If Anki is already loaded in the background, then it does take you to a study session: However the Answer Buttons do not do anything. They also look different.
Quick Action study-mode Answer Button appearance does not have ‘ease’ label, and the buttons do not action anything. Studying is only possible by responding ‘Good’ by tapping the right side of the screen:
I am able to reproduce both behaviors on my iPhone iOS 26.3.1(a), Anki 25.09.
I note that when the “answer-buttons-missing-grade-labels-and-don’t-work” bug occurs:
A workaround is to go back to the Decks screen and re-enter/study the deck from there. Doing so seems to eliminate the bug for the remainder of the study session.
It is also possible to answer by using the gear icon to expose the tools overlay, then select the desired action, for example “Answer Good”.
If the Preferences->Review->Bottom Bar->Next Times setting is disabled, the bug appearance is slightly different. The grade labels do actually appear in the answer buttons. However, the answer buttons still don’t work.
Is that a “bug” though? If the app isn’t running, you still need to select a deck before you can start a study session. Or are you expecting the app to open into a study session for whatever deck was most recently selected?
I’m not able to reproduce this in iOS 16.7.14 with Anki 25.09. The grading buttons appear and function normally.
Since both of you are using iOS 26, perhaps that tells us that the OS update changed something? I’m not sure what though … how the window is re-drawn when the app is opened from those widgets/actions?
From past forum posts, it seems that the intention for the “Study” quick action might be to open/study either the last used/opened deck or the current deck.
Given that the default behavior when you open the closed app is to go to the Decks page, it seems to me that the Study quick action would be intended to do something different. So, my interpretation is that behavior #1 is a bug. But, I’m not sure. I’m not sure how the developer intended the function to work.
it seems that the intention for the “Study” quick action might be to open/study either the last used/opened deck
That’s right and is the behavior exhibited when the app is open in the background. If the app was just showing the deck list, it will go straight into a study session.
If you have an Apple developer account and an Apple silicon Mac, I think you can simulate iOS to reproduce and fix the bug without upgrading your device.
how the window is re-drawn when the app is opened from those widgets/actions?