A flashcard widget that quizzes you every time you pick up your iPhone

How the flashcard widget works

Each deck becomes one widget. The front of today's card sits on your Home Screen. When you tap it, the widget flips to the answer, and two buttons appear: I know it and Again. Your answer is saved on the spot, without opening the app, and the next card takes its place.

• SmallThe card, a Show answer button, then I know it and Again. The size of four app icons.
• MediumAdds the reading (kana, pinyin or IPA), an example sentence and today's work, like “3 new · 5 review”.
• Large and extra-largeRoom for longer answers and examples, today's new and review cards as tiles, a progress bar and your streak.
• Lock ScreenThe card you're on and how many you've learned, beside the clock.

You can also get a few cards a day as notifications, at the hours you pick, and answer “I know it” or “Again” straight from the notification. On Apple Watch, the same deck is a tap away, with complications for your watch face.

Spaced repetition, without the settings screen

WidgetAim schedules cards with a simple Leitner system of five boxes. “I know it” moves a card up one box, so it comes back later; “Again” sends it back to the first box, so it returns tomorrow. Each box has its own gap:

If you already know a word the first time you see it, it skips straight to box 3 and comes back in a week to check. Cards that are due come back for review, and new cards are added on top, up to the number you choose for each deck: 3, 5, 10 or 20 new cards a day. Three a day is about 90 new words a month; ten a day gets you through a 200-word exam list in under three weeks of new cards, with the reviews spread out after that.

27 ready-made decks, free

The app ships with 27 decks and 2,400 cards, written for the widget and stored on your iPhone, so they work offline and need no AI. Everyday words and travel phrases come in 11 languages, plus exam lists for TOEFL, YDS, JLPT N5 and HSK 1 and a deck of English phrasal verbs. Answers appear in your language, and cards show a reading where it helps. A few real cards from those decks:

See every deck, with its level and card count, on the vocabulary widget page.

Make a deck about anything

Writing your own cards is always free: a front, a back and, if you like, an example sentence. Use it for anything that fits on a card, from medical terms to capital cities to the names of the people on your new team.

With WidgetAim Pro, type a topic instead, like “English for job interviews” or “the bones of the hand”, and AI writes a deck at the level you pick. Everyone gets one free AI try, and it works wherever you start: an AI deck, AI cards or a sentence set.

Why a widget works better than an app for flashcards

Spaced repetition only works if you show up for the reviews. Opening a study app is a decision you have to make every day, and most of us stop making it after a week or two. A widget turns that decision into something you see anyway. A card on the Home Screen gets looked at dozens of times a day; answering it takes two seconds. That is enough for a short, steady habit, without notifications nagging you.

It also keeps the sessions small. A widget can't hold a 200-card review session, and it shouldn't. A few new cards a day, plus the reviews that are due, is the pace that research on spacing favours anyway.

Questions

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