Updates from the Anki Team - June 2026

Anki Announcements
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Hey everyone :sun:

It’s been a minute since our last post and we want to finally share some updates. The management transition with Damien has been a meaningful effort that we want to do justice, and we’re starting to hit our stride. So! Here’s a quick update from the Anki Team, plus something we’d love to run by you.

New stable release and doc site :sparkles:

We’re excited to share our first stable release as a consolidated team. The headline change is a brand-new launcher that replaces the old terminal-based one, the previous setup was far from user-friendly, and the new launcher makes getting up and running much simpler.

We’ve also unified the documentation, so everything you need now lives in one place instead of being scattered across multiple sources — you can find it here for now (we’ll be redirecting it to its permanent home soon). For everything else that changed, check out the release notes on GitHub.

Addon Experience :deciduous_tree:

The current add-on system is not user friendly - especially for new users! We’re working on ways to make addons easier to find and simpler to manage - more on that soon. For now, if there’s something in the current addon flow that drives you up the wall, leave a comment or fill out this survey.

The iconic icon :point_down:

For years, you’ve been the ones showing up with ideas, proposing new icons, dreaming up redesigns, and sketching refreshes. You’ve always cared deeply about Anki and that energy inspired us to take a careful look at the icon ourselves.

We kept it familiar on purpose. You helped us understand what was worth keeping, and that’s what guided this.

See below to take a peek at what we’ve been working on!

New Logo Video Introduction: Check it out here!

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Anki on Linux - FSRS Not Working Despite Previous Posted Solutions
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We recommend watching the introduction video first, but you can also see the new logo below:

Primary Logo:

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App and Avatar Logo:

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Thank you all! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Nice! Looking forward to the add-on revamp. I think Obsidian is a good example of what I envision for Anki.

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I agree! I think the whole experience around add-ons on Obsidian is great, definitely worth looking into.

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This is just the kind of corporate communication I was afraid of when the change of ownership was announced: Little regard for the past, over-enthusiastic about innovations (especially those hardly anybody asked for, like a new logo) and lacking in technical detail (what is the new installer?).

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I somewhat agree with ferophila. The announcement can be summarized to

  1. Text based installer and addon system is not user friendly (but no reasons given).
  2. Docs are now unified.
  3. New logos created (you claim there has been a lot of demand, but aside from some hobby design projects, the logo doesn’t seem to be the center of attention).

Would be good if there was some (more) value in this post.

E.g. The old text based installer with simple instructions is user friendly IMHO. The issue is that some people are afraid of terminals. And what do you mean

How so? The old one was literally just reading a few very short lines, then pressing Enter. It can hardly become simpler than that.

How so? Browse addons online, copy paste code into anki, restart anki, done.

There are quite a few baseless claims in your post which is often seen as a negative comming from companies. Especially since yours doesn’t have the best reputation (based on all the worried posts on reddit and here on the forums).

I do love this one though. You’d probably have to worry about redirects from current forum entries, but unifying the docs seems to be a great effort in my opinion.

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Congratulations! It’s very good news that Anki has been released again after a 9 month hiatus and that updates have resumed, I think it’s also probably been about 5 years since a new video was released on the official Anki channel, the little star on the i in the new logo is cute. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next​:dashing_away:

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We can ask the devs to share more details about the update but I’ve personally walked multiple new users through installing Anki and every single one of them gets a bit freaked out. Yes, if you just read it then you know what to do but they still panic (my brother being one of those people just last week). Those of us that are more accustomed to software and Anki in particular don’t recognize the user un-friendliness of some of these things. Another example is the “upload/download to AnkiWeb” popup. To me that screen has always made sense (because I read it..), but it’s one of the most common support requests.

Similar to above, I personally think it’s not that bad. But once a new user walked me through it I realized it’s actually quite bad for them especially in comparison to most modern day apps. The code to copy is actually quite hidden on the ankiweb page, and most apps nowadays are just click to install and do not require a restart. The suggestion above from @guillempalausalva to model Obsidian’s add-on architecture is great!

There’s two major groups to cater to - the new users, and the existing users (you could of course further split those into tech-naive and power user subgroups). These are admittedly more “new user” updates, but I’d love to hear any suggestions any of you have for any updates! Now that we’re a bit more handed off, we’re hoping to start moving at a much faster pace :slight_smile:

Thanks for always being so positive @Shigeyuki ! You are such a wonderful gift to this community!

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The new installer without using the terminal is a good improvement, and Anki finally acknowledged its mistake. Most users are laypeople and don’t even understand English, so seeing a black screen with options will always scare them. They usually only know what “next, next, and finish” means, which is sufficient, since that’s how most programs work.

Furthermore, it’s much easier for experienced users to use different versions of Anki in other folders to test older add-ons.

Regarding the new logo, I suggest checking or investigating who requested it, as it’s irrelevant and useless. Perhaps it was the same person with different accounts, so whenever these useless requests are made, check how long that person has been using Anki and/or what their relevance is to the community.

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Autoupdate from 25.09.4 fails:

  x No solution found when resolving dependencies for split (python_full_version == '3.9.*'):
  `-> Because the requested Python version (>=3.9) does not satisfy Python>=3.10 and anki==26.5 depends on
      Python>=3.10, we can conclude that anki==26.5 cannot be used.
      And because your project depends on anki==26.5, we can conclude that your project's requirements are
      unsatisfiable.

After installing 26.5 from the github installer older versions (25.X) stopped working with the error

error: Project virtual environment directory `...\AnkiProgramFiles\.venv` cannot be used because it is not a valid Python environment (no Python executable was found)
Install failed: Failed to run (2): ...\uv.exe sync --upgrade --no-config --managed-python --python 3.13.5

during launch. Reinstalling from an older github installer and choosing 2) Choose a version → 25.09.4 results in the same error. (while opting to install the latest yields the same error as the autoupdating attempt above)

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I love the thinking behind the logo changes, but I feel that the logo is a important key to distinguished Anki from various knockoffs. Personally, I don’t think the versions that include the “Anki” text should be used, as they are not as recognizable as or resemble with the original Anki logo.

I also feel that this logo change has come quite suddenly. I have not seen much discussion about it beforehand, perhaps I simply missed it. As a community-driven project, I believe that significant changes like this would benefit from broader community feedback before being implemented.

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To add to @AnKingMed’s answer, there are issues that make the experience worse (all of these are well known and were discussed here and on GitHub for a year now - see feat: Remove the uv launcher and old packaging code by abdnh · Pull Request #5019 · ankitects/anki · GitHub for some links):

While it’s probably possible to implement all features users expect from software installers with a uv-based launcher, it requires significant development effort with minimal benefits. Packaging Python apps is mostly a solved problem (see PyInstaller, Briefcase, etc.) - Anki is not complex enough to warrant “reinventing the wheel” here. Before the launcher there was almost no reports of users struggling to install the app - this should be a sign.

Tracked here: Point to the new docs · Issue #4988 · ankitects/anki · GitHub

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Auto update from older versions is not supported as mentioned in the release notes.

The new installer cleans up older installations (including the AnkiProgramFiles folder).

This is surprising. I assume manually deleting AnkiProgramFiles then running the launcher again (choosing 25.09.4) works?

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Confusion about the text-based installer was quite common on this forum. So I am very glad to see a new, easier to use installer.

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I think your language is a bit harsh… As a user since 2018, I’ve always wanted an interface overhaul and always found the logo a little outdated. While my opinion isn’t generalizable, there have been numerous add-ons published over the years that modify Anki’s UI (i.e. “Onigiri”, “Custom Background Image and Gear Icon”, “Anki Redesign”, “Beautify Anki”, etc.), all with numerous positive ratings… If that isn’t a sign of the community’s interest in modernizing and making the program’s appearance more flexible, what is?

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Finally! Looking forward to the UI updates :star_struck:

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I’ve found it only after trying to update the usual way. I think this fact should be highlighted more, including the update post at the top and other places where the new installer is linked. Right now it’s too obscure for the amount of trouble associated with not seeing it in time.

Yes, this works. But what is the purpose of removing the folder during installation in the first place? It doesn’t seem to affect the 26.05 functioning.

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There have also been numerous “gamification addons”, addons that mess with scheduling, AI addons, etc. Does that mean that we should add those?

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind better UI, but your argument isn’t convincing. Furthermore, there are no UI changes in this announcement; just an icon/logo change that I’m personally not a fan of. The new installer can hardly be considered a UI change given that it’s only seen for a few seconds (still, I appreciate the devs’ work).

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Created a separate post: An important note about updating to 26.05

@Danika_Dakika Can we pin it? (you’re reading my mind :sweat_smile:)

The Windows installer tries to detect and clean up any older installations, as otherwise multiple copies can be left around and cause user confusion. Specifically, it detects and runs uninstall.exe, which also removes AnkiProgramFiles.

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Regarding the use of add-ons, I think this add-on can help. It eliminates the need to close and reopen Anki every time you add, delete, activate, or deactivate an add-on, as it updates automatically.

If you edit files within the add-on, such as the init file, it also updates in real time without needing to close and reopen Anki constantly.

https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/470985074

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