Generate flashcards with AI
Use Apple Intelligence to build a deck from a topic, add AI cards to a deck you already have and fill in the other side of a card.
Swiftflip can generate a starter deck for you with Apple Intelligence. In the current build it runs on your device, so your topics stay private. Version 1.16 adds a second engine you can pick in Settings, described at the end of this guide. This guide covers the three ways to use generation and how to get good results.
AI generation is a Premium feature and needs a device that supports Apple Intelligence.
Preview: These screenshots show the conversational wizard from the Swiftflip 1.16 release candidate. Version 1.15.0 still uses the earlier stepped flow.
AI generation in 1.16
iPhone
Review the conversation
The wizard keeps each choice in the transcript, so you can change one answer before generation.
iPad
Keep the deck in view
The wizard opens over the deck while its cards and library remain visible.
The deck name is the topic
Swiftflip generates cards from the deck name, not from pasted notes or a document. So the name does the work, and a specific name gives better cards.
- Vague: Spanish
- Better: Spanish greetings and introductions
- Better: French verbs in the past tense
Think of the name as the prompt.
Create a new deck with AI
Tap the add button, choose New Deck and give it a descriptive name. Then tap Create with AI. Swiftflip opens a short wizard:
- Number of cards: how many cards to generate
- Card style: Question & Answer or Term & Definition
- Difficulty level: from Any Level to Expert
Tap Generate Cards on the review step. Swiftflip writes the cards on your device and adds them to the new deck.
Add AI cards to an existing deck
Open a deck and choose Generate Cards. Swiftflip uses the deck name as the topic and looks at your existing cards so the new ones match the style and avoid repeats. This is useful when a deck needs more coverage.
Fill in one side of a card
In the card editor, Generate with AI fills an empty side from the side you already wrote. Type the front of a card, leave the back blank and let Swiftflip suggest the answer. Check it before you save.
If Swiftflip asks for more detail
If a topic is broad, Swiftflip asks you to add detail after the first pass. A name like Java could mean the language or the island. Add a sentence describing the cards you want and it tries again.
Review for accuracy
AI gets things wrong sometimes. Swiftflip adds the cards to your deck so you can read through them and edit anything that needs a fix. Treat the result as a fast first draft, not a finished deck.
Current development build
Swiftflip’s current development build replaces the stepped generator with the same conversational wizard on iPhone, iPad and Mac. It starts from the deck name, then asks what the cards should focus on. Choose one or more suggestions, type your own focus or use the whole topic. For vocabulary decks, Swiftflip may also ask which language should appear first.
Next, choose the Number of cards, Card style and Difficulty. At the summary, select Change something to update one answer or Create Cards to start. Swiftflip shows live progress and the latest card front, checks the generated cards for accuracy and only then adds the complete batch to the deck.
When generation finishes, Show cards opens a read-only New Cards list. Edit or delete cards from the deck after closing the wizard. On iPhone and iPad, generation can continue in the background when the system allows it. This conversation is newer than build 226 and is not part of version 1.15.0.
Choosing an engine in 1.16
Version 1.16 adds Cloud AI on iPhone and iPad. It writes cards on our servers instead of your device, so you can generate cards without an Apple Intelligence device. Pick the engine in Settings. On-device generation stays available and Mac keeps Apple Intelligence until Cloud AI reaches it.
On iPhone and iPad, Cloud AI is the default engine for Premium. Swiftflip tells you before the first Cloud AI request, and Settings switches back to on-device generation whenever you want.
While Cloud AI is the engine, it sends the topic, any instructions you wrote and the existing cards in that deck so new cards do not repeat them. It does not send your images or your audio, and it never touches decks you are not generating into. We pass that text to OpenAI to write the cards. Switch to on-device generation and none of that happens. See the privacy policy for what we do with the text.
This is not in the current App Store build.
Where it works
You can generate cards on iPhone, iPad and Mac. On Mac the keyboard shortcut for Generate Cards is Command Shift G. Apple Watch is for practice, so build decks on a bigger device.
Once your deck exists, see how Swiftflip helps you memorize and learn to build a daily habit.