With the increase of smart phone usage,there has been a tremendous increase in the number of smart phone applications.In September 2014,there were 1.3 million mobile apps available in Apple Store(Statista,2014).In January 2015,the apps downloadable in the Google Play store had reached 1.48 million(AppBrain,2015).Of these,the largest number were games,followed by educational apps.Among the educational apps,a large number fall into the language category.In this paper,the authors first review the five most downloaded free apps for learning English,Chinese and Japanese respectively,focusing on features,content and usability.Then the authors report on a survey conducted in January 2015 among 182 students at two Japanese universities to see if students perceptions of language apps can explain the popularity of the language apps reviewed.From the survey data,we discovered 55%of students owe iPhones while 43%have Android smart phones,only 2%still use old fashioned Japanese mobile phone.60%of students have used language apps,of which the vast majority(99%)are free,on their smart phones.Of the students who downloaded language apps,65%downloaded dictionaries,and 56%downloaded vocabulary learning apps,followed by listening(28%)and grammar(10%).This has two possible implications: that most favored language apps are dictionaries and vocabulary learning,or that the most available apps are dictionaries and apps for vocabulary learning.Although students are aware of mobile language learning,74%reported that they only spend one hour or less a week on learning language via language apps.There are 40%of the surveyed students consider language apps they used or “ a little helpful” while 52%think they are not sure about the efficacy of the apps.While the data obtained from this survey is limited to Japanese students,the findings may serve as indications of user preference that can be used by language.