Stiefo: Learn German Shorthand

In-app purchases
287 reviews
Content rating
PEGI 3
10K+
Downloads
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About this app

Are your thoughts often faster than your pen and have you ever wished you could take notes at lightning speed? Would you like to have a way to write something down without the people around you being able to read it?
Or do you just feel like doing something analog again in this digital world?

Then Stiefografie is your solution! With the shorthand for the German language developed by the parliamentary stenographer and long-time world stenography champion Helmut Stief (1906-1977), it is possible to increase the writing speed by more than four times.
And not only that: Stiefografie was developed because other shorthand systems were considered too complicated and there should be a shorthand that you can teach yourself quickly and easily.

This app is all you need to do that. You can start right away and soon impress your circle of friends!

Main features:
• Integrated guideline
• Intuitive exercises
• Read aloud dictations
• Animated generator
• Detailed help guides
• Visualized progress

Stiefo offers you all this and much more in a modern, appealing design with many customization options.

The shorthand covered in this app is not "Steno", the German Einheits-Kurzschrift (DEK), which was very common in the past, but Stiefografie. This offers many improvements over the DEK, has a simple set of rules and is many times faster and easier to learn.

The goal of this app is to teach you the whole shorthand system step-by-step with effective exercises. For this purpose, it is divided into the successive levels "Grundschrift", "Aufbauschrift I" and "Aufbauschrift II".
With the "Grundschrift", you can already write more than twice as fast as with the everyday script, the long script, after intensive practice. You can buy the extension, which includes all the functions related to the extension scripts, for a small price in the app. If you find this price too cheap, you can also support me a little more with a separate in-app purchase.
Each of the three levels consists of a guideline and several exercises with which you can deepen what you have learned and further increase your writing speed.

Stiefo is a spare time project of mine, the development of the app requires a lot of time and work. Nevertheless, it is constantly being developed and with each update more great features are added. Thank you for your support!
Learn the German shorthand system Stiefografie!
Updated on
Sep 20, 2026

Data safety

Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region, and age. The developer provided this information and may update it over time.
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Ratings and reviews

263 reviews
Joel Dankert
February 5, 2022
This app makes learning shorthand extremely easy. I learned all "Letters" in Grundschrift in about a week and will soon start learning Aufbauschrift 1. The design is really pretty and the app has a wide range of settings. I hope the development of stiefo is going to continue with Improving Aufbauschrift 1 and addition of Aufbauschrift 2.
2 people found this review helpful
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Patrick Zedler
February 23, 2022
Thank you so much! The next update will include a Material You redesign and a few improvements. Currently I am learning for university so I sadly have not the time to implement Aufbauschrift II, hopefully Aufbauschrift I can be finished with the next versions. Aufbauschrift II is a whole new todo point for the future :)
Luise
July 29, 2024
The app is wonderful! I've been learning for a few days and have already made significant improvements. It is clearly visible that the creator cares very much and I plan on donating as soon as I reach Aufbauschrift 1 to support the hard work. The only thing that bugs me is the "Read words" feature, where on my device sometimes the box is to short for the shown shorthand, so I cannot read it fully and complete the "translation". Apart from that, the app is delightful. Thank you so, so much!
2 people found this review helpful
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C Emmett
June 12, 2022
It's a good app, ad-free and well worth getting the paid version. One minor gripe is that the reset feature has stopped working.
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Patrick Zedler
September 5, 2023
Thank you! That's very weird, but I can improve/fix this for the next version so that it always works. Until then you should be able to go to the Stiefo app info page of your device' settings, then go to "Storage and Cache" and tap on "Clear storage". Edit: Does it work correctly with the new update?

What’s new

A small update with multiple improvements and bug fixes ✍️