Coming From Anki: What Is the Same, What Is Different

In short: pimReader schedules reviews with FSRS, as Anki can, but with fixed standard settings, and its cards come from what you read. It cannot import or export Anki decks, and it runs on Android only.

This page is for people who already review cards every day. It will not try to convince you to switch. Anki is a very good program. The question is whether pimReader fits a different part of your learning.

What is the same

The schedule. pimReader schedules reviews with FSRS, as Anki can. It runs with the standard settings and a fixed 90% target. There is no personal optimiser: the settings are not fitted to your history, and there is no retention setting to change. If you have used FSRS in Anki, it will feel familiar, but the intervals will not match an optimised Anki deck. You can turn it off with the scheduler switch in Settings and use the older fixed steps instead. See how the scheduler works.

The buttons. Each review has Again, Hard, Good and Easy. Each button shows the next interval before you tap it.

A daily queue. Due cards wait in your daily reviews (the Exercise card on Home). A "Time to Exercise" notification can remind you; reminders and quiet hours are in Settings → Learn schedule.

What is different

Cards are made while you read. You do not open an editor and type a front and a back. You read a book, an article or subtitles. When a word matters, you open it and tick Memorize. When a sentence matters, you select it, tap Add Note, tick Memorize, and give it a question with the question icon that appears. Then it is a flashcard.

Cards stay linked to their source. A note made from a book keeps its place in that book. From the card, open the menu (⋮) and tap Go To Note. The book opens at the exact page. When a card feels strange out of context, the context is one tap away.

The app knows which words you know. Every word you meet is tracked across everything you read: unknown, learning or known. Unknown words are coloured on the page, with a small translation above them. Words you mark as known stop being coloured in every book. In Anki, a card knows nothing about the rest of your reading. Here, your reviews and your reading are one list of words.

Not everything has to be spaced. Each card can have its own repetition mode: spaced repetition, or a fixed rhythm such as daily, weekly or monthly. This is useful for things you want to see on a calendar, not on a forgetting curve.

AI can draft cards. In Ask AI, you can ask for flashcards from a chapter or a passage. The AI proposes them, and you approve them before they are saved. You can also open Practice, which turns your due words into new sentences. Practice sessions don't change your review dates. A spoken review session does: words you get wrong come back sooner.

What pimReader does not do

Read this before you move anything.

• No Anki import or export. pimReader cannot read .apkg files or CSV decks, and it cannot write them. You can share a note as plain text, and nothing more.
• Android only, for now. iPhone, Mac and Windows versions are coming soon; there is no web version.
• No add-ons, and no shared deck library.
• No card templates or note types. A card is a word, or a note with a question. You cannot design fields or styles the way you can in Anki.
• Sync goes through your own Google Drive. There is no pimReader account and no sync server. If you turn sync on, the app keeps its data in a pimReader folder on your Drive. You can also make a backup zip file by hand.

Who should stay with Anki

• You have large decks you have built over years. They cannot come with you.
• You study for medicine, law or other exams with shared decks.
• You review on a computer or an iPhone (those versions are not out yet).
• You rely on add-ons, cloze cards or custom templates.

For these needs, Anki is the better tool. That is fine.

Who might use both

If your material comes in two kinds, split it:

• Facts and fixed lists (grammar tables, exam material, an existing deck). Keep these in Anki.
• Vocabulary from reading (words from novels, news, work documents, videos). This is where pimReader helps. The card is made at the moment you meet the word, and it stays linked to the page.

One warning: two review queues mean two daily habits. Keep each queue small. If the total starts to feel heavy, add fewer new cards, not more time.

Everything on this page is free, except AI-drafted cards, Practice and Speaking practice, which use AI.