Flashcards & Decks: The Complete Guide
Create, organize, import, study, and sync vocabulary decks across Talkey on the web and iOS.
1. Create a Deck
A deck is a collection of flashcards that shares one review algorithm, study order, language pair, and priority. Use separate decks when subjects need different schedules—for example, Spanish verbs and medical terminology.
- 1On the web, sign in and open Dashboard → Flashcards. Choose New deck, enter a title, optionally place it in a folder, and select a learning algorithm.
- 2On iOS, open Flashcards and use the create menu. You can start an empty deck, import an existing file, or add a prepared vocabulary deck from Discover.
- 3Open the deck settings to set its icon, main language, translation language, tags, study priority, text-to-speech behavior, card appearance, and spaced-repetition algorithm.
Default schedule
New decks use SM-2 unless you changed the default flashcard algorithm in your settings. The algorithm can also be changed later for an individual deck.
2. Add and Edit Cards
On the web, each new card has a Front and Back. Put the prompt or term on the front and the answer or translation on the back. You can edit either side from the deck’s card list.
The iOS app also offers AI Translation for automatic word translation, Fast type for rapid front/back entry, and Talkey cards for richer interactive practice. Depending on the card, iOS practice can include typing, multiple choice, matching, fill-the-gap, gender, definition, and listening activities.
- Keep one testable idea per card; split cards that contain several unrelated facts.
- Set the deck’s main language so pronunciation and text-to-speech use the correct voice.
- Pause a card when you want to keep it without placing it in study sessions.
- Use Edit later on iOS for imported cards that need cleanup without interrupting study.
3. Organize and Find Your Material
Folders can contain decks and nested folders. Both the web dashboard and iOS app let you rename, move, and reorder your material without changing card progress.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Priority | Marks a deck or folder as Active, Passive, Paused, or None so important material is easier to surface. |
| Study order | Controls whether Review, Stale, Learn, or Retaining cards appear first in a session. |
| Filters | Shows all, not studied, learning, retaining, review, or stale cards. |
| Sorting | Sorts by front, back, due date, or repetition count. |
| Folder study | Builds one study session from the due and new cards inside the folder’s decks. |
What “stale” means
Talkey marks a due card as stale when it is at least four days overdue. It is still studyable; the label helps you recover older review debt first.
4. Import and Export on iOS
Deck file import and export are currently provided by the iOS app. The web dashboard is designed for creating, editing, organizing, and studying the same synced decks.
- 1To add cards to an existing deck on iOS, open the deck → Settings → Data → Import cards.
- 2Choose an Anki .apkg file or a CSV file. The file picker also accepts spreadsheet documents, but CSV is the most predictable format.
- 3For CSV, put the front in the first column and the back in the second. A first row containing Front or Back is treated as a header.
- 4To make a backup, open Settings → Data → Export / Backup deck and choose TXT, HTML, Markdown, OPML, Anki, or CSV.
Imported decks are yours
A deck imported from Anki, CSV, or Discover becomes part of your library. Later changes to a public source deck are not presented as live edits to your personal copy.
5. Study a Deck or Folder
A study session contains unpaused cards that are new or currently due. Talkey reveals one front at a time; choose Show Answer, judge your recall, and then rate the card. The time shown on each rating is the predicted next review.
- On the web, Space, Enter, or 1–4 reveals the answer; after reveal, keys 1–4 select Forgot, Hard, Good, or Easy. Esc exits.
- Your answer quality matters more than speed. Pick the rating that reflects recall before seeing the answer.
- If a deck says Nothing to study, it has no new or due active cards at that moment.
| Rating | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Forgot | You could not produce the answer. The card returns to a short learning or relearning step. |
| Hard | You remembered with significant effort. The next interval grows cautiously. |
| Good | You recalled correctly with normal effort. This is the standard successful review. |
| Easy | The answer was immediate. Talkey schedules a longer interval. |
6. Quiz Practice Modes and Hearts
Beyond classic flip-and-rate review, a deck or folder can be studied with focused quiz modes. Both the web and iOS apps ship the same set of quiz types so switching devices does not change how you practice.
- Open a deck and choose Quiz instead of Study to pick a specific mode, or let Talkey mix modes automatically.
- A wrong answer in quiz mode costs one heart. Hearts regenerate over time, and Pro removes the heart limit entirely.
- If you run out of hearts, you can keep reviewing with the classic flip mode while you wait for hearts to refill or upgrade to Pro.
| Quiz type | What it tests |
|---|---|
| All in one | Mixes several quiz types into one session for variety. |
| Multiple choice / Reverse choice | Recognize the correct translation, or recognize the correct term from its translation. |
| Fill the gap | Complete a sentence with the missing word. |
| Type translation | Type the full translation from memory. |
| Definition | Match a term to its definition. |
| Scramble words | Reorder shuffled letters or words into the correct answer. |
| Match pairs | Pair terms with their translations against the clock. |
| Determine gender | Practice grammatical gender for languages that use it. |
| Audio choice / Listen and write / Listen and repeat | Listening comprehension and pronunciation practice using the card's audio. |
“Make up sentence” is disabled
This quiz type exists in the codebase for compatibility but is not currently offered in the picker on either platform.
7. Discover and Publish Decks
Discover contains prepared vocabulary decks grouped by language and topic. Choose a translation language before adding a compatible deck to your collection.
On iOS, deck authors can publish a deck to the community with a name, description, searchable keywords, target language, and optional translation language. Review private information before publishing; community publishing is different from inviting someone to edit a private deck.
Deck sharing is iOS-only for now
Publishing a deck to Discover, inviting members to a shared deck, and AI-assisted card creation (AI translation, AI flashcard generation) are currently available on iOS. The web dashboard focuses on creating, editing, organizing, and studying your synced library.
8. Sync and Troubleshoot
- Sign in to the same Talkey account on every device. Decks, folders, cards, review history, due dates, algorithm state, and priorities are stored with that account.
- Keep Talkey online long enough to finish an upload after importing a large deck or adding media.
- On the web, open Settings → App & Data → Sync Now if another device’s latest changes have not appeared.
- Avoid editing the same card simultaneously on two devices. Let one device finish syncing before continuing on the other.
- On iOS, deck media and uploaded files may use separate storage quotas even when card text has already synced.