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On the plus side, the actually good mobile Anki client, AnkiDroid, remains out of the hands of this potentially questionable new entity. (AnkiDroid has always

On the plus side, the actually good mobile Anki client, AnkiDroid, remains out of the hands of this potentially questionable new entity. (AnkiDroid has always been run independently, which is good, considering the state of the iOS client, which has always been neglected.)

__float 8mo ago
The (paid!) iOS client has always been a disappointment to me, and I've long been jealous of the open source Android one. I don't mind so much that it's paid, given how much use I get for the price, but it sucks knowing it sucks and not being able to help make it better.
- 3D30497420 8mo ago
  Agreed. I’m particularly excited that they’ll be investing in the UI/UX.
- hermanzegerman 8mo ago
  I've just bought it to support the developer, as it was according to his website his preferred way to support him.
- divan 8mo ago
  Is it still 25$ price? Makes it impossible to recommend Anki to friends/students to "try spaced repetition".
  - Larrikin 8mo ago
    Just have them use it on their computer or the web? It improved my grades so much in college that I spent the 25 bucks as a broke student so I could have it on my second hand iPad. This was before AnkiDroid even existed so it's amazing the price is still the same.
    - divan 8mo ago
      That works for people who already convinced that they want to use it. I'm talking about people who've heard it for the first time and they're not going to spend 25$ for some new app just to try. 25$ is unusually high price for an AppStore app and it's just doesn't work unless you're really determined to use it. I don't understand why people are downvoting this.
      - hermanzegerman 8mo ago
        They can just use the computer version then, and buy it when they know it's useful for them?
        divan 8mo ago
        Some people would need to buy computer first. Again, it's very hard to recommend mobile app to people if you need to add these kind of "workarounds". Especially for the main target audience - young students – many of whom live in their mobile phones and not used to spend 25$ for apps.
        hermanzegerman 8mo ago
        Every university student in the Western world has access to a Computer, and those who are poor usually have an Android Phone (with free AnkiDroid) and not a very expensive iPhone. If they can afford an iPhone they can afford the App I think this "problem" is somewhat made up
        divan 8mo ago
        Well, I don't want to sound patronizing, but the world is so much bigger than your notion of "Western world" where every student with iPhone has computer.
        Larrikin 8mo ago
        You are patronizing. Every student with an iPhone has access to a computer even if it isn't their own. If they are so poor that none of their facilities have one then they have a cheap Android. This fictional person you describe also has access to the web and Anki on there. Anki is not a very useful tool if you are not making or editing your own decks or a teacher is for you. This is an incredibly painful experience on mobile.
  - bonsai_spool 8mo ago
    The web client works just fine!
    - divan 8mo ago
      "Hey, there is an amazing app for learning, but it costs 25$ for your iPhone, so just use web version instead". Very appealing, makes people try app immediately. :)
      - bonsai_spool 8mo ago
        I think you essentially have to use the desktop version no matter what—so the real dichotomy is whether you want to use a free program with free online hosting with the bundled (free) web application... or if you want to buy a $25 app. It seems a lot like saying nobody should use GMail unless they agree to pay for premium Google Services.
        divan 8mo ago
        I don't have this problem. I bought iOS Anki app for myself many years ago. What I found hard is to recommend it to others, who never heard about spaced repetition yet, especially to young students, who arguably is the main target audience for this kind of tools. They just not jumping into buying 25$ app to try it. As soon as you start mentioning switching to laptop, using web/desktop - they're not jumping into it either. I don't know maybe you all have different experience, but that's what I experienced over the years and it always felt sad, because this price is a prohibitively high for many people.
- pushedx 8mo ago
  I use the iOS app daily, and while it's not the prettiest thing in the world, it has nearly every feature of the desktop client, including full scripting support for card contents, which is amazing for things like collapsable elements and media. And, at the end of the day, it's about what you learn from using it that matters.
  - __float 8mo ago
    That's part of my problem. I actually don't love how many billion options Anki has, and I'd love something with a more opinionated UI. (I think the data model underneath Anki is...showing its age (and lack of explicit design) and building that on top of it would not be too easy. I've thought about it a few times.)
avazhi 8mo ago
What’s so bad about the paid iOS client? I remember it being expensive when I got it but it works fine for my use case (mix of getting me through part of med school, all of law school, and the just general shit I’d like to remember and learn). There’s definitely never been anything jarring about using it vs the Mac or windows clients but I’m happy for somebody to point out the problems I’ve been missing!
- littlecranky67 8mo ago
  I paid 30€ for Anki on iOS. I remember being a bit upset because the Android and the macOS version (Qt based) are completely free. Even the iOS version is open-source. In the end, I did not want to create my own build and sideload Anki for iOS via Developer certificates, so I just paid the 30€. I think it is too expensive especially since I can easily afford that having a job and all, but I remember at uni I would struggle to afford this. But then again, when I was at uni there were no smartphones, and my computer cost less than an iPhone. So I'd probably have cheap android anyway. To amend, I got way more than 30€ of value out of it. I learn a new language, and vocab training with Anki works better than anything else.
Jacobinski 8mo ago
True. It should however be noted that the most active maintainer of AnkiDroid will be joining the new entity: > We’re currently talking to David Allison, a long-time core contributor to AnkiDroid, about working together on exactly these questions. His experience with AnkiDroid’s collaborative development is invaluable, and we’re grateful he’s willing to help us get this right. We’re incredibly excited to have him join us full-time to help propel Anki into the future.
- doctorpangloss 8mo ago
  anki has so much potential and has such a big and unique audience, it is incomprehensible to me how it has managed to be so neglected. and then now why, of all times, when a solo developer is never more productive, would the lead maintainer cede ownership? the antidote for programming burnout has just been invented, just take it haha
  - TheDong 8mo ago
    My experience using AI is that it wildly increases burnout, not decreases it. Writing code is fun. Solving interesting problems is fun. Debugging deep problems is fun. Debugging slop code is a painful suffering experience, having to constantly double check that the AI agent didn't just change the unit tests to "return true" and lie to you is tiring, and the feeling that you can't significantly improve the tool burns me out hard. That last one can't be overstated. When I find a weird behavior that looks like a bug in the linux kernel or rustc or such, I find it exhilarating to read code and understand what the bug is, how it got there, and to feel like I can fix it and never see it again. When claude code gives me a "wrong" output for my prompt, I don't feel like there's any possible way I can go and find what part of the Opus 4.5 model resulted in it not being able to give better output. I feel helpless to debug what went wrong when claude code spirals into the deep end. I can add more initial context, add skills, but those are tiny heuristic tweaks around the giant mass of incomprehensible weights and biases that no human understands. The antidote for programming burnout is not to replace all the fun parts of programming with painful probabilistic suffering.
    - deleted 8mo ago
jaredklewis 8mo ago
I use the official iOS client everyday. What’s wrong with it?
- ohyoutravel 8mo ago
  iOS one is fine, pretty good. I use it daily too. Ankidroid is much better, which I would attribute to being open source with lots of eyeballs on it and making improvements for the love of it.
- DeusExMachina 8mo ago
  I also use it every day. It does its job, but it has many usability issues that make it less than ideal. For example, copy and paste retains the text color (probably by design). So, sometimes I get black text on a black background, when the app is in dark mode. The editing process to remove the formatting is pretty annoying. It takes me time to find the edit button, which is buried in the menu but prominent in the desktop version. Then, I have to toggle the HTML mode and delete the retained tags, which on a phone takes time. The desktop version, instead, has a button to remove all formatting.
  - Elidrake24 8mo ago
    The App uses the Mac Text element rather than a custom one, so it'll have the same shortcuts as all of them; `⇧ Shift ⌥ Option ⌘ Command V` to paste and match the formatting of the current field (in the case of a blank field, remove formatting).
  - ztjio 8mo ago
    Try pasting into an app/textbox that doesn't support any formatting then copy/paste from there.
  - jaredklewis 8mo ago
    Ah I see. I very rarely edit or create cards on mobile so for me it’s mostly a card review app.
- not_your_vase 8mo ago
tvshtr 8mo ago
AnkiDroid is *just* an interface over the shared core/engine (written in rust nowadays)
mbanerjeepalmer 8mo ago
Given that push notifications haven't worked in AnkiDroid for years, it doesn't feel good to me?
- hermanzegerman 8mo ago
  Why would you need push notifications on AnkiDroid?
  - lovestory 8mo ago
    Duolingo effect, people will forget to do the learning if they are not reminded
    - hermanzegerman 8mo ago
      I prefer Apps that won't manipulate me. Duolingo is annoying. Anki is a habit after a certain point
      - watwut 8mo ago
        Reminder is not manipulation.
        hermanzegerman 8mo ago
        Those used by Duolingo definitely are
- padraic7a 8mo ago
  Just one data point but they work for me. (Nothing phone, android 16, Ankidroid 2.23.3 installed from Fdroid)
  - david_allison 8mo ago
    Notifications work extremely badly. We've got a setting [developer options only] which completely reimplements them, it won't be live for 2.24, but hopefully 2.25 https://github.com/ericli3690/gsoc-ankidroid-report/blob/main/README.md https://github.com/ericli3690/gsoc-ankidroid-report/blob/mai...

__float 8mo ago

The (paid!) iOS client has always been a disappointment to me, and I've long been jealous of the open source Android one. I don't mind so much that it's paid, given how much use I get for the price, but it sucks knowing it sucks and not being able to help make it better.

3D30497420 8mo ago
Agreed. I’m particularly excited that they’ll be investing in the UI/UX.
hermanzegerman 8mo ago
I've just bought it to support the developer, as it was according to his website his preferred way to support him.
divan 8mo ago
Is it still 25$ price? Makes it impossible to recommend Anki to friends/students to "try spaced repetition".
- Larrikin 8mo ago
  Just have them use it on their computer or the web? It improved my grades so much in college that I spent the 25 bucks as a broke student so I could have it on my second hand iPad. This was before AnkiDroid even existed so it's amazing the price is still the same.
  - divan 8mo ago
    That works for people who already convinced that they want to use it. I'm talking about people who've heard it for the first time and they're not going to spend 25$ for some new app just to try. 25$ is unusually high price for an AppStore app and it's just doesn't work unless you're really determined to use it. I don't understand why people are downvoting this.
    - hermanzegerman 8mo ago
      They can just use the computer version then, and buy it when they know it's useful for them?
      - divan 8mo ago
        Some people would need to buy computer first. Again, it's very hard to recommend mobile app to people if you need to add these kind of "workarounds". Especially for the main target audience - young students – many of whom live in their mobile phones and not used to spend 25$ for apps.
        hermanzegerman 8mo ago
        Every university student in the Western world has access to a Computer, and those who are poor usually have an Android Phone (with free AnkiDroid) and not a very expensive iPhone. If they can afford an iPhone they can afford the App I think this "problem" is somewhat made up
        divan 8mo ago
        Well, I don't want to sound patronizing, but the world is so much bigger than your notion of "Western world" where every student with iPhone has computer.
        Larrikin 8mo ago
        You are patronizing. Every student with an iPhone has access to a computer even if it isn't their own. If they are so poor that none of their facilities have one then they have a cheap Android. This fictional person you describe also has access to the web and Anki on there. Anki is not a very useful tool if you are not making or editing your own decks or a teacher is for you. This is an incredibly painful experience on mobile.
- bonsai_spool 8mo ago
  The web client works just fine!
  - divan 8mo ago
    "Hey, there is an amazing app for learning, but it costs 25$ for your iPhone, so just use web version instead". Very appealing, makes people try app immediately. :)
    - bonsai_spool 8mo ago
      I think you essentially have to use the desktop version no matter what—so the real dichotomy is whether you want to use a free program with free online hosting with the bundled (free) web application... or if you want to buy a $25 app. It seems a lot like saying nobody should use GMail unless they agree to pay for premium Google Services.
      - divan 8mo ago
        I don't have this problem. I bought iOS Anki app for myself many years ago. What I found hard is to recommend it to others, who never heard about spaced repetition yet, especially to young students, who arguably is the main target audience for this kind of tools. They just not jumping into buying 25$ app to try it. As soon as you start mentioning switching to laptop, using web/desktop - they're not jumping into it either. I don't know maybe you all have different experience, but that's what I experienced over the years and it always felt sad, because this price is a prohibitively high for many people.
pushedx 8mo ago
I use the iOS app daily, and while it's not the prettiest thing in the world, it has nearly every feature of the desktop client, including full scripting support for card contents, which is amazing for things like collapsable elements and media. And, at the end of the day, it's about what you learn from using it that matters.
- __float 8mo ago
  That's part of my problem. I actually don't love how many billion options Anki has, and I'd love something with a more opinionated UI. (I think the data model underneath Anki is...showing its age (and lack of explicit design) and building that on top of it would not be too easy. I've thought about it a few times.)

avazhi 8mo ago

What’s so bad about the paid iOS client? I remember it being expensive when I got it but it works fine for my use case (mix of getting me through part of med school, all of law school, and the just general shit I’d like to remember and learn). There’s definitely never been anything jarring about using it vs the Mac or windows clients but I’m happy for somebody to point out the problems I’ve been missing!

littlecranky67 8mo ago
I paid 30€ for Anki on iOS. I remember being a bit upset because the Android and the macOS version (Qt based) are completely free. Even the iOS version is open-source. In the end, I did not want to create my own build and sideload Anki for iOS via Developer certificates, so I just paid the 30€. I think it is too expensive especially since I can easily afford that having a job and all, but I remember at uni I would struggle to afford this. But then again, when I was at uni there were no smartphones, and my computer cost less than an iPhone. So I'd probably have cheap android anyway. To amend, I got way more than 30€ of value out of it. I learn a new language, and vocab training with Anki works better than anything else.

Jacobinski 8mo ago

True. It should however be noted that the most active maintainer of AnkiDroid will be joining the new entity: > We’re currently talking to David Allison, a long-time core contributor to AnkiDroid, about working together on exactly these questions. His experience with AnkiDroid’s collaborative development is invaluable, and we’re grateful he’s willing to help us get this right. We’re incredibly excited to have him join us full-time to help propel Anki into the future.

doctorpangloss 8mo ago
anki has so much potential and has such a big and unique audience, it is incomprehensible to me how it has managed to be so neglected. and then now why, of all times, when a solo developer is never more productive, would the lead maintainer cede ownership? the antidote for programming burnout has just been invented, just take it haha
- TheDong 8mo ago
  My experience using AI is that it wildly increases burnout, not decreases it. Writing code is fun. Solving interesting problems is fun. Debugging deep problems is fun. Debugging slop code is a painful suffering experience, having to constantly double check that the AI agent didn't just change the unit tests to "return true" and lie to you is tiring, and the feeling that you can't significantly improve the tool burns me out hard. That last one can't be overstated. When I find a weird behavior that looks like a bug in the linux kernel or rustc or such, I find it exhilarating to read code and understand what the bug is, how it got there, and to feel like I can fix it and never see it again. When claude code gives me a "wrong" output for my prompt, I don't feel like there's any possible way I can go and find what part of the Opus 4.5 model resulted in it not being able to give better output. I feel helpless to debug what went wrong when claude code spirals into the deep end. I can add more initial context, add skills, but those are tiny heuristic tweaks around the giant mass of incomprehensible weights and biases that no human understands. The antidote for programming burnout is not to replace all the fun parts of programming with painful probabilistic suffering.
  - deleted 8mo ago

jaredklewis 8mo ago

I use the official iOS client everyday. What’s wrong with it?

ohyoutravel 8mo ago
iOS one is fine, pretty good. I use it daily too. Ankidroid is much better, which I would attribute to being open source with lots of eyeballs on it and making improvements for the love of it.
DeusExMachina 8mo ago
I also use it every day. It does its job, but it has many usability issues that make it less than ideal. For example, copy and paste retains the text color (probably by design). So, sometimes I get black text on a black background, when the app is in dark mode. The editing process to remove the formatting is pretty annoying. It takes me time to find the edit button, which is buried in the menu but prominent in the desktop version. Then, I have to toggle the HTML mode and delete the retained tags, which on a phone takes time. The desktop version, instead, has a button to remove all formatting.
- Elidrake24 8mo ago
  The App uses the Mac Text element rather than a custom one, so it'll have the same shortcuts as all of them; `⇧ Shift ⌥ Option ⌘ Command V` to paste and match the formatting of the current field (in the case of a blank field, remove formatting).
- ztjio 8mo ago
  Try pasting into an app/textbox that doesn't support any formatting then copy/paste from there.
- jaredklewis 8mo ago
  Ah I see. I very rarely edit or create cards on mobile so for me it’s mostly a card review app.
not_your_vase 8mo ago

tvshtr 8mo ago

AnkiDroid is *just* an interface over the shared core/engine (written in rust nowadays)

mbanerjeepalmer 8mo ago

Given that push notifications haven't worked in AnkiDroid for years, it doesn't feel good to me?

hermanzegerman 8mo ago
Why would you need push notifications on AnkiDroid?
- lovestory 8mo ago
  Duolingo effect, people will forget to do the learning if they are not reminded
  - hermanzegerman 8mo ago
    I prefer Apps that won't manipulate me. Duolingo is annoying. Anki is a habit after a certain point
    - watwut 8mo ago
      Reminder is not manipulation.
      - hermanzegerman 8mo ago
        Those used by Duolingo definitely are
padraic7a 8mo ago
Just one data point but they work for me. (Nothing phone, android 16, Ankidroid 2.23.3 installed from Fdroid)
- david_allison 8mo ago
  Notifications work extremely badly. We've got a setting [developer options only] which completely reimplements them, it won't be live for 2.24, but hopefully 2.25 https://github.com/ericli3690/gsoc-ankidroid-report/blob/main/README.md https://github.com/ericli3690/gsoc-ankidroid-report/blob/mai...