Player's Guide to American Mahjong Practice
This guide is for players who already know the basics of playing American Mahjong and need help using the app.
Quick Start
Section titled “Quick Start”See the rest of this document for details.
- Tiles are moved using drag and drop.
- Mahjong Practice focuses on your hand — not the table.
- The Bots view shows the racks of your 3 opponents’ racks with exposed tiles for Joker exchanges.
- The 3 empty spaces below your hand are used to pass tiles to the bots during Charleston. The comment tells you what comes next. Tiles passed to you appear in your hand automatically.
- During gameplay the empty space below your hand is used for both the Bot discards (which you can pick up or skip) and your own discards. The comment tells you where the tiles are coming from. When it’s your turn, a tile from the Wall is added to your hand automatically.
- The Bots play quickly. When they call a tile, the details will show up on the Bots view.
- Matching Hands and Matching Tiles views help with hand selection and deciding which tiles to keep.
- The Discard Table — located below your hand on the left — shows discarded tiles in a row and column layout. It provides a compact overview that works well on a phone screen.
- There are many optional practice features but you can also play full-featured games without using practice features.
Installing on Second Device
Section titled “Installing on Second Device”If you’re installing the app on another iPhone or iPad, download it from the App Store on that device.
Your previous purchase or subscription won’t be recognized automatically, but the Purchase Menu will come up the first time you open the app. Just tap Restore Purchases — it’s completely free.
Make sure you’re signed in with the same Apple ID you used for the original purchase, and your access will be restored.
2026 Hands
Section titled “2026 Hands”New Mahjong cards are released every April. This app releases the new hands shortly after.
- If you bought the 2025 one-time purchase, you’ll need to buy 2026 hands separately. The 2025 purchase does not renew automatically.
- If you have the monthly subscription, 2026 hands will be included.
When automatic updates are enabled on your iOS device, 2026 hands will be loaded automatically.
If automatic updates are off or not working, download app updates from the App Store directly.
If you have the latest version but don’t see the new hands, go to Settings in the app and select the new year manually.
New features and bug fixes also require app updates — either automatic or manual.
This video showcases Mahjong Practice in action and highlights key features.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWwULTdzfttmitWYih9W4OvT_RvzWZqi1
Support
Section titled “Support”Contact us at support@eightbam.com anytime for help.