AnkiMobile Flashcards Reviews

by ...angel.devil...

So I had Anki on my regular computer, it was working ok, I found it hard to navigate in general. Downloaded Anki bc I need to get something done to my computer, it’s so freaking expensive for an app, and I have encountered sooooo many problems with it. First, it takes a million years to sync, and then the syncing doesn’t even work right! You have to have the computer program in order to organize the decks and cards.. and then my previous cards lost all of there media!! All of it! I was like ok, fine I’ll just redownload the whole freaking deck and reorganize it ...and guess what? I finished what I was doing and it synced... I look on both Anki and my computer and all of my cards disappeared...
I am beyond frustrated. It was over 14,000 flash cards... I’m in Medical school, I don’t have time to keep downloading and reorganizing and waiting for it sync....
I know other people like Anki, and good for them, but to me, it is not worth the hassle. Even people that like it, say it is hard to navigate as well.

by Umbrella96

I use this app on my computer even though the interphase looks a little outdated and the program itself is kind of finicky, I love the purpose of it. I used to not be a flash card learner but this app changed me! :)
Having said that... I thought I was going to enjoy having Anki on my phone so that I could study on the go but truth to be told, I don’t like it at all! I am unable to see the images associated with my cards and that defeats the purpose of my active learning. I do realize that I have too many cards that need to sync but everything time I sync it, it says that it’s completed and still, I have no pictures. I already contacted technical support. I’m now waiting for a response and hoping the problem is fixable. So far, I feel that I’ve paid for a service that is overpriced, and more importantly defective as it doesn’t work as expected or supposed to :(

by Oji John

Bottom line: this app works great on a Win 10 PC.

My advice: Use this app on a desktop computer until sync problems are solved.

I bulk loaded into a Master deck 3000 kanji cards using a custom designed template which works beautifully on a PC. Created a small filtered deck (100 notes) and imported that into a separate profile. On an iPad I attempted to sync that profile which contains only the small subset of the Master deck. Doesn’t matter that I’m using only a small deck on the iPad. The sync process behaves as if it needs to examine each of the 3000 cards in the Master deck. The sync process is so slow and so gums up my network that I find Anki unusable. I don’t want to sit at a desktop to study flash cards, so I’m ditching this app in favor of Flashcards Deluxe which has other advantages over this app on iOS besides being able to sync multiple devices in a mater of seconds.

this app on a Win 10 PC is problematic for the simple reason that one is unable to redirect the media folder. All media are saved in a user’s profile which, for most users, is on the system drive. Say you’ve got a large media library on a NAS. All media from the NAS which you use on this app gets copied to your Windows user profile. Now you’ve got two copies of all that media.

This whole show is such a resource hog.

by Connernoland

I am currently using Anki for school. It is a great concept and has helped me learn a lot of information quickly. However, I do have a few suggestions:
1) I would really enjoy the ability to add subjects into folders. For example, after I am tested on a set of subjects I would like to be able to place them in an “old tests” folder. That way it is off of my main screen and reduces clutter.
2) It would be nice to have the option to create collaborative decks. Sharing a deck with a friend is possible, but it does not automatically update across all devices when cards are added. Even when you synchronize the cards, it only updates to the one account, not all accounts the deck has been shared with.
3) It is not possible to reset a deck on the iPad app. You have to go into the computer app to reset a study schedule.
4) I have not been able to share just one deck at a time. When I share something, it shares all of my decks. It also replaces the collection of the person I share the decks with. Just one subject at a time would be nice.
5) it would be nice to have more themes. A black mode would be nice in order to minimize blue light exposure. For $25 it seems like there would be a little more customization available.

by Blueberry-Ice-Cream

Anki works well in regards to everything I need: it syncs flawlessly, the cards are properly formatted, and it has a nice interface. The only additional feature that I would like is to adjust the audio speed for the audio files in the cards. It would be nice if there was an option to increase or decrease the speed of the audio files.

I also did notice there the new beta scheduler has a bug that makes it keep requiring you to update it even after you update it. The issue can be reproduced when you click update, and then it requires a full sync either way. Then after closing and reopening Anki , the scheduler update reappears. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Anki as well. As of now, the issue seems to have been resolved but I am not sure if it will pop up again later. Thank you, this app team!

by Turkey Blaster 64

I use this app on my tablet, computer, and IPhone. At first I thought that the interface looked outdated, to my surprise this is the best flash card maker out there. I like the fact that you can flip the flash card and still have the ability to type in the answer (in my case I use text to speech) while the words are on the screen and mark it so it goes back in the deck. I wish that it was easier to flip the definition to the front of the card. I also wish that adding audio to the back of the card would play once the card was flipped and the answer was revealed. I enjoy using Anki on my PC and being able to add pictures by copying from the search engine images and pasting directly to the card, no longer do I have to save the images to a folder and then upload them to the card. This saves me a ton of time, especially with the sync option on the separate devices. I’ve used study blue and quizlet for years. Anki pretty much blows them out of the water. No more ads! Thanks this app.

by Wolphman260

A great app overall, I’m incredibly thankful for the developer and all their hard work. I’ve used Anki for several years to excel in my clinical doctorate program.

That said, I’d like to a way to pin favorited actions to the actual notes screen to remove the extra step of clicking the settings icon. Sounds silly, but this actually takes a chunk of time when reviewing hundreds of cards daily. I’m constantly “marking / burying” cards on my iPad … deleting / editing these on my Mac afterwards for ease. This way I’m constantly improving / culling my cards over time. Pinning the actions would really improve this workflow.

Regardless, buy Anki ! It’s an incredibly useful tool.

by Miklb3

The original active recall testing via spaced repetition app. Copied but never duplicated. Originally for PCs only, and always completely free, the developer made this version for iOS for which I will gladly pay to support his efforts. Stay away from the ripoff artists who use the this app name to try to get your money. I like the interface, it’s a “get down to business” interface, with a learning curve. In my experience, those are many times the most useful software. Some other guy left a star off because the icon looked dated and it doesn’t fit with his other icons. I mean, freakin really?!?! Too many developers spend too much time on a slick interface and end up with sloppy functionality.

This software works if you use it. Yes, you will need to read the manual. You may need to learn some Latex. It’s not hard, once you get going. I’m fairly proficient with this software and try to use it daily. As a result, I can give you a 50 word definition of a Poisson Distribution off the top of my head. I never forget birthdays or anniversaries. Plus the looks when you can spout off dictionary definitions of random words (the other day at work I gave definitions of heuristic and algorithm). He looks are priceless.

Support the original who for years did this for free. This is the flash card app for you.

by Quip13

This is the original and by far the best flash card app. It’s the ONLY open source, community driven spaced repetition platform. Don’t be fooled by the imitation apps trying to sell you stuff. The open source nature of this app ensures against predatory behavior.
Anki costs so much because it’s the only source of income the developer is asking for. He doesn’t even have a patron.
The developer offers a cloud service and windows/Mac/Linux desktop clients completely free of charge.
If you can’t afford the price of Anki you can use the cloud platform for free (Ankiweb) on mobile which gives you basic functionality, and you can download the desktop client for the full experience for free.

by Thydowulays

Anki is absolutely worth the money in my opinion.
I had been using AnkiApp for a while to learn Japanese - using a shared audio deck from AnkiApp, but once i started my own desktop mining deck I couldn’t get it from my computer to my phone. In addition, that other app did not handle audio correctly so it would significantly lag after just a few cards, and when exiting Anki and coming back.

A huge advantage Anki has over AnkiApp is that it lets you sync to your AnkiWeb account. So now i can make cards on my desktop on the fly and sync it right with Anki which is great.

Not only is Anki very responsive and feature rich, but one thing also really pleasantly surprised me:
My custom deck that uses the Migaku(MIA) Japanese plugin on my desktop works flawlessly. This cannot be a coincidence. They must have intentionally coded this functionality in. As such, the furigana and pitch accent highlighting are perfect, even the fonts are preserved.

If you are on the fence about this and you are also a Japanese learner (especially if you’re using MattvsJapan’s this app workflow), you should totally get this

by Escoce

I have been using this app and AnkiMobile for 9 months now. First off it has a huge learning curve, but that is typical for any application that puts any real power in the hands of the user.

this app does exactly as advertised. I am not going to explain what that is, but all the 1 star reviews almost exclusively demonstrate the user did not read the manual or expected this app to be a stay on the rails single faceted type of learning app. It isn’t. What it is is an app that allows you to create your own learning environment(s) that YOU tailor for YOUR learning needs.

Anki is fantastic for memorizing large amounts of single pieces of information whether that’s language study, or medical knowledge or whatever is appropriate for a managed flash card style of learning.

The only thing I would have changed, and I DID recommend it on the support board, is to move deck ordering option to deck options rather than it being a global setting. I have decks I want to see new cards first and other decks I want to see new cards after reviews. The developer responded that it sounds like a good idea and he’ll think about that. That limitation however does not warrant knocking down a star. So 5 stars

by Sjhshsns

Anki has given me my confidence back. I no longer have to worry about forgetting things that I learned throughout the day.

This is not just a regular flashcard app. All of the other flashcard apps out there may have a few small functions like cloze deletions or audio support.

But this app has EVERYTHING. It has images, audio, cloze deletions, language, autosync, keyboard shortcuts (for those of us who like to use a keyboard with the iphone), LaTeX support (which is imperative for ppl studying anything mathematically related), addons that give you the ability to automatically insert language audio (AwesomeTTS), addons that let you automatically generate pinyin for Chinese characters, addons that let you modify any and every part of your this app experience.

by Narutofan?

Wasn't too sure at first about purchasing, but Anki is definitely worth it as it increases time you can spend studying. I did wish it had more editing options but otherwise it's great.

Edit: after using Anki for a few months (and after using the desktop version almost every day for the past 4 months months) I definitely would still rate Anki a 5/5 (or even a 6/5 if I could). this app is an insanely useful study tool and I can’t recommend it enough, for whatever it is that you want to study. The UI could be a little prettier, but it grows on you eventually. Definitely get Anki if you spend parts of your day idling (on a bus, in a subway, away from your computer, etc.) because it will improve your efficiency. If you’re on the fence, know that people don’t rave about this app without reason.

by Brando****

I have a 2017 iPad Pro, and by far this is the best app investment I’ve made as of yet. I always use notability in split screen mode with this app and there were no problems when reviewing flash cards. However, today when I went to review my cards it isn’t a simple tap on the this app app to show the answer. Now I have to tap multiple times, sometimes 4 or 5 times, to get to the answer and move on to the next card. I used to be able to use the Apple Pencil, tap once, and move on. It seems to be slightly better with finger touch(but still takes about 4 times of continuous tapping). Also if I change the orientation of the screen it seems to be slightly more responsive but not a complete fix. I shutdown my iPad, closed the apps, put this app separate from notability, but still experience problems. Some help on that would be nice. Otherwise, excellent app!

by EnterAnAlias

Been using this app desktop and AnkiWeb on mobile, so I was already sold on what this app offered before purchasing this.

Anki really is what you make of it. There are plenty of good decks out there, but you’ll likely get a better experience if you take the time to customize your cards and learn a bit of HTML/CSS. I had been using the web interface before on mobile, and it while it technically works, you have more control over the experience with Anki , a better use of screen space, and the option to remove everything from the screen that isn’t your flashcard.

This is a great tool and definitely worth the purchase.

In my first review, I had a complaint about the implementation of audio buttons in the mobile app. The dev responded to this review with what I needed for the CSS styling and added it to the manual:

“The giant audio buttons are a bit of any eyesore and can mess with card formatting. I’m turning them off for now, despite it being useful for cards with multiple audio clips.

Please add options to at least change the size of the button. Maybe have it scale with font size in the CSS/HTML. It would also be nice if it was a play icon without the ring, or if the color could be changed.

Edit: I’d like to thank the developer for the helpful response. Though, it’d be nice if that information was documented somewhere.”

by Quietvest

I searched for years for a good flashcard app for my smartphone, but everything I found was limited and made me compromise on what I was learning. Not this app. The immense flexibility of Anki means I can learn whatever I want, however I want to. Using this app has been crucial in my ability to learn Spanish, help remember important facts at my new job, prepare for tests, and get a solid grasp of country locations and capitals around the world. Pre-existing decks you can download from other users mean that you can build off one another’s knowledge. But you can also design your own, and include sounds, video, images, text, mathematical symbols, whatever you need. The smart spaced repetition methodology the program uses means you won’t waste time going over cards you already know well, but will efficiently stay focused on new cards and cards you are learning. This is the best money I have ever spent on an App, and I use it every day.

by Donman78

I messed around with this app for free on PC and the web for awhile in the midst of intermittent language self-study periods, always thinking I would find just the right deck to really kick my learning into high gear. Unfortunately, the decks I would find online seemed to be more miss than hit, even for things you would think would be pretty standard. In any case, I never got to the point of using it enough that I felt it would be worth paying for the iOS version...

That is, until I started taking a real course online from a reputable language school. Now, just having a running deck where I can add whatever it is that I need to memorize for current and upcoming lessons, I’m starting to reap the benefits and have decided to plunk down the cash to support it. I’m sure I’ll get more than my money’s worth as I progress further and the new material starts to pile up!

by Nate The Great’s Hit Parade

Anki has helped me master over a 1,000 words in Ancient Greek and over 1,500 of German and counting. It’s not flashy and has a learning curve up front, but incredibly powerful. The problem with physical flashcards is they’re time consuming to make, complicated to keep track of, and cumbersome to carry. This solves all of of those. Every word I look up while reading I screenshot. Later I put all the screenshots into a specific album where a Siri Shortcut converts them to JPEG, crops them, and reduces their size. I then enter each photo into this app, reviewing them as I go. With this process, I can make 50 flashcards in 10 minutes. Then each one is shown to you exactly when you need it, and is always in my pocket to review anywhere. There is not a word I look up that is not memorized now. In a year, I have made 3,500 flashcards in 5 different languages. I review 200 a day. If you invest some time to figure out how to use Anki, it will change your intellectual life.

by Jayladds

I've never written an app review before, but Anki has changed my life so much that I feel compelled to write one. I'm a medical student studying for board exams, and this app has completely changed the way I approach rote memorization of facts. It can be used to memorize anything by repeating flash cards At THE RIGHT TIME so that it doesn't fade from your memory. Apart from the automatic delivery, the other advantage over physical flash cards is that Anki supports not only text, but also audio (if you want to remember the pronunciation of a drug or microorganism or anything else), photos (especially helpful for anatomy or other flowcharts and tables), and videos within the flash card.

To get started, I'd suggest using the desktop app first since it's always easier to navigate in a bigger screen. It takes some time to learn how to navigate Anki and to learn all the different settings and features, but once you do it's brilliant.

The iOS app is ALMOST just as powerful as the desktop app. However, as of December 2018, the iOS app doesn't have the ability to flag or view flagged flash cards (available on the 2.1 release of the desktop app and incredibly useful to help find and organize cards as you review them). That's a minor complaint though and I hope it gets written into the mobile app as well.

Overall though, this is definitely the best way to memorize information in the 21st century. Two thumbs up!

by Roscomcmillan

Thanks this app for all you do.

As someone who never pays for apps, I quickly realized this was easily worth the money.

Having your personally crafted flashcards on mobile to use during ANY brief downtime (waiting in line) is front loading your brain to connect the ideas later while it’s in diffuse mode.

I have decks for language learning, geography, flags, new vocabulary, and top book highlights so far.

The picture and audio on flashcards shows up and works great on the phone so far. I like how easy it is to edit a flashcards on mobile if you want to change something. The design is simple and that is a truly good thing in my opinion. It reminds me of the 90s, not only the design but making a one time payment for a good program.

When first setting up a second device, I was asked a few times if I wanted to overwrite the this app on my device or the this app on my cloud, and I had to do this a few times on the desktop version. But now it’s seamless and whether I’m on phone or laptop I just remember to sync what I’ve done and it’s a quick moment before both devices are synced up.

Locking in my world geography, recent reading highlights, and the most frequent 625 words in a new language is what this app is doing for me in the first couple of weeks using it.

by Ryo Jackson

Anki is undoubtedly one of the best study tools on the market. That being said, there are some annoyances that, when fixed, could make Anki realize perfection. The new browse function that has replaced the find function is also quite amazing! This change gives the mobile version a more desktop feel, without the clutter.

1. Multitasking is a mess: When multitasking, Anki will often crash, or when it doesn’t the text boxes are no long completely in view, same for the preview section. Restarting Anki fixes this, but this is not a reliable solution since it happens 100% of the time.

2. New Browse tab: The column space allocation is much too skewed. Either give the users the ability to change how much space each column takes up, or make it 50/50.

3. Keyboard shortcuts: It seems as though some of these have been removed. Bold, italics, and underline are all non-functional with external keyboards anymore. Copy/Cut/Paste still work though.