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The reader works the same on phone and desktop, with different gestures for some actions. Read aloud, retranslating, and display preferences each get their own page; this one covers moving through a chapter and using the tools built into it.
Opening a chapter#
Tap a chapter from a novel's chapter list, the Continue Reading shelf on the home page, or your library to open it. The translated text is usually already on the page when it loads. If a chapter hasn't been translated yet, you see a short loading state while it translates. See Translation Tools for how that works.
Showing and hiding the bars#
The reader has a top bar (back button, chapter and novel title, reading-settings button) and a bottom bar (read aloud, retranslate, glossary, bookmark, chapter list, previous/next).
Tap anywhere in the chapter text to show or hide both bars at once. The tap is ignored on links, buttons, glossary terms, open dialogs, and any text you've selected, so it doesn't interfere with reading or highlighting.
Tip The top bar also hides itself automatically when the chapter title further up the page is already visible on screen, so it doesn't duplicate information you can already see.
Moving between chapters#
| Method | How |
|---|---|
| Buttons | Previous and Next buttons above the chapter text and in the bottom bar |
| Keyboard | Left Arrow (previous chapter), Right Arrow (next chapter) |
| Touch gesture | Pull up past the bottom of the last paragraph |
The pull gesture only engages once you're already scrolled to the very bottom of the page and start a new upward drag from there. A fast scroll that merely carries you down to the end doesn't trigger it. A thin rail at the bottom edge fills as you pull; once it's full it thickens and your phone gives a short vibration to confirm you've pulled far enough. Releasing then takes you to the next chapter. The gesture doesn't appear on the last chapter of a novel, since there's nowhere for it to go.
The chapter list#
The Chapters button in the bottom bar opens a list of every chapter in the novel, with the chapter you're currently reading marked.
Bookmarking from the reader#
The bookmark button in the bottom bar opens a menu of reading statuses, so you can mark a novel as Reading, Plan to Read, Paused, Completed, or Dropped without leaving the chapter. Choosing any status also bookmarks the novel. See Library and Progress for what each status means and how the library page uses them.
Original text#
Chapters have two tabs above the text: Translated and Original. Switching to Original shows the untranslated source text.
Note The Original tab requires you to be signed in. It isn't restricted by tier: any signed-in reader can view it.
The first time you switch to Original for a chapter, it takes a moment to load if it hasn't been fetched yet.
Glossary terms in the text#
Terms tracked in the novel's glossary are underlined in the chapter text by default. A term with a blue mark means another reader has suggested a different translation for it that you haven't adopted. Tapping an underlined term opens it in the glossary. See Glossary Basics for what's inside.
Whether terms are underlined, whether tapping one does anything, and whether the blue "suggested by others" mark shows at all are controlled from Display Settings → Site. See Display Settings for the exact toggles.
The paragraph menu#
Every paragraph has its own menu of actions.
- On desktop: hover over a paragraph to reveal the menu along its left edge, or right-click the paragraph.
- On phone: double-tap a paragraph to open the menu at that point.
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Read from here | Starts read aloud from that paragraph |
| Retranslate | Redoes the translation for that paragraph (or, for a system-panel block, the whole panel) |
| Comment | Opens a comment box quoting that paragraph |
Comment isn't available on the Original tab. Retranslate is only available if your tier and current translation engine support it. See Translation Tools.
Keyboard shortcuts#
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| ← | Previous chapter |
| → | Next chapter |
| E | Toggle glossary highlights |
| R | Retranslate the chapter |
| T | Toggle read aloud |
Shortcuts are ignored while you're typing in a text field, or while Ctrl, Cmd, or Alt is held.
Comments#
Every chapter has a comment section below the text. Signed-in readers can post a comment (including a GIF), reply to another comment, like a comment, edit or delete their own comment, report someone else's comment, and mention another user with @.
Chapter stats and translation details#
Selecting the chapter title (or hovering it, on a mouse) opens a panel with a few stat tiles: Words, Read time, Views, whichever the chapter has data for. Below the stats, if translation information is available, a row shows which model translated the chapter: Google Translate for the free machine-translation path, or the name of the AI model or models used, combining the translation step and the glossary step into one label.
Chapter summaries#
Chapter summaries live on their own page for each novel, reached from the novel page rather than from inside the reader. Summaries are collapsed by default rather than shown outright. The first time you open summaries for a novel you haven't started reading, a one-time notice asks you to acknowledge the spoiler risk before it shows anything. This notice appears once across the whole site, not per novel.