We salute you API Version 1

As a very sad user of WK for Android, I tried Flaming Durtles and hated it. Interface is low-effort looking. Any other good alternatives out there?

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I think that the only other app that’s maintained is Leap For Wanikani

I’d say that even if you don’t like the look of the interface of Flaming Durtles, that you should give it a try using it for a week at least; it has a very good feature set, with most of the most popular scripts integrated, etc.

Sometimes it’s not worth judging a book by it’s cover when it comes to apps with features vs appearance.

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Alright, I’ll give it a shot. Still really bummed about WK. Honestly, it’s kind of crazy that WaniKani still doesn’t have official mobile apps.

From a development perspective, you have to understand that they’re a very small team and have to focus their time on what is deemed most beneficial to the community. If you see things from their perspective, they provide an excellent API, which the community has done great things with. Could they make apps better than Flaming Durtles and Tsurukame? Probably, with time, but why? Would their time not be better spent making the best possible platform for learning on the web?

Most companies face similar development issues and you’ll see some sites have excellent apps and terrible sites. I’m just happy that WaniKani is such a well designed and extensible site, with all the scripting and stuff they allow.

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There may be hope for you. See here.

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@Kumirei Thanks for the shout out. First off, I’ll say I really like WK, we salute you API 1, and welcome API 2. The core team did a great job with it.

@naut @Joeni I’m the creator of Leap for WaniKani and from my perspective, the problem we currently face isn’t so much technical expertise as it is legal and long-term ownership. I can make a full port of the website as an app with the WK design system - you can check out the thread Kumieri posted - and an iOS version is doable as well. However, in my opinion, until the API terms are loosened and the company allows third-party developers to charge a modest price for their apps, we’ll continue to be in a quasi-supported app state. Understandably, there are a lot of reasons why the company may not want to develop it themselves and I had some experimental ideas around an open source proposal to try and reach a balance.

@prouleau That’s interesting because it looks like a revival of a legacy app, but I looked at the code and it’s webview-driven as well, so it’s not much different than Leap for WaniKani today with the exception of some of recently studied items. Also, it sounds like the original person who has control over the app KeyStore for releases is MIA. Flaming Durtles is the first to tackle Lessons and Reviews with native Android support which is really the big ticket item we want. :tophat:

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I talked to the author back when they first announced that they were sunsetting V1, so they aren’t unreachable. They did say that they didn’t have any plans on updating it for V2, though

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Thankfully we have you as the guardian of the open source tools. ┬─┬ノ(ಠ_ಠノ)

Either way, if someone wants an update to the webview, they can file a GitHub Issue request with Leap and I’ll release it. It is ironic since I am the principal author, but we don’t need more WK apps with webviews. A strategic direction on where we are headed with all of this is needed.

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You care about looks more than functionality?

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You say that as if it’s strange, but looks and user experience are very important to many people. I’ll take a website/app with 80% of the functionality of another site if the user experience is vastly superior any day of the week. There’s a reason I use Kitsun and not Anki.

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I see what you mean but I’m purely talking about looks, when you say user experience you’re implying more than just looks I assume. Anki takes a bit of setting up compared to Kitsun in your case so I can understand that.

Yes and no. I installed Anki years ago, saw the user interface, and immediately uninstalled it. So I literally only saw the looks and made a judgement based on that.

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oh, ok. Well then, I’m probably one of the very few people not within the many you’ve described since I care very little about looks.

UIs are important. It’s not only about how an app looks, the UI is also how you interact with the app. Every moment of every day that you are using an app, the UI influences how you can get things done, how you are experiencing its content and functionality, and any annoyances keep on grating over and over and over again. It’s perfectly legit to refuse to use a specific app just because you don’t like the UI. And I’m quite aware that FD’s UI is not to everybody’s taste - I certainly don’t blame anyone for not wanting to use it because of that. And what’s a good UI will vary from person to person. FD’s flat UI simplicity is a minus for some, but a plus for others.

Having said that, a lot of UI dislikes are not so much “this is a bad UI for me”, and more “this UI is different from what I’m used to”. The latter is something that usually goes away after taking some time to get used to it. So it’s always a good idea to give something new a try before rejecting it.

All in all, things are looking good for WK users on Android, it’s probably a good thing that the APIv1 shutdown is shaking things up. Between FD, Leap for WK, Jakeipuu, and an active effort to resurrect the old WK for Android app, there’s a lot of choice :smile: and choice is good.

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Is it gone?

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:open_mouth: when did that happen…

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Well, this is a piece of history then.

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It’s a conspiracy! They’re trying to hide the existence of the paticles!

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Indeed, probably Koichi trying to hide stuff.

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