Anki is a flashcard app that uses [[Spaced repetition|spaced repetition]] and [[Active Recall|active recall]] to aid in efficient and effective memorisation of concepts. It is an open-source program that was initially built on the algorithms from [[Supermemo|supermemo]]. The driving [[Spaced repetition algorithms|spaced repetition algorithm]] was initially SM2 but now [[FSRS]] is preferred. ## Users It is very commonly used by medical students given their needs to learn vast amounts of declarative knowledge, with r/medicalschoolanki having 178K members, being more than r/Anki with 172K members (as of 26/9/2025). It is also commonly used by the language learning community to aid in memorising vocabulary, characters and more. ## Formulation of knowledge Knowledge to be memorised needs to be described in an ankiable format. Anki aids in this through various types of flashcards such as cloze deletion. The plugin ecosystem also allows for users to create and sharing of custom note types, and their respective mapping to flashcards. For example, image occlusion. However, it does not have an open API to a web server to create separate interfaces that can tie into the same underlying [[Personal knowledge base|knowledge base]] of flashcards. That is, it is difficult to extend upon Anki and **integrate spaced repetition in more natural ways**, such as [[Timely learning|timely learning's]] integration of spaced repetition by altering words with the target language whilst engaging naturally with websites. Or generative podcasts that thoughtfully insert words from a spaced repetition app, with feedback on perceived difficulty given through smart watch gestures. Additionally, [[Spaced repetition algorithms|spaced repetition algorithms]] and methods of formulating flashcards seem to prioritise [[Declarative knowledge|declarative]] and well-defined knowledge. This makes it difficult to use for **uncertain or developing knowledge** that we may want to memorise for shorter periods of time like 3 - 6 months.