Glimpse

I've tried a lot of flashcard apps. I never stuck with any of them. Opening an app and committing to a study session always felt like a chore, so I'd just not do it. But I pick up my phone constantly and my home screen is right there..

So I built Glimpse. You create flashcard decks or quizzes, drop a widget on your home screen, and your cards rotate throughout the day. Every time you glance at your phone, there's something to learn. Tap to flip, swipe to move on. No app launch, no session timer, no guilt.

I believe the experience goes beyond what you'd expect from a widget. You can schedule flashcards in the morning and quizzes in the evening, import your existing decks from other learning tools or CSVs, and even upload a PDF and generate cards with AI. You can also build decks on the web and sync them to your phone automatically. It also allows you to create todo lists, countdowns, quote boards, and daily trivia.

WidgetKit was the hardest part. Apple widgets are pre-rendered snapshots on a strict refresh budget with tight memory limits. Making something feel responsive when you're really just submitting a timeline of frozen states forced me to rethink how about how the user still have a quality experience.

I built everything solo. The tech stack is swift and SwiftUI on iOS, Rails and PostgreSQL on the backend, and privacy-first analytics so no personal data leaves the device. I launched on the App Store in March 2026 with zero marketing spend. I'm focused on making the product good enough that people keep coming back.

I'd love to hear you thoughts!