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.
I've just bought it to support the developer, as it was according to his website his preferred way to support him.
Agreed. I’m particularly excited that they’ll be investing in the UI/UX.
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.
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.)
Is it still 25$ price? Makes it impossible to recommend Anki to friends/students to "try spaced repetition".
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.
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.
I would argue that it's almost impossible to start first with the mobile version so this situation should never happen. The computer version is essential for setting up and getting decks. The web version remains free as well.
Why would it be the case?
Anki app has an interface for adding/editing cards, and can absolutely be used without AnkiWeb or syncing. In fact, this is how I used it myself for years. I would argue that using AnkiWeb and syncing is an advanced feature for people who got the taste of having own decks and don't want to loose it.
They can just use the computer version then, and buy it when they know it's useful for them?
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.
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
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.
They can try it on desktop and web for free if they are that skeptical.
Can you imagine, a lot of young people don't have desktop/laptop, only mobile.
The web client works just fine!
"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. :)
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 $25 app.
It seems a lot like saying nobody should use GMail unless they agree to pay for premium Google Services.
I don't have this problem. I bought iOS Anki app for myself many years ago. What I found hard is to recommend it to others, who never heard about spaced repetition yet, especially to young students, who arguably is the main target audience for this kind of tools. They just not jumping into buying 25$ 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.