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Creating Audio Flashcards

This page covers everything from your first card to bulk-importing a CSV of a hundred. Before you build, take two minutes to read Tips for Formulating Knowledge — better cards mean shorter reviews and stronger recall.

What's in a card​

Every card has two or more sides that play in order during review. A side can be:

  • Audio you record — your own voice, captured on the device.
  • Audio generated from text — text-to-speech using a voice you pick.
  • An imported audio file — pulled in from your device.

You can give a card a name, add tags, and flag it for follow-up. The most common shape is front + back, but a card can have more than two sides if you want extra context, a hint, or a longer answer.

What's in a folder​

Folders organize cards by subject. Each folder can have its own:

  • Name and color.
  • Language — used as the default for text-to-speech inside the folder.
  • Scheduling algorithm — override the app-wide default for just this folder.
  • Subfolders — nest as deeply as you need.

Folders imported from the Marketplace are linked, which means they're read-only by default. You'll see View instead of Edit until you unlink or duplicate them.

Create a folder​

  1. From the Library/Home screen, tap the ellipsis menu (⋯) and choose New Folder.
  2. Give it a name and open it.

A little structure now saves a lot of scrolling later. Common patterns:

  • Subject > Topic — Biology > Cellular Respiration.
  • Language > Deck level — Spanish > A2 Vocabulary.
  • Role > Scenario — Interview Prep > Behavioral Questions.

Pick your method​

There's no wrong choice — you can mix methods inside the same folder.

MethodBest for
Record your voicePronunciation, accent, language study, anything you want to mimic.
Text-to-speechSpeed, consistency, topics where wording matters more than delivery.
CSV importYou already have your material as a list, spreadsheet, or export.
Import audio filesYou've recorded clips elsewhere or have audio you want to reuse.
MarketplaceYou'd rather start from someone else's deck than build from scratch.

Record your voice​

  1. Open a folder and tap Add Card.
  2. Tap Record for the front of the card.
  3. Speak clearly, then tap Stop.
  4. Record the back, or add text-to-speech for the answer instead.
  5. Save the card.

You can trim, replace, or insert audio on any side after recording — useful when you fluffed a word or want to splice in a pause. Record in a quiet space, keep each side short, and reach for headphones with a mic if your room is echoey.

Text-to-speech​

  1. Open a folder and tap Add Card.
  2. Choose Text for the front of the card.
  3. Type the text and pick a voice.
  4. Tap Preview to hear it before saving.
  5. Repeat for the back.

You can assign different voices per side — useful for language learning, where the question and answer are in different languages. Set defaults in Settings > Text-to-Speech so new cards inherit the right voices automatically.

For deeper TTS setup including iOS voice downloads and side correspondence, see Text-to-Speech.

Hard-to-pronounce words? Wrap them in SSML directly inside the text field. Native TTS engines on iOS and Android parse SSML tags transparently, so a <break> or <say-as> works without any setup.

Import a CSV​

If your material already lives in a spreadsheet or export, CSV is the fastest way in.

  1. Open a folder and choose Import CSV.
  2. Pick or paste your CSV file.
  3. Map columns to card sides.
  4. Confirm. The app generates audio with your selected text-to-speech voice.

A few details worth knowing:

  • Column layout is flexible. Each column becomes one side of the card. Two columns gives you a classic front/back; three or more columns gives you multi-side cards.
  • First column as title is an optional toggle — turn it on when you want the first column to set the card's name instead of becoming a side.
  • Encoding: UTF-8 is preferred. Latin-1 is supported as a fallback.
  • Failures don't stop the import — bad rows are skipped silently and the rest continue.
  • Audio file references are not supported in CSV. To bring in pre-recorded clips, use Import Audio Files instead.

Download a sample to see the expected shape: General Knowledge.csv.

Import audio files​

Got clips recorded elsewhere? Add them as sides on a new or existing card.

Supported formats: .m4a, .mp3, .wav, .aac, .opus, .flac, .ogg. Anything that isn't .m4a gets converted automatically.

Borrow before you build​

Sometimes the fastest way to a great deck is to start with one. Open the Marketplace, import a community folder, and use it as a base. Linked decks are read-only — Unlink the folder when you want to edit, rearrange, or extend it.

Manage cards after creation​

Long press a card to open its menu. From there you can:

  • Edit to change audio, text, voices, or order of sides.
  • Rename to update the card's title.
  • Delete with confirmation.
  • Move to another folder.
  • Multi-select to move or delete in bulk.

Inside a card, drag and drop sides in the editor to change their playback order.

Next steps​