Save words from any app on your phone

You'll be able to send a word from a browser, an e-reader, a chat or any other app on your phone straight into a Vocards deck. Vocards writes the card with AI while you keep reading.

What you need

• The Vocards app on an iPhone or an Android phone, signed in. If you share a word while signed out, Vocards asks you to sign in first and then opens it.
• A deck for the language of the words you'll save. Make it in the app before you share: the deck list on the sheet you share into can only make English decks (see the note in step 5).
• AI credits. Every word you add this way is written by AI, so each one uses some. Every account gets 500 free every 30 days. A card is charged for the AI processing it actually uses, so there's no fixed price per word.
• An internet connection when you tap to add.

1. See what works on your phone

1. Open the Settings tab.
2. Under Adding words, tap Faster ways to add words.

The Ways to add words sheet opens. Under On this device it lists only the ways that work on the phone you're holding, so an iPhone and an Android phone show different cards. You can also open it from the Tip: add words faster link at the bottom of a deck's Add Card screen.

2. Share a word from another app

This works on both iPhone and Android, in any app that can share text.

1. Select the word or phrase.
2. Tap Share in the menu that appears next to your selection.
3. Pick Vocards in your phone's share sheet.

Vocards opens the Add Card sheet with your selection in Word or phrase. Carry on with step 5.

Note: On an iPhone, Vocards may not be in the share sheet's row of apps the first time. Tap More in the share sheet and turn Vocards on. The app gives the same tip on the Share from any app card.

Select the word before you tap Share. If you share a page's link instead, the link is what lands in the word field.

Highlights in the Kindle app work the same way: long-press the highlight, tap Share, then pick Vocards. That adds one highlight. To bring in a whole book, see Import your Kindle highlights.

3. On Android: "+ Vocards" in the selection menu

Android has a shorter route that skips the share sheet.

1. Select the word.
2. In the menu that pops up over the selection, tap + Vocards .

The Add Card sheet opens with the word filled in.

If + Vocards isn't in the menu, tap the ⋮ (More) at the end of the selection menu. Many phones put actions from other apps there. The label reads + Vocards in every language.

4. Add a word without leaving the Home Screen

The Add Card widget puts a button on your Home Screen. Tapping it opens the Add Card sheet with an empty word field, where you type the word.

• On an iPhone, long-press the Home Screen, tap +, search for Vocards and add the Add Card widget. It comes in a small and a medium size.
• On Android, long-press the Home Screen, tap Widgets, find Vocards and drop the Vocards – Add Card widget.

The Add Word shortcut (iPhone only). Open the Shortcuts app, pick Vocards, then Add Word . You can add it to your Home Screen from there. When you run it, it asks "What word or phrase would you like to add?", then opens Vocards with the word in the Add Card sheet.

5. Pick the deck and add the word

The Add Card sheet is the same whichever way you got here.

1. Check the word under Word or phrase. Edit it if the selection caught too much. It can be up to 200 characters.
2. Check the deck under Select deck. Vocards picks your largest active deck, the one with the most cards. It doesn't look at the word's language, so check that the deck matches.
3. To choose another deck, tap it. Type in Search decks... to filter a long list. Decks are grouped under Active Decks and Inactive decks.
4. Tap Add to Deck.

The sheet closes and a message says Creating in background. You can go back to what you were reading.

Note: Create New Deck in the deck list asks only for a name, and the deck it makes is English on both sides. A deck's languages can't be changed later, so for any other language, make the deck in the app first and pick its languages there. Then share the word again.

What you'll see

A placeholder for the card appears in the deck straight away and fills in when the card is ready. Then a message says Card Added, with a View Deck link that opens the deck.

The card is written with AI: the word in the deck's learning language on the front, its translation in the deck's other language on the back. The front comes from what you shared, so it may not match it word for word. In a Japanese, Chinese or Cantonese deck, the AI also adds the word's reading (furigana, pinyin or Jyutping).

To study the new words, see Your first learning session.

Limits

• Every word added this way uses AI credits. There's no option on this sheet to add a card without AI.
• The word or phrase can be up to 200 characters.
• On an iPhone, Vocards takes text or a single link from the share sheet.
• On an iPhone, the Add Card widget needs iOS 17 or later.
• Sharing into Vocards works in the iPhone and Android apps only. On a computer, use the Chrome extension.

If something goes wrong