[No Longer Maintained] Flaming Durtles - Android app with offline support

WaniKani API And Third-Party Apps
2001

Thank you. I’m glad that this technique does not seem to hinder progress. I’ve also been using Anki mode with back-to-back since the beginning, with reading before meaning. It’s incredibly more time efficient.

I also use a separate Anki deck to practice writing each kanji, because I found out that was the key to achieve long term memory for me.

I still have one problem though: when I fail a card in back-to-back mode, it remains stuck at the front of the queue until I clear it, instead of being given a timeout and reappear after a minute, as it would normally happen without back-to-back (or in Anki for that matter.)

I wonder if anybody has found or written a fix for it.

2002

I had the same problem a few days ago. It started working again when I switched to Wifi instead of 3G to download the audio files (or maybe it was a coincidence?)

2003

does this kakumei have anki mode?

Just want to know a backup app in case flaming durtles stops working on my android version.

2004

No clue :man_shrugging:

Direct any further inquiries to the relevant thread please.

2005

Rest easy, F.D. is open source and a lot of us are developers (even though few have experience making Android apps) so if bugs should appear, somebody will certainly fix them.

2 Likes
2006

afaik, I can’t install Kakumei and Jakeipuu, due to Android version.

Probably all three are discontinued; but at least some of them have source code right here.

I can’t be certain that everything will be fixable, or able people would try to fix everything, though.

1 Like
2007

The automatic Japanese/English keyboard switching seems to have magically started working again for me.

2008

Love this app first of all.

Is there a way to increase the audio volume? It’s too quiet when I’m listening to music. Even with the option enabled where the music volume is automatically lowered.

1 Like
2009

I don’t think I saw a response on how to fix this on your phone. I ran into this when I got a new phone. Go to app manager on your phone and clear the apps data. Then try to setup flaming durtles again.

I believe the problem is that the data google is syncing for backups isn’t setup properly by the app developer. So it transfers some of the app data to your new phone, but then leaves the app’s backend in a corrupted state. This is just my opinion as I have done app development for android in the past for work. The dev probably just doesn’t deal with this a lot because how often do users switch to new phones. And although its a large user base for this app in the WK community, its very small in the grand scheme of things.

Hope this helps.

1 Like
2010

I agree. The dev is awesome. In the beginning when he was super active, he actually took. a lot of my advice and added those features. For instance, showing only relevant information when you fail an item. So if I fail the reading, it only shows reading information and not meaning information until you click a button. Same vice versa with meaning.

The dev put so much work into this thing its amazing.

2 Likes
2011

Yeah it’s a really well made app, it’s impressive how fully featured it is, especially when you compare how barebones standard WK is…

2 Likes
2012

I only know to increase volume over 100% globally – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jazibkhan.equalizer

2013

I have a new phone and am trying to get the api key accepted, even made 2 new ones. But I keep getting a message that the api key is invalid. Does anyone know how I could solve this? This was my go to method to study wanikani

1 Like
2014

Due to kana-only vocab coming soon to WK, @Joeni was helpful enough to try and update the Flaming Durtles app under the new name.

This is the relevant thread:

The new version is still in beta stage and not yet available in Play Store (only as an APK file), but as

it may help with any issues with new phones (@Hisuhn).

6 Likes
2015

OH, HELLO (PROBABLE) FLAMING DURTLE USER…

As @Aislin mentioned, and as you may have noticed in other threads discussing the introduction of kana-only vocab to WaniKani, I saw the level of concern shown by users that Flaming Durtles would stop working once the new vocab type was introduced.

The app hasn’t been maintained on github for the past three years (though did receive an update last year that made it Android 12 compliant that isn’t reflected in the repo code) , but it was released under open-source licencing with full permission of the original developer to release it provided the name is changed and so I’ve spent the past week taking the original Flaming Durtles base code and updating it to support the new kana vocab.

I’m releasing the app as SMOULDERING DURTLES

I’ll be hopefully anticipation the most common questions here…

How is this different to Flaming Durtles?

In practical terms, as you use it, nothing will be different to what you’re used to, but under the surface these changes are the most significant:

Kana-only vocabulary is fully supported, appearing as Tofugu intend within vocabulary for the purposes of browsing and progress information, but with distinct info cards and advanced search filtering options for them.

The background API and download handling service has been upgraded, which should make it more graceful at handling slow connections or the app being quit. This should also allow things like options for downloading

Can I just keep using Flaming Durtles

It should theoretically keep working, with the following caveat:

TL;DR: Yes, but kana items won’t be handled correctly and it may not work forever

The way it has been coded means that any unknown subject type stored in the database defaults to being handled as a ‘radical’ for most functions and therefore you’ll get some issues of varying severity, though largely involving display. Nothing with break, as the code is fairly resilient in handling situations where a vocab item doesn’t have a reading, for example (it just doesn’t show one or ask for one) and radicals and kana both share question types in any case. However, you’ll not be able to filter for kana vocab items, get any data on them, etc. and so it’s not particularly ideal.

More technically, it may not be installable via Google Play much longer for newer devices. The app has been updated to support Android 12, but the code remains using API level 29. Android 13 (API level 33) has been set so that Google will not make apps searchable or installable that are below API level 30 - the practical implication of this is that as you update Android on your phones or get newer devices, Flaming Durtles may no longer be installable.

16 Likes
2016

Can your fork and the original Flaming Durtles be installed side-by-side without issue or should one deinstall one to install the other?

1 Like
2017

Yes, they work side by side.

2 Likes
2018

As @tobia says, they should work fine side by side - there’s no database crossover or anything that would prove an issue :+1:t3:

2 Likes
2019

Yeah I can confirm that it works without any issue.

2 Likes
2020

Thank you I tried out the new app and this works (though I get push notifications from flaming durtles but I can’t get past the api screen)

1 Like