How to set up Anki on your phone, sync with desktop, and build a mobile review habit that actually sticks.
To use Anki on mobile, download AnkiDroid (free) for Android devices via the Google Play Store, or AnkiMobile (paid) for iPhone and iPad via the Apple App Store. Both apps sync seamlessly with AnkiWeb and the desktop version, allowing you to review your flashcards on any device.
AnkiMobile (iPhone/iPad)
$24.99 one-time on the App Store. Made by the same developer as Anki desktop. Feature-complete and fully syncs with desktop.
AnkiDroid (Android)
Free on Google Play. Open-source, community-developed. Slightly different interface from desktop but fully compatible with AnkiWeb sync.
Search "AnkiMobile Flashcards" - the official app by Ankitects. $24.99. Avoid third-party Anki clones which are scams.
Open AnkiMobile → tap the gear icon → AnkiWeb Account → enter your AnkiWeb credentials. You'll need a free AnkiWeb account - create one at ankiweb.net if you haven't already.
Tap the sync button (cloud icon) in the top-right corner. Your decks from Anki desktop appear automatically. First sync may take a minute if you have many cards or media files.
AnkiMobile supports swipe gestures for rating cards. Settings → Review → Answer Buttons: set swipe left = Again, swipe right = Good. This lets you review one-handed without looking at rating buttons.
Search "AnkiDroid Flashcards" - the free open-source app. Not the same as Anki desktop UI but fully compatible with the .apkg format and AnkiWeb sync.
Tap the three-line menu → Settings → AnkiDroid → AnkiWeb account. Enter your credentials. Then tap Sync (the sync icon in the toolbar) to pull your decks.
Settings → Reviewing → Swipe to answer. Swipe right = Correct (Good), swipe left = Incorrect (Again). Makes one-handed reviewing much faster.
Sync flow: always sync before and after each session.
If you forget to sync and review on both devices, Anki will ask which version to keep. Choose the device where you did more work.
Mobile Anki is ideal for dead time: commuting, waiting in queues, lunch breaks. The review sessions don't need to be long - 10 minutes of focused card review on your phone is genuinely useful.
Best for mobile: reviews, not new cards
Use mobile for review sessions. Do new cards and card creation on desktop where you have a proper keyboard and larger screen. This division of labour makes both experiences better.
Split your daily target
If you have 100 reviews due, doing 40 on the commute and 60 in the evening is perfectly fine. Anki syncs seamlessly between devices.
Related: how to download Anki, Anki settings guide, how to export cards to Anki.
One of the biggest frustrations for mobile users is "clunky" cards—decks that look great on a 27-inch monitor but are unreadable on a 6-inch screen. Because Anki uses HTML/CSS for styling, you can create a mobile-specific look to reduce eye strain and speed up your reviews.
text-align: center; in your CSS to prevent long lines of text from stretching awkwardly across the screen.While text syncs almost instantaneously, media files (images, audio, and video) are handled differently. If you've just added a massive deck with thousands of images, don't be surprised if your cards appear but the images are missing. This is because media syncs in the background and can take significantly longer than the database sync.
The "desktop for creation, mobile for review" workflow is the gold standard, but the bottleneck is often the time it takes to manually create high-quality cards. To maintain a consistent mobile habit, you need a streamlined pipeline that feeds your phone with fresh, accurate material without spending hours in front of a PC.
Many power users are now integrating AI-driven tools to accelerate this process. For example, using StudyCards AI allows you to convert lecture notes or PDFs into Anki-ready flashcards in seconds. By automating the tedious part of card creation, you can spend more time in the "active recall" phase on your mobile device and less time on manual data entry.
StudyCards AI generates flashcards from your study materials and exports them directly to Anki - ready to sync to your phone for mobile review.
Start Free - Build Your Mobile Deck →Generate Anki flashcards free