Hooked on Phonics Learning
Reading, Math & Spelling Games
Ratings
Age
4+
Category
Education
Languages
English
Mon Jan 26 2026
We've squished some bugs and made some improvements to make your learning faster, easier, and even more fun!
Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read is a comprehensive, expert-designed program featuring over 36 progressive steps. Each step includes a catchy music video, an interactive practice game, and a digital ebook. Designed to give children the tools they need to decode new words, the app makes learning to read fun and effective for children from preschool to second grade.
Dinsun Expert Review
Our Expert Score
Hooked on Phonics has successfully transitioned from the 'gold standard' of TV infomercials to a powerhouse digital learning tool. What makes this app stand out is its 'Learn-Practice-Read' cycle. It doesn't just throw digital flashcards at a child; it builds a foundation using high-quality music videos that introduce sounds, followed by games that reinforce them, and culminating in actual reading success with ebooks.
The user interface is incredibly kid-friendly, allowing even preschoolers to navigate their lessons independently, which builds immense confidence. The variety of content—over 250 activities and 100+ ebooks—ensures that the material never feels repetitive. From a parent's perspective, the ability to sync progress across multiple devices and add multiple child profiles makes it a practical choice for growing families. It’s more than an app; it’s a comprehensive curriculum that actually delivers on its promise to get kids reading.
Features
100+ award-winning ebooks
Over 250 interactive activities
Progress sync across all devices
Add multiple child profiles
Curriculum designed by literacy experts
Tips & Walkthrough
Start each lesson with a music video to learn new sounds. Practice those sounds through interactive games, and finally read a dedicated ebook that uses the very words your child just learned.
Gameplays
Children move through the curriculum at their own pace, earning stars and trophies. This gamified approach ensures they stay motivated while mastering foundational literacy skills.
Screenshot
Q&A
Yes, you can create up to three separate profiles per account to track the individual progress of each child in your family.
Ratings & Reviews
Highly recommend!
Fri Oct 30 2020 Jennie*o1I am well aware of how kids are being taught to read in schools... and it’s all WRONG (listen to the ‘EDUCATE’ podcast, and you will see just how bad it really is!) Anyways, when my son was about 16 months I introduced him to Hooked on Phonics. This. Changed. Everything. By 19 months he could recite his ABC’s. By 21 months he would rearrange the fridge magnets with the entire alphabet. By 24 months he would SPELL things to me like when he wanted water, he would literally SPELL out ‘W-A-T-E-R’ as well as other things like ‘ I LOVE YOU’. Today, he is now 3.5yrs old, my child is reading level 5 books. There is not a single word that he cannot decipher. He isn’t just reading, he is actually COMPREHENDING the text. I encourage parents to use HOOKED ON PHONICS. It is also critical to understand how schools are teaching kids to read (see podcast ‘EDUCATE’ on NPR.. it is an award winning podcast,) & to look at the actual SCIENCE behind how children are learning to read. Hooked on Phonics is absolutely vital in a child’s journey to becoming a good reader. I cannot express to parents just how important it is to teach your child PHONICS first and foremost. I suppose you don’t need to take my word for it, just see the science for yourself!!
We have a reader!!
Tue Aug 11 2020 jamiemclevWe have so enjoyed watching our now almost-5 year old son become a reader during quarantine using only this App and the related practice packs mailed to us. He went from reading words like ‘cat’ and ‘mat’ in March to reading full stories from our shelf, and he is loving the freedom it gives him to explore books in a new way. We have used the program inconsistently over the last 5 months depending on our family’s bandwidth, but it has been easy to move at our own pace and review areas where my son was not quite confident by revisiting sections of the App. He loves the songs (and so does his little bro), and they like the silly animals and their antics, particularly the rhino on the bulldozer and the strange but funny meerkat. There was a period where we saw problems with the App loading, and we reached out to customer service and they told us the developer team was working on it. This most recent update fixed any issues we were having and all seems to be in order. We can’t wait to finish the program as we start homeschooling more officially in September! We’re on the beginning of first grade now, so it won’t be long!
Grateful Grandparent
Tue Jun 24 2025 fitness boundMy granddaughter is autistic and nonverbal. She LOVES looking at books though so I decided to give HOP a try. After 3 months - she’s taking my phone from me and doing it on her own. 6 months - she’s reading and getting everything right - 9 months - she’s still fascinated with the program and points to my phone saying “phonics” every time she sees me. Her teachers are amazed at her progress - she’s going to 2nd grade. Best of all - she STILL loves the app!!! She has an IEP (individualized education program). I am looking forward to her progress next year because SHE IS READING OUT LOUD NOW! (Smile). My son is 30 now and I STILL don’t know WHAT I would have done if it weren’t for hooked on phonics. We didn’t have cell phones back then - everything was done by computer and he FINISHED the whole program and was reading like a champ by 3rd grade. THAT was how I knew to start the program earlier with my granddaughter and was IMPRESSED to find HOOKED ON MATH too! (Smile). I’m not rich - I go at my granddaughter’s pace and if she hasn’t finished the workbook - we don’t order another until she does. The most amazing part is that it’s AFFORDABLE!!!!!
Worth it!! Reading in 3 weeks.
Sun Aug 23 2020 PimpinsanMy five year old son had been in “Phonics” after school class two times a week for a few months for just 30 mins each session. I found that he was making very little progress and the activities he was doing did not hold his attention. Then after his school shut down due to COVID in April, I got him all sorts of learning books in order to prepare him for Kindergarten. He wasn’t too much interested in those. I decided to download the Hooked on Phonics app since it was just $1 for the first month. Let me tell you, I was a bit skeptical at first about the claims they were making that my son would be reading in a month. But to my amazement within three weeks he was reading. Now he’s reading everything and is definitely ready for Kindergarten and I couldn’t be happier. I must admit that some of the reviews almost made me not give the app a try, but I’m glad I did. Thank you Hooked on Phonics.
Good tool - some flaws with design
Sun Oct 22 2023 Masters Degree in InstructionOverall, the Hooked On Phonics app is a really good tool for emergent readers and also pre-readers. My son gets good use out of this app and it does provide adequate feedback where your child will likely need to revisit based off of how well they do on the games. That being said, one of the issues that I believe is problematic for the learning skills of an emergent reader, is the fact that visually you cannot differentiate between a capital I and a lowercase L within this software. Establish readers don’t have difficulty with this because they’re able to gather the context clues surrounding the word to be able to interpret the information in front of them. An emergent reader is still building the decoding skills, and therefore can’t tell the difference between the two letters. It would be beneficial if software developers would adjust this, so that emergent readers did not have the confusion of trying to pronounce words with I’s that look like L’s and the readers wouldn’t be faced with the challenge of trying to pronounce words that do not exist within the English language.
Second Generation Win
Mon Nov 30 2020 childofallianceMy Dad used Hooked on Phonics when I struggled with reading growing up so when my own children started having problems I found an old cassette tape and book set and tried it out. They enjoyed it, but one of our kids has a hard time with Times New Roman font so I reached out the company to ask about the new app and book set. The customer service rep was not sure about which typeface the new system used but offered us a trial run for $1 of app and books. The new system has larger more adaptive font with more spacing between the lines as well. We love that the books are used in different ways on the app so we can reinforce what our kids are doing independently. Now both have the ability to read and we are continuing to work on fluency and confidence. Thank you Hooked on Phonics for helping a second generation of readers in my family.
I hate the update
Tue Oct 21 2025 bent0612The layout since the new update is awful. Specifically the “roadmap”. Each section looks way too similar with very small text that doesn’t show obvious differences visually. It jumped my kid all the way to section 12 while she should be in 8. So every time we open the app it keeps jumping back to the 12 and I have to swipe back to the correct one. I can’t honestly tell what her progress has been anymore because half of them leading up to 8 look like they are “completed” and half not. I only knew 8 was the last area she was in because of the progress email update. I would consider deleting her progress to try rebooting at least where it starts but I don’t want to lose her prize section with different outfits (which she loves). Beyond the new (bad) interface (which should be 0 stars alone) the content is great and really helping to keep her on pace. We use this primarily as extra occasional support vs daily.
Subscription scams
Wed May 01 2024 KellomaticThe concept of hooked on phonics is great however their subscription service is a scam. I saw an instagram ad that said try 30 days for $1 and thought great it gives me access to all the apps and a physical starter kit. During sign up it says “easily cancel at any time” I have adhd so I like to cancel my trials preemptively and then resubscribe if the service works for us. I signed up through hooked on phonics website and then downloaded the app from the site after enrolling. In the HoP app I went to manage subscription and it brought me back to their website. When I hit cancel subscription it prompts with a message saying “it appears you have subscribed directly through your App Store, so you’ll need to cancel your subscription through the App Store directly” except I physically entered my payment method and I have no current or expired HoP in my app subscriptions. Now waiting for customer support to respond because they only have 9-5 hours
