A walk, a train journey or time spent doing the dishes can be a chance to review the things you want to remember. Audio Flashcards is built for those moments: hear a question, recall the answer, check it, and say how well you knew it with your phone in your pocket.

Anki gives you a flexible system for building and reviewing many kinds of flashcards. Audio Flashcards puts spoken questions and answers at the centre of the experience, with recording, text-to-speech and hands-free review built into the app.

Choose Audio Flashcards when you want a study session you can complete by listening and speaking. Choose Anki when your priority is flexible visual cards, custom templates and desktop add-ons.

Both support audio and FSRS spaced repetition. Here is how their different approaches fit into everyday study. See the Audio Flashcards overview, Anki feature overview, and Anki scheduling options.

Audio Flashcards and Anki at a glance

  • Spoken review. Audio Flashcards combines audio questions and answers, adjustable pauses, and built-in spoken grading and navigation. Anki offers audio playback, text-to-speech and Auto Advance, with controls depending on the Anki app and settings.
  • Making cards. Audio Flashcards lets you record your voice, generate speech from text, or turn spreadsheet rows into spoken cards. Anki combines text and media, customisable fields and templates, and different cards generated from a note.
  • Spaced repetition. Audio Flashcards uses FSRS to schedule graded reviews. Anki supports FSRS alongside its legacy scheduling algorithm.
  • Visual material. Audio Flashcards is designed around material you can understand and answer by ear. Anki supports images, equations, cloze cards and image occlusion.
  • Customisation. Audio Flashcards provides saved review sessions with their own card selection, order and playback settings. Anki provides detailed deck options, custom card layouts and desktop add-ons.

Feature details: Audio Flashcards review sessions, Anki deck options, and Anki card creation.

Study with your phone in your pocket

Imagine practising useful German phrases during a walk. One card asks you to say “Could you repeat that, please?” in German.

You take a moment to answer. Then you hear the model response: “Könnten Sie das bitte wiederholen?”

You decide how well you remembered it, say “good” or “again”, and continue.

That is the review experience Audio Flashcards is designed around:

  1. Hear the question.

  2. Use the pause to recall an answer.

  3. Listen to the answer and compare it with yours.

  4. Say your grade.

  5. Continue to the next card.

You control the pause before the answer. Give a short vocabulary question a brief gap, or allow more thinking time for an explanation. Save the settings in a review session so you can return to the same routine.

Voice commands let you grade, repeat audio and move between sides. You assess your own answer; saying “good” records that assessment. Sessions continue with the screen locked, and headphone controls let you pause or skip. On iPhone, a Live Activity also lets you grade from the Lock Screen. See review controls.

Anki also offers automated review. Its Auto Advance can perform timed actions, and AnkiMobile can automatically reveal answers and rate or bury cards. Audio Flashcards brings spoken prompts, recall timing and voice grading together as its everyday study workflow.

Build cards around what you want to hear

A language phrase, a short explanation and a question for an oral exam all call for different audio. Audio Flashcards gives you several ways to create it.

Record your own voice for material you want to phrase personally, or record a model answer with a teacher or language partner. Use text-to-speech when you have written questions and answers ready to turn into audio. You can combine recordings and generated speech on the same card.

Questions and answers can use different voices and languages. For a language deck, you might hear an English prompt followed by a German response. Later, you can practise understanding the German by reviewing in the other direction.

Have a spreadsheet already? Import a CSV, choose the columns for each side, and select the voices. Each row becomes a card.

Available voice options include installed system voices and downloadable Kokoro voices that run on your device. Optional Amazon Polly and OpenAI voices use your own provider account and have any provider charges billed separately. See voice options.

Anki supports recorded audio and text-to-speech in card templates too. Audio Flashcards puts voice selection, audio creation and playback at the centre of building a deck.

Keep spaced repetition in your audio routine

Audio Flashcards uses FSRS, the Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler, to choose when graded cards should return. Your review history and grades help it estimate the next interval. Anki also supports FSRS.

In either app, honest grading matters. Try to retrieve the answer before revealing it, then judge what you actually remembered.

Audio Flashcards lets you keep that process going by voice. You can also create a practice session that leaves your review history unchanged, or use a separate passive listening schedule for cards you hear without grading.

Listening and successful recall are recorded differently. That gives you room for both a focused review and extra listening, while preserving the meaning of your grades.

Read more about FSRS and audio review, Audio Flashcards scheduling, and FSRS in Anki.

When Anki is a strong fit

Some material needs a screen. An anatomy label, a mathematical expression or the written form of a character may be exactly what you need to practise recognising.

Anki gives you tools for that work, including cloze cards and image occlusion. Its templates let you control which fields appear on a card and how they are presented. Desktop add-ons extend the system further.

If you already have a collection built around those features, it can make sense to keep using it.

You can also give the two apps different jobs: Anki for a diagram-based study session, and Audio Flashcards for spoken questions you want to rehearse on a walk. For example, you might identify structures on an image at your desk, then practise explaining their functions aloud later.

Choose the format that suits the task you want to practise.

Devices, offline study and cost

Audio Flashcards is available on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android. Downloaded audio can be reviewed offline, and installed system voices and downloaded Kokoro voices can generate speech without a connection. Offline voice commands depend on your device and the recognition language selected.

On Apple devices, iCloud sync keeps your library across iPhone, iPad and Mac. Android libraries are stored locally, with backups and shared files available for transferring cards.

Anki has apps for Windows, macOS and Linux, plus AnkiMobile for iPhone and iPad and AnkiDroid for Android. AnkiWeb provides syncing between supported apps and browser-based study. AnkiMobile also supports offline review with locally stored cards and media.

The payment models differ:

  • Audio Flashcards: free to download and use. The iPhone, iPad and Android apps are supported by ads, with subscription and lifetime options to remove them. The Mac app has no ads.

  • Anki: the desktop app and AnkiDroid are free. AnkiMobile for iPhone and iPad is a one-time purchase.

See Audio Flashcards pricing details, Anki downloads, and the AnkiMobile listing for current options.

Try one review with your phone put away

If your next study session needs to fit around a walk, household chores or a train journey, start with a small set of material you can answer by ear.

Create ten useful cards, or browse Shared Cards and listen to a collection before downloading it. You can make and review your own cards, and browse public collections, without an Audio Flashcards account.

Set a comfortable pause, turn on autoplay and voice commands, and try a short review. Hear the question, attempt an answer, check it and give your grade.

Make room for a review in the day you already have. Try Audio Flashcards.