Nyan-8 is a free website where users from more than 190 countries gather to learn multiple languages and exchange cultures. On Nyan-8, users with different native languages teach each other languages and interact with each other.

There's a bit of a story behind the development of Nyan-8. On November 20, 2023, the language exchange site I had long used, Lang-8, announced the end of its service. Within just a few hours, I launched an announcement site and declared the development of a successor platform called Nyan-8. The very next day, I added a demo screen of Nyan-8 and a mailing list to the announcement site, allowing people who were interested to reserve a spot. Two months later, I released a Chrome extension that allows users to migrate their posts and corrections from Lang-8 to Nyan-8, along with a temporary migration website. Shortly after that, Nyan-8 itself was officially released. To be honest, the development process was full of difficulties and challenges. I was also handling user support every day, so I ended up sleeping only 2-3 hours a day for nearly three months, which was extremely exhausting. There was just an overwhelming amount of work to do -- it may have been the hardest development period of my life. I somehow managed to push through purely out of a sense of responsibility. The community embraced the platform, and today Nyan-8 has become the primary destination for former Lang-8 users.

genuinely curious how you match people up across time zones, like is it mostly text or do conversations happen live with voice too

Love the simplicity of pairing learners by native tongue such a smart way to cut through the awkward early lessons. Also nice to see something genuinely free with no paywall tricks hiding the good stuff.

love the idea of pairing users by native language for real exchange rather than one-sided drills, feels way more honest than most language apps out there.

genuinely curious how you match people up across time zones, like is it mostly text or do conversations happen live with voice too

love the idea of pairing users by native language for real exchange rather than one-sided drills, feels way more honest than most language apps out there.

Nyan-8

World's Cutest Language Exchange Site

World's Cutest Language Exchange Site