Decks are how you organize your vocabulary in Snap to Learn. Think of each deck as a collection of words for a specific topic, textbook chapter, or lesson. There are several ways to create them, from scanning a page with your camera to importing a deck someone shared with you.
Your Deck Creation Options
To get started, tap + on the Decks screen: at the top right on iPhone and iPad, or at the bottom right on Android. The New deck sheet slides up with four options:
- Scan a page -- open your camera and photograph a page
- Pick a photo -- choose a photo you already have
- Create empty deck -- start a blank deck and add words yourself
- Import deck by ID -- paste a link or ID that someone shared with you
No decks yet? Then the same four options show right on the Decks screen, under Create your first deck.
Scanning a Page
This is the main way to build your vocabulary. Point your camera at any page that has words on it -- a textbook page, a worksheet, handwritten notes, a vocabulary list -- and Snap to Learn does the rest.
The AI is smart about understanding what it sees:
- Bilingual vocabulary lists (like a French-German word list from a textbook) -- it recognizes both languages and extracts the word pairs directly.
- Regular text (a paragraph from a book, an article, a passage) -- it picks out the important vocabulary, then looks up translations, definitions, and example sentences for each word.
For every word it extracts, you get:
- Translation
- Definition
- Example sentences
- Pronunciation
- Part of speech
Choosing Where to Put Your Words
After you take the photo, the Add words screen opens. To make a new deck, type its name in the New deck row and tap Create deck. To add the words to a deck you already have, pick it under Or add to a deck and tap Add to deck.
While It Processes
Once you pick a deck, the scan uploads, and an Uploading card on the Decks screen shows its progress. Keep the app open until the upload finishes -- it only takes a moment on a good connection. Then the AI gets to work extracting your vocabulary in the background, so you can keep using the app: a Processing your scan card on the Decks screen shows how it's going, and you'll get a notification when your words are ready.
How Much Vocabulary Can You Build?
A typical textbook or workbook page contains around 40 words, so each scan goes a long way. Your 3 free scans alone can give you a starter vocabulary of around 120 words to practice.
With a subscription (80 scans per month), you could scan an entire textbook and build a vocabulary of 3,200+ words in a single month. You can also buy one-time scan packs of 20, 50, or 100 scans if you just need a boost. See Settings and Account for details.
Picking a Photo
This works exactly like scanning, but instead of opening the camera, it opens your photo library. Pick any image and the AI processes it the same way.
This is handy when you already snapped a photo of a worksheet earlier, or if a teacher sent you a picture of the vocabulary list. No need to re-photograph anything.
Creating an Empty Deck
Sometimes you want to build a deck from scratch -- maybe you're collecting words from a conversation, or you want to make a custom list for an upcoming test. Tap Create empty deck and a New deck screen opens where you name your deck, then tap the ✓ at the top right (on Android, the Create deck button). It automatically uses your active language pair.
Once the deck is created, you can add words to it manually, one at a time.
Importing a Deck by ID
If a classmate, teacher, or parent shared a deck with you, this is how you grab it. Tap Import deck by ID and paste the deck ID or the share link into the text field. The sheet shows what the deck holds (its words and any exercises) and, if you don't have its language pair yet, that it will create it for you. Tap Import Deck and the entire deck -- with all its words, translations, and example sentences -- loads right into your app.
This is a great way for teachers to distribute vocabulary to a whole class, or for study partners to share what they've scanned.
Language Pairs
Every deck belongs to a language pair, like "English to German" or "German to French." This tells the app which language you're learning and which language you already know.
You can manage your language pairs by tapping the flag icon in the top-left corner of the Decks screen. From there you can:
- See which language pair is currently active
- Switch between language pairs by tapping one
- Add a new language pair with the Add language pair button
- Remove a language pair you no longer need by swiping it to the left
If you're learning more than one language (say, French at school and Spanish on your own), just add both language pairs and switch between them whenever you need to. Your decks stay organized under the right pair automatically.