Nerdish: Read. Learn. Grow.

What is Nerdish: Read For Knowledge app?

Nerdish wants you to want to learn new things across a diverse array of subjects. Articles pose questions to which you want to know the answer, even if you had never previously thought about them. Readers know that they’ll complete their reading in a short time and come away better informed.

The app is rated for kids aged 12 and above. The articles are written for a general audience.

Nerdish is an app for those who want to know more about everything but don’t have the time to spend all day reading books. You’ll do plenty of reading as a subscriber to Nerdish—concise, tightly written articles have a very just-one-more quality to them—but you’ll fit it in around the rest of your life rather than having to block out time for it.

If you’ve ever lost yourself in a spiral of Wikipedia or web browsing, you should take a good look at Nerdish. It isn’t free, but its subscription gives you a friction-free and inspiring bank of reading material to pass time that you might otherwise have squandered on social media or games.

What we love about Nerdish app.

We’ve all passed the time by idly browsing the web but, while it is a fantastic learning resource, it has weaknesses, especially when you read articles on a mobile device.

You might have to subscribe to get the articles on Nerdish, but you don’t have to struggle with the failing of articles on the web. Nerdish’s articles are fact-checked and their flow is not broken by ad units. Each one is composed with the typical reading experience on an app in mind—they are kept brief and structured well for small-screen reading.

Some readers will be happy just absorbing the articles, but many, young and old, respond well to gamification features to help them learn. Nerdish has quizzes and informs its readers of achievements and goals, such as the time they have spent reading each day.

What skills does it improve?

Nerdish covers popular science in the broadest sense. Articles read as part of this review of Nerdish app covered all aspects of science, incorporating architecture, space, health history, politics, and culture.

What age is it appropriate for?

Nerdish has an age rating of 12+. The articles published are not written for young children—being of similar complexity and focus as articles in a mainstream popular science magazine. While it is unlikely that anything posted on Nerdish will be explicit, the articles could touch on topics and themes not suitable for young kids.

Is Nerdish app easy to use?

The whole purpose of Nerdish is to make reading about a broad spectrum of topics easy. The presentation of the articles suits browsing, and each one is a polished and distraction-free read.

How will students benefit?

While having your reading material on a mobile device has many benefits compared to physical reading matter, books and magazines have some user-experience advantages. One of these is that it is obvious how long an article is before reading it. Another is that scanning what it covers is easy.

It can be frustrating to start reading and then realise you can’t complete it in the time you have available or to read an article and then find that it doesn’t go in the direction you hoped it would. Nerdish’s design addresses these issues.

Nerdish makes it clear to users how long it will take a typical reader to complete each article and the contents are split into titled sections that you see upon opening the piece. You can click them to jump ahead if you choose.

These features make it more likely that young readers will access the articles as they won’t feel like they are committing to a long read, and they can see in advance if it interests them. This is in addition to the game-like features mentioned earlier in this review of Nerdish. Anything that encourages kids to read more is welcome. Each article read is a possible prompt for a student to go and find a more in-depth analysis in a book.

Even if the reader goes no further than the article, they will have added to their general knowledge.

How will teachers benefit?

Teachers should be lifelong learners, and Nerdish will help them keep up to date with what’s new and fill in gaps in their knowledge. Most teachers don’t have a lot of time to spare, so Nerdish’s articles, written for efficient reading, are an excellent way for teachers to stimulate their minds and enjoy learning in the time they do have.

How will parents benefit?

Nerdish supports family sharing on iOS devices, which means that the whole family gets access to its articles. Sharing articles and talking about them is a great way to help kids learn and link the various themes they encounter in the app.

What can Nerdish app improve on?

Only making the free seven-day trial available for those who choose the yearly subscription option feels like it is taking advantage of people’s tendency to forget to cancel trial subscriptions. A shorter, three-day trial available for all options might be more appropriate.

However, we always recommend that app subscribers set a reminder to decide whether to continue a subscription. You won’t get caught out when the trial is up if you do this.

How much does Nerdish app cost?

You can download Nerdish for free. It contains some completely free content alongside the rest of the articles that are interrupted with a requirement that you watch an app to continue. We’d recommend that you view the ad-supported experience without a subscription as purely for appraisal. 

Nerdish’s raison d'être is to make article reading easy and distraction-free, so it makes sense to access the contents in its purest, paid-for form. If the pieces match your reading requirements, go for a subscription and enjoy the articles without interruption.

What is included with the free version vs. paid?

Without any account creation or subscription costs, you can access free articles to read. You unlock the premium content through a subscription that, aside from removing the advertisements, lets you download articles for later reading should you not be able to get online. There are a few subscription options: monthly, quarterly, and yearly. Longer subscriptions provide better overall value.

There is one further difference between the subscription tiers—the seven-day free trial is only available if you select the yearly option.

Is Nerdish app safe to use?

Nerdish is an appropriate app for kids aged 12 and above who have the maturity and interest to use the app. As the articles are brief, it is possible that kids may need additional context to fully understand their implications and parents and teachers should make it clear that they are available to provide it.

Articles have a link button that lets users share a link to the article with any contacts on their device.

Overall rating of the app.

Subscribers to Nerdish will always have access to knowledge expanding reading material that is well written and clearly presented.

Parents of kids aged 12 and above should consider a subscription that the whole family can use and then encourage their kids to spend time growing their general knowledge rather than posting on social media. Teachers should consider the service for school libraries to increase the diversity and accessibility of their written material.

Nerdish combines the quality of traditional popular science magazines with the convenience and breadth of the web and puts it into an intuitive app perfectly designed for modern mobile devices. Its ease of use, quality articles, and fascinating choice of topics, earns it five stars.