Listen to Wikipedia

Name: Listen to Wikipedia
Rating: 4 (39 reviews)
Author: Michael Oltman

By: Michael Oltman

Reference

Features & Capabilities

Real-time Wikipedia edits, visualized as bubbles and sonified as music. Watch and listen as the world's knowledge is written across 32 languages.

See and hear every edit to Wikipedia, as it happens. Each change appears as an animated bubble — sized by the magnitude of the edit — while a musical note plays in real time. Larger edits produce deeper notes; smaller edits ring higher.

Colors tell the story of who's editing: white circles for registered users, green for anonymous contributors, and purple for bots. Lighter bubbles mark additions to articles; darker ones signal deletions. When a new user joins Wikipedia, a warm pad swells and a blue banner appears to welcome them.

Tap any bubble to see the article title, then tap again to open it in your browser. Tap a new-user banner to visit their talk page and say hello.

Customize the sound to your taste. Choose from over a hundred instruments for additions, deletions, and new-user events. Pick a musical scale — pentatonic or heptatonic — in any of 12 keys and multiple modes. Adjust the root octave and range to shape the melody that Wikipedia writes.

Supports 32 languages, including English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Hindi, and many more.

Based on Listen to Wikipedia by Hatnote (listen.hatnote.com). Developed by Bryan Oltman (bryanoltman.com).

User Growth & Download Statistics

App

By:

Michael Oltman

Rating:

4.00

(39) 1.00

Version:

2.0.0 Last updated: 2026-04-30

Version code:

883397771

Creation date:

2014-04-08

Compatible devices:

Size:

37.29MB

URLs:

Full description:

Source:

Apple Apps Store

Data ingested on:

2026-06-30

Compare stats and ranking:

Ranking

# 229,862 ▲ 521,731

Other rankings

#16 in wikipedia keyword 24 ▲ 3#57 in listen keyword 23 ▼ 3

For Developers

Monetize with App Pass Boost with Extension Booster

Contact the developer

Chrome-Stats does not own this Apple app. Please use these information below to contact the Apple app developer.

Developed by:

Michael Oltman

Apple Apps Store

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/listen-to-wikipedia/id832934300

User Reviews

Bottom line: reviews praise the app for its calming, ambient sound and clever Wikipedia-edit concept, and note it is maintained over years. However, many users report sound failures on mobile, no background playback, higher pitch than the web version, and compatibility issues with newer iPadOS/iOS. Reliability and playback features are the main recurring pain points. The strongest appeal remains the soothing concept; improvements to audio reliability and background playback would boost overall satisfaction.

Pros

Calming, soothing ambient sounds ideal for focus, relaxation, or sleep.
Innovative concept: audio reflects Wikipedia edits in real time.
Useful for study, writing, and mindfulness; has been maintained and updated over the years.
Pleasant listening experience with a simple, elegant presentation.

Cons

Inconsistent audio playback or no sound on some devices.
Lack of background/lock-screen playback support.
Audio pitch is higher than the website/desktop version.
Compatibility issues with newer iPadOS/iOS versions causing incompatibility.
Occasional bugs requiring restarts or updates.

Recent reviews

The pentatonic scale is very soothing. I downloaded this app during the pandemic, and I'm glad it is still working and being supported today. In these uncertain and anxious times, it's refreshing to have basic apps that do exactly what they say, and nothing more.

by ea*****, 2026-03-11

The app doesn’t work on my phone

by ap*****, 2026-03-08

Listen to Wikipedia is a great app, I've been using everyday for years as a crude substitute for a lava-lamp because finding a stores that sell a consistent supply of light-bulbs for them can be problematic. But I would like to suggest a few tweaks. The first and biggest is to include the number of edits being done per-minute like on the website and the option to refresh the app instead of having to reboot it everytime it stops making sound. And also I would really appreciate it if you could please fix the most recent bug with the mobile app. While the website is still functioning fine, the mobile app hasn't been making sound since between 02:30 and 03:00 am last night. I would really appreciate it if you address that bug and have it fixed. Other than that, I really love the Listen to Wikipedia app.