PocketAnki is a Telegram bot for learning English vocabulary. Send a word — AI builds a flashcard with translation and example. The bot brings it back using the Anki method right before you forget it. Free to start.
Try it in Telegram — first card in 30 secondsNothing to install. Works in your Telegram.
DE: Der VermieterTranslation: LandlordTranscription: /fɛɐ̯ˈmiːtɐ/Examples:- Der Vermieter hat die Miete schon wieder erhöht. (The landlord raised the rent again.)
DE: Der Vermieter
The bot made these cards itself, the same way it will make cards from your words. Pick your language and the one you're learning, tap a word, and rate it as you would in Telegram.
Pick a word
EN: Issue
How well do you remember it?
If you answer Remember every time, roughly: 10 min → 2 d → 11 d → 6 wk → 23 wk
The word doesn't carry over from this page: just send it in the chat.
From a series, a work email or a form you're filling in. One word or phrase per message: if you paste a list, the bot asks you to send the words one by one.
In a couple of seconds: the translation (or a definition, if you're learning your own language), IPA transcription and one to three examples with translations. Use /format to pick Short, Standard or Detailed. Detailed adds grammar, collocations and usage notes.
When the card comes back, the answer is hidden. Recall it, open it and tap one of four buttons: 🔁 Forgot, 😓 Hard to recall, ✅ Remember or ⭐ Easy. Your answer decides when the card comes next.
Reviews arrive as ordinary messages at the time the scheduler picks, shortly before you'd forget. You answer with one tap, right in the chat.
I schedule every review with spaced repetition, the same method Anki is built on. A new card comes back the same day, and after that every Remember makes the gap longer, roughly: 10 min → 2 d → 11 d → 6 wk → 23 wk. Cards you forget come back sooner, and the ones you know stop taking up your time. No decks, settings or schedules to manage: that's my job.
If you've tried Anki, the idea is familiar: flashcards that come back after longer and longer gaps. PocketAnki is Anki in Telegram for people whose decks never stuck: you send a word, and the bot makes the card and brings it back on its own.
| Compared | Anki | PocketAnki |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Desktop program, phone apps, website | Telegram, on any device |
| Who makes the cards | You, or shared decks | The bot, from the word you send |
| Decks | You create and maintain them | None: all cards in one stream |
| Scheduling | Spaced repetition, lots of settings | Spaced repetition (FSRS), no settings |
| Price | Free on desktop and Android, paid on iPhone | Free, with optional Telegram Stars donations |
| Languages | Any: you make the cards | 20 languages to learn, translations into 26 native languages |
Anki is the better choice if you want full control: custom card types, add-ons, shared decks and offline study on a computer.
Not sure what to add? The bot can pick words for you. Daily Words sends 5 useful words a day from a list of 600 for the language you learn.
English: the core words of everyday English, built from the New General Service List (NGSL 1.2). German: words for life in Germany — documents and offices, work, housing, money and health, without the beginner basics.
It's switched on from the start for new English and German learners, and /daily turns it off and on again.
English word list based on the New General Service List (newgeneralservicelist.com), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Words, phrases, idioms. Each card has a translation (or a definition when you learn your own language) and examples that show how people actually say it.
Nothing to install, no account to create. Reviews arrive as messages, and you answer with one tap.
20 languages to learn from the menu, with card translations into 26 native languages. The bot itself speaks English, Ukrainian and Russian.
Tap ⋯ to delete a card, postpone it for 1 to 60 days, or regenerate it if you don't like it.
/calendar shows what's coming back and when.
Not sure what to learn? Get 5 useful English or German words a day.
The bot is built for people who forget to open apps. Here's how it paces the cards.
A card that's due is sent when it's due. The daily limit never holds reviews back.
That's the limit for cards the bot adds itself: Daily Words and starter words. Words you send yourself come straight away and don't count.
If you don't answer a card within 16 hours, it counts as Hard to recall and comes back later.
After 15 unanswered cards in a row, the bot pauses and sends one message about it. It never pauses anyone who reviewed in the last 3 days. To resume, send /start or a word, or answer the card the bot sends to invite you back. The cards that piled up are spread over a few days.
After a week without reviews you get one card and a short note. The same after 14 and 30 days, and never more than 3 times.
Skip a day or a week and nothing is lost: your cards wait, and there are no guilt trips.
You don't need any of them to start: just send a word. They're all in the menu next to the message field.
/practice/add_card/daily/calendar/format/language/help/supportReally cool bot, the words actually stick. I used it while prepping for my English exam and it helped a lot.Maryna, student
Before a job interview I dumped every word from the job posting into the bot. Can't say it's the only reason, but I passed))Maksym, Kraków
I throw in everything I don't understand from work emails. A month in, I noticed I open the dictionary way less.Dmytro
What works for me is that it lives in Telegram. A separate app I would have dropped in a week, but here I just answer between things.Olena, Warsaw
Learning German since we moved. I add words after chats with my neighbour and the bot reminds me when to review them.Iryna, Munich
I must have started Anki decks five times and quit every time. This is basically the same thing, except there is nothing to maintain.Andrii
I add phrases from the series I watch, then surprise myself when they pop up in conversation :)Sofia
At first it annoyed me that the bot texts me every day. Then it clicked: that is the whole point, you review a word right when you start forgetting it.Natalia
Yes. Every feature is free, and there's no paid plan. If you'd like to support the project, /support lets you send Telegram Stars.
No. PocketAnki is a Telegram bot: if you have Telegram, you press the button and send a word.
20 languages from the menu, including English, German, Polish, French, Italian and Ukrainian. Cards can be translated into 26 native languages, and the bot's interface is in English, Ukrainian and Russian. Daily Words is for English and German.
Same idea, spaced repetition, but none of the homework: no decks, no card formatting, no add-ons or sync. You send a word, I do the rest. PocketAnki is an independent project, not affiliated with Anki.
Duolingo teaches you its course. I help you remember your words — the ones from your real life: work, documents, conversations, series.
No. Reviews come when they're due, and I add at most 20 new cards a day myself. If you stop answering, I pause. The details are in “How many cards a day” above.
Send one word or phrase per message. If you paste a list, I'll ask you to split it, so every word gets its own card.
The word, its translation, IPA transcription and one to three examples with translations. /format switches between Short (one example), Standard and Detailed (with grammar, collocations and usage notes).
🔁 Forgot brings the card back in about a minute. 😓 Hard to recall brings it back a little sooner than Remember. ✅ Remember is the usual answer and makes the gap longer. ⭐ Easy pushes the card out by several days.
Tap ⋯ under the card. From there you can delete it, postpone it for 1, 7, 14, 30 or 60 days, or regenerate it.
Then the card gives a definition instead of a translation, like a monolingual dictionary.
Up to 20 new cards a day from me (Daily Words, starter words). Words you send yourself don't count, and reviews always arrive on time.
/calendar shows what's coming back and when. Once a week I send a short report in the chat, and /app opens a mini app with your stats.
A way of reviewing in which each card comes back after a longer and longer gap, shortly before you'd forget it. Every successful recall makes the memory last longer, so over time you need fewer reviews.
Press the button, send me any word you met today — see what happens.
Start in Telegram