# Concerns About AnkiHub Integration in the New Anki 24.10 **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [September 28, 2024, 12:13am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/concerns-about-ankihub-integration-in-the-new-anki-24-10/50017 "2024-09-28T00:13:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![fredmira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee59a6/32.png) [@fredmira](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/fredmira)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2024, 12:13am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/concerns-about-ankihub-integration-in-the-new-anki-24-10/50017/1 "2024-09-28T00:13:51Z")
Hello everyone, I would like to express my discomfort with the recent native integration of Anki with AnkiHub. I understand that we live in a capitalist world and that there is room for paid services, but this change seems to deviate from the original philosophy that made Anki so popular: being an open and accessible platform for everyone. Even though the iOS version is paid, many of us continue to use and support Anki precisely because of its community-driven and collaborative nature. The fact that this native integration favors a service that charges over $100 for information and functionalities that many in the community share freely feels counterintuitive and against the spirit of what motivates and strengthens Anki’s use. It feels like we might be opening a dangerous precedent that could, in the future, turn Anki into something less open and more profit-oriented. I have nothing against the person behind AnkiHub, and I understand that there’s a need to be financially sustainable. However, this integration as a native part of Anki seems like a move that might compromise the values and collaborative nature of the platform. I would like to open this discussion to hear the opinions of other users and to better understand what motivated this change. Thank you for listening. ---
**Author:** ![dae](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/dae/32/65_2.png) [@dae](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/dae)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2024, 12:56am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/concerns-about-ankihub-integration-in-the-new-anki-24-10/50017/2 "2024-09-28T00:56:51Z")
Please see the PR for previous discussion, including > > > Some takeaways I got from the associated forum thread: > > 1) A number of people …did not object to the functionality itself, but felt this PR promotes/endorses AnkiHub too much. > 2) The AnkiCollab author weighed in with positive thoughts, noting how AnkiHub's implementation of syncing could be used as a reference/framework to add AnkiCollab support in the future > > I think having the biggest free competitor on board is a pretty good argument for why this would make sense. But given all the concerns about optics, I think this PR is going to need to make some tweaks to make it look less like we're promoting AnkiHub. > > Someone suggested a "third party integrations" section. If we add a list there (with currently just AnkiHub), and remove sign up links / advertising copy so it's just the service/company name, that should make it clearer that other integrations are expected in the future, and hopefully reduce concerns about special treatment. What does everyone think? > > > \# Promoting third-party services > > The recent changes are certainly an improvem…ent. > > I can understand why some people would (still) see this as promoting AnkiHub, as it may make people aware of the service who were not otherwise. We're not going to fully solve that without making it a hidden option, which I think would be over the top. I think the current service description is not unreasonable, but until we have a free alternative like AnkiCollab in the list as well, I can see how it could be seen as promotional by some. > > I like the idea of a a 'learn more' link. It keeps promotional text out of the translations and shifts translation responsibility onto the third-party service. It also keeps those strings outside of the codebase, which some of our more puritanical users may appreciate. > > That said, until AnkiCollab or some other option is in there too, perhaps the approach least likely to upset anyone is to remove the promotional text, and avoid adding a link for now, so only "AnkiHub" is shown. It still unlocks functionality for mobile clients (when this is all implemented), and offers a modicum of discoverablility for now. What do you think? > > \# Clarifying future plans > > This PR is trickier than normal to review. It's an MVP/first step towards something bigger, and thus there's not a lot of code to review at the moment, but it's also acting as a proxy for the larger question of "is the bigger goal of this and future PRs something that is likely to be merged?" > > On the one hand, I understand why it has been done this way: AnkiHub doesn't want to invest a lot of time in building something that is unlikely to be accepted, and dividing large changes up into smaller steps can minimize wasted effort. > > On the other hand, it means I need to a) consider that the current changes are a stepping-stone, and not the final point we want to end up at, and b) need to make a decision based on my understanding about future plans, instead of the code in front of me. > > The following is how I understand you plan to move forward. Is it correct? > > \- A follow-up PR in the next few months will add the ability to sync with AnkiHub automatically as part of the regular sync process - the user will sync normally, and the AnkiHub sync will happen as part of that regular sync. This should require minimal changes to the different clients, as most of the code should be in the Rust layer. > \- AnkiHub might want to store its auth token outside of the collection like AnkiWeb does, which will mean Rust won't have access to it. So the sync method might need to be extended to allow passing in third-party credentials, which each of the clients would need to be updated to support. Alternatively, if you're happy to have the auth token stored in collection config and shared between devices, that would allow the Rust layer to read it directly, and the client frontends would not need to be updated. The latter is appealing in that it minimizes work for the clients, but would mean you can't log out one device without logging them all out. > \- If in-app configuration is required in the future, it would be implemented as a Svelte page/fragment that the preferences screen can display, and Rust methods to load/store that data. > > Brayan raised some concerns about the login screen being implemented in Qt, which will mean the mobile clients need to implement their own versions. What are your future plans here? Are you expecting a Svelte prefererences screen to be implemented before we integrate this into the mobile clients? Or are you expecting us to reimplement the login screen for the mobile clients for now? > > \# Private approval > > \> p.s. I would appreciate if any other proposals like this one would be done publicly and transparently, instead of receiving a thumbs-up in private and making people discover it only when there is a PR already opened. > > To be fair, these were preliminary discussions done over a year ago, with no guarantee of approval. AnkiHub have still had to submit a public PR, which I haven't exactly rushed through, so the community at large has had a chance to participate too. > > But I take your point - I regret that we didn't do a great job of providing the full context or future plans from the start, which has probably caused some undue alarm. ---
**Author:** ![fredmira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee59a6/32.png) [@fredmira](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/fredmira)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2024, 1:16am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/concerns-about-ankihub-integration-in-the-new-anki-24-10/50017/3 "2024-09-28T01:16:59Z")
Thank you for your response and for clarifying that this discussion has been ongoing for over three months, even if mainly on GitHub, where most participants are developers. I agree that it’s quite a specific bubble, and now that the integration is reaching the general public, many of us who were unaware of these discussions are starting to catch up. That said, it’s good to know that this topic has a longer history. If there’s any movement toward alternatives led by Anki itself, like AnkiCollab, I will definitely contribute. I’ll also be adding a suggestion to the beta version forum soon. Thanks again for your attention! ---
**Author:** ![Shigeyuki](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/shigeyuki/32/23878_2.png) [@Shigeyuki](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Shigeyuki)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2024, 2:32am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/concerns-about-ankihub-integration-in-the-new-anki-24-10/50017/4 "2024-09-28T02:32:50Z")
In AnkiForums there was already a discussion about this in this thread. - discussion : [Integrate an open interface for collaboration plaftorms](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/integrate-an-open-interface-for-collaboration-plaftorms/46372) In my opinion a summary of the key conclusions looks like these: 1. The official Anki is not intended to promote a third party (Ankihub and Anking), this feature is for the convenience of medical student users. 2. The author of AnkiCollab is favorable to Ankihub and he has little objection to this feature: [AnkiCollab author’s opinion](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/integrate-an-open-interface-for-collaboration-plaftorms/46372/45) 3. Other alternatives are not realistic solutions, it would be beneficial to both parties if other AnkiCollab-like platforms were developed based on the functionality developed by AnkiHub. In short almost everyone agrees that Ankihub should not be promoted on Anki for desktop (probably including Ankihub), but official Anki or volunteers cannot afford the resources to develop a feature like this Ankihub integration, so it would be beneficial for both developers and users if Ankihub develops advanced features first and then volunteers develop them for free on that basis. ---
**Author:** ![sorata](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/sorata/32/34115_2.png) [@sorata](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/sorata)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2024, 8:06am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/concerns-about-ankihub-integration-in-the-new-anki-24-10/50017/5 "2024-09-28T08:06:56Z")
> [@fredmira](#): > > being an open and accessible platform for everyone. It’s still an open and accessible platform. AnkiHub integration doesn’t change that. > [@fredmira](#): > > It feels like we might be opening a dangerous precedent that could, in the future, turn Anki into something less open and more profit-oriented. Anki’s licensing prevents that slippery slope. > [@fredmira](#): > > I have nothing against the person behind AnkiHub, and I understand that there’s a need to be financially sustainable. FYI, the money goes to AnkiHub so it isn’t helping Ankitects in any way. Anki is simply providing a free platform. Hopefully, we will have other free and open source competitors in the future. Also, agree with Shigeyuki’s points. ---
**Author:** ![NickFlint](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/nickflint/32/35471_2.png) [@NickFlint](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/NickFlint)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2024, 1:57pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/concerns-about-ankihub-integration-in-the-new-anki-24-10/50017/6 "2024-09-28T13:57:46Z")
> [@sorata](#): > > FYI, the money goes to AnkiHub so it isn’t helping Ankitects in any way. - We have donated thousands of dollars over the years to Anki development and are working with Damien now on how to increase that - We promote Anki and are doing everything we can to make it easier to use ---
**Author:** ![sorata](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/sorata/32/34115_2.png) [@sorata](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/sorata)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2024, 1:59pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/concerns-about-ankihub-integration-in-the-new-anki-24-10/50017/7 "2024-09-28T13:59:53Z")
I am aware, I was just correcting any potential confusion about an arrangement to share profits from the 100 USD subscription they mentioned. Thanks for your contribution to the app I use the most! ---
**Author:** ![Shigeyuki](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/shigeyuki/32/23878_2.png) [@Shigeyuki](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Shigeyuki)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2024, 7:44pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/concerns-about-ankihub-integration-in-the-new-anki-24-10/50017/8 "2024-09-28T19:44:27Z")
> [@NickFlint](#): > > We have donated thousands of dollars over the years to Anki development and are working with Damien now on how to increase that Though probably unrelated to this thread, do you mean AnkiDroid donations or indirect donations? I thought official Anki is a business and does not accept donations. ---
**Author:** ![NickFlint](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/nickflint/32/35471_2.png) [@NickFlint](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/NickFlint)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2024, 7:45pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/concerns-about-ankihub-integration-in-the-new-anki-24-10/50017/9 "2024-09-28T19:45:14Z")
Indirect. Paying people to improve Anki or update addons and things like that ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/1X/8f1279ababc5879d54e4838989f606cfe55af8c7.jpeg) [@system](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 7:45pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/concerns-about-ankihub-integration-in-the-new-anki-24-10/50017/10 "2024-10-28T19:45:48Z")
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