Once a flashcard collection passes a few hundred cards, finding one specific card is the hardest part of the workflow. Swiftflip makes it as fast as system search.
Decks and cards in Spotlight
Swiftflip indexes deck names and card fronts into Spotlight on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Open Spotlight from the home screen or with ⌘ Space on Mac, type part of a card front or a deck name and matching Swiftflip results appear alongside the rest of your search.
That is enough to skip the manual hunt through deck lists and folders.
Tap a result, open the card
Spotlight results in Swiftflip act like deep links. Tap one and Swiftflip opens directly to the deck the card belongs to. From there you can edit the card, practice the deck or move on.
How indexing happens
Indexing runs locally on the device. New cards and renamed decks are picked up automatically. There is no manual reindex step and no setup screen.
Privacy of indexed data
Spotlight runs on your device. Swiftflip cards stay in your private iCloud sync the same way they always have. Nothing about the indexing involves a server or an account.
If you prefer to keep some apps out of system search, the system Settings let you exclude apps from Spotlight. Swiftflip respects that setting.
Get the most out of it
A few patterns that tend to make Spotlight more useful:
- name decks distinctively so they are easy to type
- write card fronts in a way that is searchable later
- use Spotlight to locate a card before editing rather than scrolling deck lists
Combined with Smart Decks and Siri Shortcuts, this makes the time between “I want to study” and “I am studying” measured in seconds.