Snap to Learn helps you pick up new vocabulary in any language — fast. Snap a photo of any text (a textbook page, a menu, a street sign), and the app's AI pulls out the important words and turns them into flashcards you can practice by writing or typing. This guide walks you through installing the app and getting set up for the first time.
Install the App
Snap to Learn is available for both iOS and Android. Download it from the store for your device:
- iPhone / iPad — search for "Snap to Learn" on the App Store
- Android — search for "Snap to Learn" on Google Play
The app is free to download and comes with 3 free scans to get you started -- enough to build a vocabulary of around 120 words right away. No account or sign-up is required; the app creates an anonymous session automatically.
Walking Through the Welcome Slides
When you first open the app, four short slides walk you through a study week with the app, using a sample deck called "Unit 8":
- Snap your homework page — Take a photo of any page and get a word deck in seconds.
- Write it to remember it — Write or type each word and see right away if it's right.
- Use your words in stories — Fill in the blanks in short stories made from your own words.
- Be ready for test day — Pick your test date and the app reminds you when to practice.
Tap Next to move through the slides, or swipe between them. On the last slide, tap Get started. If you've seen enough, tap Skip in the top-right corner at any time to go straight to the next step. The slides only appear once.
Privacy and Data Collection
Before you continue, the app asks if you'd like to share anonymous usage data. Here's what that means in plain terms:
- The data collected is things like which screens you visit, which features you use, and any errors you run into.
- This information is never used for advertising — it only helps improve the app.
- You can tap Not now to decline, and the app works exactly the same either way.
By continuing past this screen you also agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy, which are linked right there if you want to read them. (On Android the sheet links to the Privacy Policy only.)
If you swipe the sheet away without answering, you go back to the intro slides, and it asks again next time you tap Get started or Skip.
Choose Your Languages
After the privacy question, a sheet asks for your two languages. At the top you see two fields side by side: I speak and I'm learning.
- Tap your native language in the list, for example English. It fills the I speak field, and the list moves on to the language you're learning.
- Tap the language you're learning. The app supports 50+ languages, including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and many more. Use the search bar to find one quickly.
- The title changes to Ready to learn. Tap Let's go!
Picked the wrong language? Tap the field you want to change and choose again.
Got a shared deck?
If a teacher, parent, or friend has shared a deck with you, tap Deck code? at the top right of the sheet. Paste the share link or the deck ID into the Link or deck ID field (the Paste button does it in one tap), and tap Add deck. The deck and its languages are set up for you, and you're ready to practice.
What Happens Next
Once you finish setup, you'll land on the Decks screen — your main library where all your vocabulary decks live. It already holds a Demo Deck for your language pair: ten everyday words and a few fill-in-the-blanks exercises, so you can try practicing and exercises before scanning anything. The Demo Deck is always free to use. From here you can:
- Tap + to snap your first photo and create a deck. On iPhone and iPad it sits at the top right; on Android it floats at the bottom right.
- Open the Demo Deck, or any deck you've imported, and start practicing.
- Explore the three main tabs at the bottom: Decks, Statistics, and Profile.
You start with 3 free scans -- each page typically gives you around 40 words, so that's roughly 120 words of vocabulary to practice right away. Go ahead and try scanning a page from a textbook, a restaurant menu, or anything with text in your target language.
One more thing worth knowing: your data is stored locally on your device. Everything works without creating an account.