Well-known apps such as Rosetta Stone, Duolingo or Babbel offer no Gulf Arabic courses, but there are other apps for learning Gulf Arabic that are just as good or even better.
General Overview of Gulf Arabic:
Gulf Arabic is the Arabic dialect that is spoken by 35 million people on the southern and western coasts of the Persian Gulf.
This includes the wealthiest Arab countries such as the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, as well as smaller regions in Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Iraq.
Within Gulf Arabic there is also a dialect continuum, which means that there are differences in pronunciation between Gulf Arabic in Kuwait and Gulf Arabic in the UAE or in Qatar.
Gulf Arabic is called Khaliji in Arabic, which translates to "from the Gulf."
The Gulf Arabic learning apps range from professional software learning programs for computers to inexpensive apps for smartphones.
A compact overview of all Gulf Arabic learning apps can be found below.
uTalk Gulf Arabic App
Alternative to Duolingo or Babbel
Systems: Android App, iPhone App, Online Version
Content: Gulf Arabic vocabulary (2000 words), lessons and playful exercises
Prices:
USD 12 (1 month and all 160 languages)
USD 60 (12 months and all 160 languages)
Discount offer: USD 199 (Lifetime Access to all 160 Languages)
Overall Value: 
The uTalk app teaches about 2000 Gulf Arabic words and focuses primarily on playful exercises.
There are several exercises to choose from:
-
Read and listen to Gulf Arabic words (with translation and photos)
-
Match the Gulf Arabic word you heard to a photo
-
Speak a Gulf Arabic word and compare the recording with the original
-
A memory game with pictures
-
Speak the Gulf Arabic translation of an English word
The vocabulary is divided into 60 freely selectable topics. The special thing about the uTalk app is that you get access to
all 160 languages.
The interface of the app is well made and is similar to other apps like Babbel, Duolingo or Mondly.
Summary: Getting access to 160 languages is impressive and the scope (2000 words with native speaker audio and exercises) is also solid.
Link: uTalk Gulf Arabic Language Course App
Memrise Gulf Arabic App
App with User-Generated Lessons
Systems: Android App, iPhone App, Online-Version (PC and Mac)
Content: Gulf Arabic lessons and vocabulary trainer with native speaker audio, grammar
Prices: USD 8,99 (1 month), USD 60 (12 months), USD 110 (unlimited)
Overall Value: 
With the Memrise App you can learn over 90 languages.
This includes even very small languages - however, in such cases the language courses are often limited to just a few lessons.
One special feature of the Memrise learning app is the large number of lessons created by users (native speakers).
The quality of these lessons varies greatly though. For example, only the basic forms of verbs are usually taught, without the conjugations. Some languages also do not have an audio recording of the words at all.
Another good idea of the Memrise app are the user-generated tips and mnemonics for each word to help you memorize them.
Summary: User-generated lessons are a good idea. In practice, the quality of the lessons leaves a lot be desired.
Bluebird Gulf Arabic App
Gulf Arabic Lessons and Exercises
Systems: Android and iPhone apps, online version (PC and Mac)
Content: Gulf Arabic exercises with native speaker audio and speech recognition
Prices: USD 9.99 (1 month), USD 100 (12 months), USD 200 (unlimited), USD 400 (163 languages)
Overall Value:
The Bluebird App offers 146 source languages and 163 target languages and dialects, including Gulf Arabic.
The Gulf Arabic language course in this app includes the following:
-
Daily video lessons in three difficulty levels
-
Basic Gulf Arabic vocabulary on several dozen topics
-
Common Gulf Arabic verbs with conjugations
-
Analysis of your own pronunciation (with speech recognition)
-
Tests: listening comprehension, filling in word gaps, vocabulary quizzes
There are about 500 video lessons for learning Gulf Arabic, each 5 to 60 minutes long. For languages with other scripts, the words can also be displayed transliterated in the Latin script.
The Bluebird app has no grammar lessons. Instead, you are supposed to understand the grammar "implicitly" from the examples, like in Rosetta Stone.
Summary: The video lessons and the interface take some getting used to, but the exercises are quite varied. Especially for smaller languages, this app is a viable alternative.
Mango Gulf Arabic App
Includes Grammar
Systems: Android and iOS Apps, Online Version
Content: Gulf Arabic lessons with native speaker audio, grammar, culture
Prices: USD 7.99 (1 month), USD 80 (1 year),
USD 18 (1 month and 70 languages), USD 180
(1 year and 70 languages)
Overall Value:
The Mango Languages App offers 70 languages, including Gulf Arabic.
This app also has some grammar lessons and cultural explanations. The explanations in English are all recorded and well done.
However, the number of lessons for learning Gulf Arabic is quite small, which means that this app is only suitable for absolute beginners.
There are no exercises, except for the repeated vocabulary tests.
You can also record your own pronunciation in the app and compare it with the recording of a native speaker.
Summary: Good quality, but not much vocabulary. Only for absolute Gulf Arabic beginners.
Pimsleur: Eastern Arabic
Most Expensive Software to Learn Eastern Arabic
Systems: PC and Mac (incl. Mobile App)
Suitabe for: Beginners, advanced, students, travel vocabulary
Content: Eastern Arabic vocabulary, lessons with native-speaker audio and speech recognition
Price: USD 150 (Basics)
Overall Value: 
The Pimsleur App is very similar to Rosetta Stone in that it does not give grammar explanations, verb conjugation tables, etc.
Instead, the Pimsleur method is supposed to let you learn the Eastern Arabic dialect intuitively, just like your native language - by combining pictures, reading and speaking (speech recognition).
The complete course includes a total of five courses (levels 1 to 5). The beginner course is level 1.
Each of the five courses offers 30 daily lessons of 30 minutes each and there are various interactive exercises.
This Eastern Arabic learning course for PCs and Macs also includes a mobile app for Android and iOS systems.
Summary: The most expensive beginner course, even though it is unlikely that learning with it is much better than with the cheaper apps.
Overview of the Gulf Arabic Learning Apps:
| Learning App |
Subscrip-
tion? |
Price |
Systems |
Value |
| uTalk | No | $199 | PC, Mac, Android, iOS |
|
| uTalk | Yes
(1 month) | $12 | PC, Mac, Android, iOS |
|
| uTalk | Yes
(12 months) | $60 |
PC, Mac, Android, iOS |
|
| Memrise |
No |
$110 |
PC, Mac, Android, iOS |
|
| Memrise |
Yes
(1 month) |
$9 |
PC, Mac, Android, iOS |
|
| Memrise |
Yes
(12 months) |
$60 |
PC, Mac, Android, iOS |
|
| Bluebird |
No |
$200 |
PC, Mac, Android, iOS |
|
| Bluebird |
Yes
(1 month) |
$10 |
PC, Mac, Android, iOS |
|
| Bluebird |
Yes
(12 months) |
$100 |
PC, Mac, Android, iOS |
|
| Mango |
Yes
(1 month) |
$8 |
PC, Mac, Android, iOS |
|
| Mango |
Yes
(12 months) |
$80 |
PC, Mac, Android, iOS |
|
Pimsleur
(Basics) |
No |
$150 |
PC, Mac, Android, iOS |
|
