Snowball Development Story

I started developing for iOS shortly after the App Store opened in 2008. Over the years, I've launched several products on the App Store and have been quite lucky - one app reached TOP4 in the US region, accumulating over 20 million downloads, and another topped the charts in China and received a recommendation from Apple's editorial team.

Now, I'm focusing all my efforts on developing Snowball English. Why? Because I deeply understand how difficult it is for non-native speakers to learn English, so I want to use technology to solve this problem.

Why Develop the Snowball English App?

After moving to Canada, I truly realized how important English is. My children need English for school, I need English to communicate with teachers, and even going to the supermarket requires English.

At that time, I thought, "If only there were a useful English learning tool." So I started working on the Snowball English app, initially just for myself and my family. Using it every day, I found that it was quite effective!

You know what's most interesting? I'm both a developer and a user, learning English every day with the product I developed. When I encounter learning difficulties, I can immediately find ways to solve them in the app. This experience is truly special and makes me very clear about what users need.

Seeing myself and my family gradually improve our English through this app, I thought: "There must be many other people struggling to learn English." Why not share this tool with them? That's what Snowball English is like now!

Breakthrough Technology - Advanced AI Integration

To be honest, when OpenAI and Claude successively released their AI models, I was particularly excited - it was simply tailor-made for our language learning products!

We've come up with many interesting AI applications in Snowball:

  • Using OpenAI's Whisper to recognize speech, the accuracy is truly surprising.
  • Claude's API is particularly powerful, whether it's looking up words, translating, or answering grammar questions, it's very intelligent.
  • We've also added AI chat, spoken language correction, and even automatically generate practice sentences based on vocabulary.
  • What excites me the most is that every time I receive user feedback saying "This feature is great," it motivates me even more to continue exploring the possibilities that AI can bring to language learning.

Seriously, I think AI technology can truly revolutionize the way humans learn languages. This is not just a technological innovation, but also opening a new door for everyone who wants to learn a foreign language well.

AI技术

Unique Features of Snowball English

What I'm most proud of is Snowball's openness. You can bring any English content you're interested in to learn - your favorite YouTube videos, podcasts, movie clips, everything! You don't have to be limited by fixed textbooks; the entire English world is your classroom.

We don't set any limits on storage space or transcription time. Learn as much as you want, save as much as you want. Because I believe that learning shouldn't have these technical troubles.

We are at the forefront of the application of AI technology. From speech recognition to intelligent translation, from grammar analysis to AI dialogue, we have integrated the most powerful AI capabilities. These technologies are not for showing off, but to make your English learning easier and more effective.

This is Snowball - a tool that truly focuses on the needs of learners and allows AI technology to serve everyone who wants to learn English well.

Snowball English User Experience

The user feedback we've received from Snowball English makes us very happy! Users love the app's flexibility and AI features the most. Users often share their progress with us, saying that Snowball makes learning English both efficient and fun.

The data also confirms this - a 20%-30% long-term retention rate and an average usage time of 50 minutes per day are quite good in the education app category. What moves us even more is that 80% of annual subscription users choose to re-purchase lifetime membership after experiencing it for a period of time, which is truly the greatest recognition for us!

Why do users like Snowball so much? I think it's because we really understand what learners are thinking. As a developer, I am also a user and know the various difficulties of learning English. So we have been carefully polishing every detail, striving to ensure that every function can truly solve problems.

Seeing users fall in love with learning English because of Snowball, that is our greatest motivation!

Snowball English's Mission

To make it easy for everyone to master English, that is the driving force behind our continuous progress!

By integrating cutting-edge AI technology and in-depth understanding of learning scenarios, we are creating a new way of language learning. Every technological breakthrough and every functional update brings us closer to this goal.

Seeing users go from initial language difficulties to gradually building learning confidence, and finally being able to communicate freely in English, this change is deeply inspiring for us.

I firmly believe that with the rapid development of AI technology and our continuous exploration of learning rules, we will definitely find the best solution for everyone who wants to learn English well. This is not just a vision, but our unwavering commitment.

To make English learning easy and natural, and to allow everyone to enjoy the fun of learning, that is the meaning of Snowball English's existence!

Future Outlook

Snowball English is just the beginning. We have many ideas, such as:

  • A more intelligent AI learning assistant that can customize a learning plan for you based on your learning progress and interests.
  • Richer learning resources, including videos, audio, articles, etc., to help you improve your English skills in all aspects.
  • More powerful social functions that allow you to communicate with English learners around the world, learn from each other, and make progress together.
  • A more personalized learning experience that recommends the most suitable learning content for you based on your learning habits and preferences.
  • Richer interactive activities that allow you to enjoy the fun of learning while learning English.
  • More powerful data analysis that allows you to clearly understand your learning progress and effects, so as to better adjust your learning strategies.