Repeet Is a Bare-Bones Flashcard App, but It's Great for Studying a New Language
Repeet App
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The Good
- Translates words automatically
- Features a Chrome extension for easy generation
The Bad- Is really only suited to language studying
Table of Contents
On my mission to find and review the best flashcard apps, I've run into quite a few varieties. Most apps on the market can generate flashcards using simple methods, like by turning Google Sheets documents into flashcard decks or letting you tap into the power of AI, and they're well suited to studying just about anything, from geography to history to math. Repeet, however, is good at one very specific thing: Helping you study a foreign language. Yes, you can do that with all the other apps, too, but since Repeet is tailored to this unique category of learner, it might be in your best interest to check it out, whether through iOS, Android, or its Chrome extension.
What is Repeet?
Repeet is a flashcard app designed to help you master another language and, in my opinion, works best for someone who is truly studying that language, especially in a class setting. You can combine flashcards from different sets to practice them together, review decks offline, practice pronunciation with a text-to-speech feature, and generate cards pretty easily, both manually within the app or using the Chrome extension.
How Repeet worked for me on mobile
I downloaded the app and fired it up, noticing right away that it's very bare-bones once you create an account—it's really just a white screen that has one button for creating a flashcard set, a list of your sets, another button to start practicing whichever set you select, and a link to your profile. On the profile tab, you can upgrade to a Premium version, set how many cards you like to study per review session, toggle on dark mode, and send the developers feedback.
Really, there isn't much to this one—but that's fine, since it's a very focused, single-use app that is meant for a very specific category of student.
I pressed the "+ Set" button to create a new set, unsure if maybe the app would generate some suggestions for me. No. I had to do it all manually. I started thinking up some simple Spanish words—salir, abrir, papel, and whatever other easy ones I could come up with on the spot—and resigned myself to the fact I'd be doing all this by hand. One thing surprised me right away: As I started typing papel into the text-entry box marked "Front side," a little suggestion appeared below the one that said "Back side." The suggestion said "paper." Papel does, in fact, mean paper, so the app was translating my input in real time. I looked closer and noticed that the "Front side" box was marked "Automatic" and the "Back side" box was marked English, so it was automatically detecting the entries from the first box and translating them into the language set on the second. Tapping either "Automatic" or "English" brought me to a long, long list of languages the app supports. Learning Azerbaijani? What about Frisian? Lingala? Luxembourgish? They're all in here.
Is it annoying to have to manually create your own flashcards when other apps allow you to import data from Google Sheets or PDFs or even let you command AI to do it for you? Sure. Is it helpful to have to do it yourself to start committing the words to memory right away? Annoyingly, yes. Unlike other apps on the market, I couldn't find any other way to create my flashcard sets, at least not in the mobile version. There was also no library of pre-existing sets, which most other apps also have. To use Repeet, you have to do it all yourself.
Moreover, the review system isn't very involved, either. When you finish flipping a card to reveal its answer, you can tap a red "X" or green checkmark to indicate whether you got it wrong or right and anything you got wrong will be served up to you again at the end of the review. The more you review the cards, the more data you collect. On completion, you see a page that shows you, on a percentage scale from 0 to 100, how well you know each term or phrase. That's about it.
How Repeet worked for me with the Chrome extension
I added the Chrome extension to my browser and searched for a list of common Spanish words, just to see what the extension would do when I opened a website full of foreign phrases. At first, I couldn't tell if it was doing anything, but then I highlighted a phrase and a little pink symbol appeared under my highlight. Tapping it opened a small menu that displayed that same "Front side" and "Back side" text-entry box from the mobile app, which were filled in with the Spanish prompt and English answer, plus a button I could press to add it to my set. (You can create various sets, which will appear in the menu in a drop-down menu, so you can add highlighted words and phrases to whichever deck makes sense.)
I did that and the phrase appeared in the set I made on my phone. I was able to review it during a flashcard session right away.
What does paying for Repeet get you?
Like I said, the profile tab offers you the option to upgrade to a Premium subscription. I was able to do everything I wanted to for free, so I looked to see what I would get if I forked over some money. For $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year, you can unlock three abilities: The ability to continue practicing cards you've learned to 100%, to undo wrong swipes, and to get rid of ads. Those are nice, but not necessary. The free version works great and, since you're seeing ads every once in a while, you don't have to feel bad that the developers aren't getting any money from you directly.
Whom is Repeet for?
In my opinion, this works best for someone who is formally studying a language, especially in class, because its best feature is definitely that Chrome extension. It takes a little time to highlight every word or phrase, click the pink button, and add them to your set, but not nearly as much time as manually creating the set would—so if you're getting presentations, worksheets, or vocab lists regularly, this is going to be a major benefit. It can also be helpful if you're trying to learn on your own, especially if you're someone who likes to immerse yourself in a language by trying to read it naturally, say, in a book or article online. Repeet automatically translates for you, so you can just highlight a word you don't know, click that pink button, and it'll show you what it means. Whether you add it to your deck or not, though there's no harm in sticking it in a set while you're at it. The app works great in its free version and makes card creation relatively simple with its ability to automatically translate manual inputs.
Lindsey Ellefson is Lifehacker’s Features Editor. She currently covers study and productivity hacks, as well as household and digital decluttering, and oversees the freelancers on the sex and relationships beat. She spent most of her pre-Lifehacker career covering media and politics for outlets like Us Weekly, CNN, The Daily Dot, Mashable, Glamour, and InStyle. In recent years, her freelancing has focused on drug use and the overdose crisis, with pieces appearing in Vanity Fair, WIRED, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, and more. Her story for BuzzFeed News won the 2022 American Journalism Online award for Best Debunking of Fake News.
In addition to her journalism, Lindsey recently graduated from the NYU School of Global Public Health with her Master of Public Health after conducting research on media bias in reporting on substance use with the Opioid Policy Institute’s Reporting on Addiction initiative. She is also a Schwinn-certified spin class teacher and won the 2023 Dunkin’ Donuts Butter PeContest that earned her a year of free coffee. Lindsey lives in New York, NY.
