Learning App Shows That Education Doesn’t Have To Take Place In A Classroom

Education is important, but all too often, it feels like learning stops when we leave school. However, around the world, a range of cultures praise the value of learning as part of everyday life. The Chinese proverb “as long as you live, you learn” reminds people that learning shouldn’t be something reserved for young people. Gandhi’s famous quote “live like you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever” underlines learning as a lifelong pursuit.

Learning shouldn’t be something that stops as soon as we leave the classroom, it should be a part of our day-to-day lives. Blinkist is helping its users get inspired to learn and find time for it everyday—no classroom necessary.

Blinkist is an app that shares insights from nonfiction books in 15-minute reads and listens. There are 4,000 titles to choose from across 27 categories like personal development, history and psychology.

“As a productivity coach and one of the life long learners, I can’t tell you how happy I was to find Blinkist. If you enjoy nonfiction reading and are short on time, Blinkist will be your new favorite app.” – Karen Trepte, HuffPost

The app was created by four friends who loved reading nonfiction books while at university. However, after graduating and starting full-time jobs, they found it hard to fit this into their busy schedules. They discovered a way to get this information faster, by sharing only the most important lessons from nonfiction books. They then created Blinkist to share these lessons with others to help them fit learning into their everyday lives, too.

LtoR: The Blinkist founders: Niklas Jansen, Tobi Balling and Holger Seim. Not pictured: Sebastian Klein

Now, the app has 14 million users in almost every country in the world. It’s raised $35 million in funding and has been named by Apple as one of the top 20 apps for lifelong learning.

Blinkist’s users include everyone from CEOs to authors, parents to olympic athletes. Many of them are in their mid-30s and have already built a career, but they want to keep learning for self-improvement. The app was made for those value education way beyond school.

“As a wife, a mom of three, and a full-time entrepreneur, I yearn for some time to read for both personal and professional reasons. Blinkist is my car companion and pre-sleep friend! I love it.” – Oula Farawati, Co-founder & CEO Printati

Blinkist helps its millions of users make learning an everyday activity outside of traditional education. Here’s how.

A Book Explained in 15 Minutes

Many people love to read books. However, as useful as books are for learning, they can take a lot of time to read. Blinkist makes learning from books more accessible by making it fast. The app shares the most important takeaways from nonfiction books in 15-minute explainers.

For example, if users wanted to learn how to be more productive they could read three leading titles on the topic: Getting Things Done, Deep Work and Free to Focus. However, reading all of these books cover to cover could take months.

With Blinkist, users can get the core messages from each book in 15 minutes. These bite-sized explainers allow users to learn something new in a short amount of time, making it much easier to fit in around work and life when education isn’t a full-time pursuit anymore.

“There’s so much information in the world today, and it seems as if there is less time than ever before. Blinkist’s team of experts sifts through books for me to find the signal and avoid the noise.” – Aidan McCullen, Athlete & Media Personality

Learning On the Go

When there isn’t a set place to go to learn everyday, like school or university, learning can easily be forgotten as work and personal responsibilities take over. With Blinkist being an app, users can learn from their phone wherever they are.

What’s more, every explainer on the app is available to listen to as well as read. Users can learn while multitasking on their commute, while working out or doing chores. Plus, Blinkist makes sure its audio content is as engaging as possible with sound effects, using more than one narrator and scripts written specifically with listeners in mind.

“We created Blinkist as a way to make it easier for people to fit more learning into their lives. With the addition of audio, we’re moving closer to our vision to become the ultimate destination for lifelong learners.” – Holger Seim, CEO of Blinkist

People Can Learn Their Way

A study in the Current Health Sciences Journal asked 230 students how they learn best. It found that about 45% of students were visual learners, 30% learn best by listening and 19% learn by doing. While it’s hard to cater to every type of learner in a classroom, outside of school, people can opt for the learning method that suits them. Blinkist offers something for each of these learners, so learning becomes effortless.

Visual and auditory learners have the choice of learning by reading or listening to the explainers. For those who learn by doing, there is actionable advice throughout the content, so they can apply what they’re learning directly to their own life and learn this way.

Learn your way by reading or listening to Blinkist

It’s Backed by Science

Many people struggle to learn without the help of a teacher or structured course. However, even though Blinkist is self-driven, it uses scientific techniques to make sure everything users learn on the app sticks.

Neuroscientific research methods like real-life examples and case studies are used to make the content memorable. Instead of simply reading or listening to big ideas, users can learn from anecdotes, relatable examples and easy-to-remember stories. Strategic bolding and repetition of key points highlights the most important takeaways ensuring users leave with these in mind.

Users can also trust that everything they’re consuming on the app is designed with learning in mind, just like a traditional classroom lesson would be.

Examples and case studies make key points easy to remember

One of the World’s Best Apps

As far as education apps go, Blinkist is up there with the best of them. It has won awards from the UN for its contribution to the education field and Google for its design. Plus Apple named it one of the top 20 apps for lifelong learning alongside TED, Coursera and Khan Academy.

As well as these awards, Blinkist has also been recognized by top publications, like The New York Times, The Guardian and Forbes, and even Apple CEO Tim Cook is a fan.

As a leading app in the education space, Blinkist is paving the way for learning to be seen as something that anyone can do from anywhere.

“With Blinkist you can boost your knowledge and gain new perspectives so that you can be a better professional, a better partner, or a better you.” – The United Nations

Learn What You Need, When You Need It

In a world where industries move fast and the latest best practices are always changing, making learning a part of life beyond school is more important than ever. Blinkist can help users learn the knowledge they need, when they need it, turning education into an ongoing pursuit.

People can get insights from leading authors and bestselling books on topics that pop up throughout their life, across 27 different categories.

For example, for work, users could check out How to Start a Start-Up before launching their big idea or Serve Up, Coach Down after a promotion to middle management. At home, they could get Blinkist’s take on The Miracle of Mindfulness before starting a meditation practice or dive into the parenting section when expecting.

“Blinkist is a lens to kick off thinking, a surveying tool. I can, for example, quickly review a few of the best books on negotiation.” – Adam Gries, Founder of OKpanda

Always Be Inspired to Learn

However, learning doesn’t always need to have an end goal, it can be enjoyed simply for the sake of learning itself. Users can always find inspiration to keep learning with the latest books, trending titles and expert recommendations at their fingertips.

The app keeps people inspired with its wide library of interesting titles where 70 new explainers are added each month. To help users find interesting things to learn, Blinkist uses machine learning to give them spot-on recommendations. The app learns what users like and suggests other titles they’ll probably like, too.

Plus, users can find new topics to explore through the app’s curated lists. These round up books around interesting subjects—like human history or social justice—and share recommendations like the latest New York Times bestsellers and the most mentioned books on The Tim Ferriss Show.

@blinkist is my now favorite thing to read. Such an amazing way to consume information. Reading books I’m interested in but too far down the list to get to any time soon, are now super easy to consume. Thank you!!

— Benjamin Montrose (@rebelliousBen) April 28, 2020

Blinkist helps users make learning a part of their everyday life beyond school. If you, too, want to learn from the world’s best nonfiction, download the Blinkist app to get started today.