Suggestion: Using well established behaviour psychology to make user return back to app for studying

AnkiDroid (Android) Suggestions
1

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I feel like there’s a gap between what Anki is incredibly good at and where many users actually struggle.

Anki is excellent at deciding what I should review. But for me (and judging from the number of reminder-related posts on this forum, for plenty of others), the bigger problem is often something much simpler: opening Anki in the first place.

What if Anki experimented with an optional mode focused on helping users start their review session?

I’m not talking about changing the algorithm or turning Anki into anything else. The review experience itself could stay exactly the same.

I’m talking about applying some well-established ideas from behavioral psychology to reduce the friction of getting started.

For example, instead of a generic “Time to study” notification, imagine reminders that adapt to when you’re most likely to study, or tell you “Today’s reviews will probably take about 3 minutes.” A single tap would take you directly into today’s reviews.

The goal wouldn’t be to increase screen time or make Anki addictive. Quite the opposite. The success metric would simply be: did the user start today’s review session?

One thing I’ve noticed is that people often recommend using a separate habit tracker or reminder app. While those certainly work, they also introduce another step. Every extra step is another opportunity to think “I’ll do it later.” Keeping the behavioral support inside Anki itself seems like it could reduce that friction.

I also think this would fit well as an experimental or opt-in feature. Some users prefer Anki to remain as minimal as possible, and that’s completely fair. But it could be interesting to see whether this kind of behavioral layer actually improves review consistency for users who choose to enable it.

In my opinion, the core functionality is just great. My general problem is just returning to the Anki to actually study. Social media apps are quite good at it, but we know how much ethical they might be. Anki in my opinion has legitimate reasons and I suggest this because I think it’s good to experiment with some behaviour psychology stuff to make beginner like me actually come to study back, cause I am not that much used to whole lot of stuff like this.

I’m curious what others think. Has this idea ever been explored before, or are there technical or philosophical reasons why Anki has intentionally stayed away from this direction?

2

i like the idea of showing “expected study time”, i think it would be nice if it showed on all the decks/subdecks (i.e these 7 new cards, 3 relearning and 15 reviews will take you 30’ based on previous reviews of this deck)
i think this part at least would be easy to implement since anki already tracks review time per card

maybe the hability to make a custom notification that allows you to choose a deck and says: “review time for ‘deck’ is 23 only minutes today!” would be cool

3

I mean look this social media apps use so much psychological tricks to keep us pinned to their apps, I would rather keep my attention towards anki instead at least it would be productive one way or other.

4

[ @some_lad – You posted this in AnkiDroid (Android) > Suggestions . Did you intend to suggest it specifically for AnkiDroid? Or for all of the apps?]

5

To be honest, I think ankidroid is more suitable for the thing I suggested, but it may also be broadly applicable to windows (and other versions) as well.

For now, I think ankidroid is a more suitable for the things I suggested.

6

Though what do you think of the suggestion? I mean instead of social media apps I would like to have my time spent more in anki reviewing the cards instead of watching reels. But that’s just me, idk how others feel. I feel like this because actually me getting to review the cards is hard for me, not because I am lazy (I am a bit but that’s not exactly the problem) but because I just forget to review my cards.

7

I’ve been thinking about this a bit more.
I don’t think Anki should try to become a social media app or change its core philosophy. In my opinion the review algorithm is already great.
The problem for me is much simpler: actually opening Anki.
What I’m suggesting is an optional, off by default feature that users explicitly choose to enable if they want it.
The idea isn’t to increase screen time. Quite the opposite. The only goal is to reduce the friction of starting today’s review session.
Things like:
reminders at the time you’re usually most likely to study,
“Today’s reviews will probably take about 5 minutes”,
one tap that immediately starts today’s reviews.
Once the reviews are done, the app’s job is done too.
I know people may compare this to techniques used by social media apps, but I think the difference is the objective. Social media tries to maximize attention. This would simply help users follow through on something they already wanted to do.
People who prefer the current minimalist experience wouldn’t even notice it because it would stay disabled unless they explicitly turned it on.
I’m curious whether this kind of opt-in behavioural support would fit AnkiDroid’s philosophy, or whether there are technical or design reasons against it.

8

I dislike the idea of manipulating users, but reminders are already available in AnkiDroid… they are just broken!

The good news is that they’re being reworked and you can try the new reminders: Add a notification option for "Any Cards Due" - #2 by ZornHadNoChoice .

9

I understand the concern. I don’t want AnkiDroid to manipulate users either.

My intention wasn’t to maximize engagement or make people spend more time in the app. I was thinking more about reducing the friction between “I want to study today” and actually opening Anki.

If the reminder system is already being reworked, that’s actually nice to hear. I wonder whether things like estimated review time or smarter reminder timing could fit into that work without changing Anki’s philosophy.

10

I don’t think estimated time is part of the new reminders, but there is a widget which shows the estimated time of studying.

11

Since you asked: I think it’s a terrible idea.

It runs contrary to many of the principles that have helped Anki endure for 2 decades, not to mention general integrity in software development. There’s an implicit expectation in Anki that a user will take ownership of their own learning, and that’s how they will get the most out of spaced repetition. If a user isn’t able to do that, I’m not sure Anki is the right app for them.

12

Agreed.

@some_lad You say that you’d prefer spending time with Anki instead of social media apps, scrolling down ad nauseam, but this is entirely up to you to claim your freedom. Nobody can do that for you. No offence intended. :slightly_smiling_face:

13

I already have my freedom, my problem was that I just forget to do review my notes. I don’t use social media apps anymore (yeah, seriously it’s been two years since I left Instagram) but I was telling the general thing I observed and suggested. Well if it doesn’t fit in philosophy then fine.