iPhone
The home of Qardbox, from iOS 26 on. You get every function and every view here, plus widgets, live activity and the action button. Everything else follows what your device can do.
Qardbox is always right where you want to learn
The app itself is your main route to the cards. Alongside it there are several short routes to your first card without having to look for Qardbox on the screen at all. That gets you from the lock screen into a session in seconds.
On which devices
iPad
The same app, only with more room. You see your subjects and your statistics side by side rather than one after another, and the study view makes better use of the larger area.
Apple Watch
For the short session in between, you see your due cards on your wrist and rate them there with a single tap, without hunting through a view.
Widgets
A widget shows you something without you having to open the app for it, and Qardbox brings you three of them, one large and two small. The large one shows you more at a glance, the small ones fit into every gap on your home screen.
Press and hold an empty spot on your home screen until the icons wiggle, then tap the plus at the top left and look for Qardbox in the list. Swiping sideways then shows you the available sizes. The large widget you can edit afterwards, the two small ones you cannot.
Control Center
Swipe down from the top right corner of the screen and Control Center appears. Qardbox puts three controls in there:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Start session | Starts a round right away, in your learning direction from the settings. Your shortest way from the locked screen to the first card. |
| New card | Opens Qardbox and immediately puts up the sheet for a new card. |
| Due cards | Shows how many cards are waiting today. |
Siri and Shortcuts
Shortcuts are small jobs your iPhone carries out for you, and Qardbox registers several of them with the system without your having to set anything up. Say for example “Start a Qardbox session” or “My Qardbox streak”.
If you want a session in a particular subject, that works through the Shortcuts app. Choose Qardbox there and then Start session. The shortcut then shows you a Subject field, with icon and number of due cards, so you can see what awaits you before you start.
The Action button
The action button sits on the left above the volume rocker and exists from the iPhone 15 Pro on. Older devices and the models without Pro do not have it. Then your shortest way runs through the control centre or a widget.
Open the iOS settings and go to Action Button and choose Shortcut there and then the Qardbox shortcut. Then a long press on the button starts your round.
Just carry on at the second device
If a round is running on your iPhone, an iPad nearby offers by itself to take it over: same subject, same card, same progress. And the same goes for a card being edited, as long as both devices use your sign-in.
You need iCloud sync for that, because Qardbox only passes identifiers across and no card content. And without sync the other device does not know your cards at all.
The Live Activity during a session
During a session you see your progress on the lock screen and in the Dynamic Island. The five stars there are your hit rate and nothing else: five from 90 per cent correct answers, four from 75, three from 55, two from 35 and one below that.
You should not overrate a high standing early in your session. With few cards a good start quickly makes four or five stars that settle differently later on. So your rate only becomes meaningful towards the end of a somewhat longer round.