalize lessons and show the user in classmate/leaderboard lists.
2. Home screen & lesson path
The home screen shows a winding lesson path (Duolingo-style) of cards for the signed-in user's level, one card per lesson, in a fixed order that mixes lesson types (grammar, phonics, vocabulary, conversation, phrasal verbs, idioms, accent, etc.). Completed lessons show a checkmark, the next lesson is unlocked and highlighted, and later lessons stay locked until the ones before them are finished. Tapping a lesson card opens the lesson detail screen.
3. Lesson detail screen
Each lesson shows its content in a format suited to its type — numbered vocabulary with English/Somali pairs, grammar rules with examples, phonics blocks, or a flowing story for accent lessons. A speaker icon plays pre-recorded teacher audio for the lesson (streamed from Cloudflare, cached on-device for offline replay). Tapping "Practice" opens a microphone recorder sheet showing the lesson's full content; the user reads it aloud, the app scores their pronunciation, and the lesson is marked complete once the score threshold is met.
4. Focus Mode
Instead of the mixed auto-path, a user can pick one skill (e.g. only Grammar, only Phonics, only Idioms) and optionally a specific level range. The app then serves lessons of only that type, in order, until the user switches back to Auto mode.
5. Games — practicing with other people or an AI
- Somabot — practice against an AI opponent. The user picks one lesson (or, after skipping some lessons, a short queue of several) to be quizzed on; a header strip at the top of the quiz shows each lesson in the queue and ticks it green once finished.
- ClosePlay — offline multiplayer between two phones in the same room, connected directly device-to-device via Android's Nearby Connections API (Bluetooth/WiFi, no internet required). Both players see each other's avatar once connected, tap Play, and both must confirm "Ready" before the quiz starts — nobody is placed into a match without explicitly agreeing.
- Remote Play — the same explicit Play → Ready confirmation, but over the internet (Firebase) with other online users, instead of local Bluetooth/WiFi.
- Weekly Tournament — a scheduled daily competition window where online users can challenge each other 1v1; results build a weekly leaderboard.
In every game mode, both players answer the same set of quiz questions generated from real lesson vocabulary, and the higher score wins the round.
6. Classmates & social
Users can see other learners at their level, add them as friends, and message them (a lightweight peer chat, moderated, used for study coordination — not a general social network). A leaderboard ranks classmates by lessons completed, and the signed-in user always sees their own position on it, even with zero lessons completed.
7. Progress, XP & streaks
Completing a lesson or winning a game awards XP and counts toward a daily streak. Progress screens show lessons completed, current streak, and level progress — this data is what powers the classmate leaderboard rankings.
8. Premium / Focus Store & payments
Some advanced lesson paths are behind a one-time or subscription unlock, purchased in-app via Sifalo Pay (a licensed East African mobile-money payment gateway — EVC Plus, ZAAD, Sahal, eDahab, M-Pesa, Premier Wallet, eBirr). The purchase flow: user picks a plan → enters their mobile money number → the app sends a charge request to Sifalo Pay → the user approves a PIN prompt on their own phone's wallet app → on success, the purchased content unlocks immediately. Soomlish never sees or stores wallet PINs — those are entered directly in the user's own mobile money app, outside Soomlish.
9. Offline support
Lesson content and its audio can be downloaded for offline use, so a user with a weak or no connection can keep learning; progress syncs back once they're online again.
Business information
Brand: Soomlish
Type: Individual developer (sole proprietor)
Market: Somalia & East Africa
Platform: Android
Payments
Premium purchases are processed securely through Sifalo Pay. Supported methods may include EVC Plus, ZAAD, Sahal, eDahab, M-Pesa, Premier Wallet, and eBirr. Soomlish does not store mobile money PINs or wallet credentials.
Support
Account help, purchase verification, payment questions, and technical support: