Hi, I’m looking to buy Anki mobile as I absolutely love the desktop app and use it every day, however I find I work best by actively typing the answer in every time the flashcard comes up.
This feature doesn’t work on the web app, understandably, but I was wondering if it works on the mobile app? Do add-ons work either, or are they too complex and exclusive to desktop?
I want to give back to the creator a lot, but I’m just afraid of buying it and all the work I’ve done becoming non-functional.
Yes, type-in work on the mobile version, but not add-ons. This is mainly because, even though Anki Desktop and Anki Mobile look like they are similar, their structure is fundamentally different (from a coding perspective).
Also, as mentioned somewhere in the manual (I don’t remember where), the optimal UX for Anki is to create and edit the collection with Anki Desktop, and review wherever you want (because more effort has been made to improve the editing UX on Anki Desktop, and also because working with a real keyboard is better than not), so Anki was though to be used with multiple clients. All this to say that you should not worry about breaking anything by using it also on your phone.
Finally, I think the App Store allows you to have a refund within a few days (but I’m not sure), so you might be able to roll-back if you don’t like the mobile application.
PS. you seem to be already aware, but just in case: Anki for iPhone is AnkiMobile. AnkiApp is a scam, unrelated to Anki.
Thanks so much for replying so fast! It’s understandable that the devs tried to keep the mobile app minimal, having three tabs open does not seem replicable on a phone. (I did know about the AnkiApp thankfully, but I appreciate the warning!)
Sounds exactly what I wanted from a portable version of anki. Thank you 
By the way, on the off chance that anyone else is reading this, Apple does offer refunds although you have to “request” them, and I’m not sure how reliable that is.