New study screen inconsistent with old

[timrae]

Checked for duplicates?

• This issue is not a duplicate

Does it also happen in the desktop version?

• This bug does not occur in the latest version of Anki Desktop

What are the steps to reproduce this bug?

Hi all thanks for developing the new study screen, it's very useful as when I interact with embedded buttons they don't trigger the gestures.

However there are a couple of regressions I noticed almost straight away that I would ask you to fix:

1. The navigation drawer does not show, which introduces an extra click to enter the browser, and another to go back to the study screen.

2. The order of items in the overflow menu is different from the old study screen. This breaks muscle memory, and imo the new order is not an improvement.

Expected behaviour

Consistency with old study screen

Debug info

N/A

(Optional) Anything else you want to share?

No response

Research

• I have checked the manual and the FAQ and could not find a solution to my issue
• (Optional) I have confirmed the issue is not resolved in the latest alpha release (instructions)

[ZornHadNoChoice]

You can completely customize the toolbar actions (Settings -> New study screen -> Toolbar actions) and assign gestures to open the browser/statistics (Settings -> Controls).

[timrae]

The app should also provide sensible defaults and a consistent UX

[BrayanDSO]

Probably too late to become consistent now. Most people should have the new order saved on their SharedPreferences by now.

On the other hand, a disruptive approach can drive users to explore their settings, leading them to discover the new option to reorder menu actions.

The app should also provide sensible defaults

You need to be specific. "Sensible" is a subjective term.

If you mean the new actions Browse and Statistics, I don't think they should be primary actions, as they are meant to leave the screen, not interact with the current screen, and they are more useful to intermediate/advanced users.

If you mean a sensible order, it doesn't matter. It can be reordered. The old order doesn't make sense to me as well. I haven't put much thought on the new order, and nobody seems to care (i.e. you are the first one to complain), so it's okay.

As the two problems in the original post have solutions, do you have any other reason to keep this issue open?

[timrae]

I haven't put much thought on the new order

This is the problem right here. Somebody at some point before you in the lineage of Ankidroid maintainers (me) did put a lot of thought into, and did strive to provide a good consistent UX for users, and then you go and change UX patterns without even thinking about them

If you do not want to fix the regressions then you don't have to, I can do it myself. Do not close the issue.

[BrayanDSO]

You still haven't been specific about what you want to do.

Is it changing the order?

Changing the order to what exactly?

What's is your rationale for that order?

Have you find an user that's actually impacted by that?

How can someone say that the old order is better than the new one?

How much that matters when you can reorder to what actually suits you better?

Is this just a bikeshed?

Is it only about being consistent? It's something I should have done when I implemented the new actions, but I haven't. My bad. But as I said, probably too late and probably doesn't matter now.

Changing it is just moving lines around an Enum, it should take less than a minute to do. If anything sensible is proposed, I'm up to it.

[BrayanDSO]

Based on the creation of a PR without replying here first, I feel that I'm not being heard.

About the navigation drawer, the app is being currently moved to a bottom-bar navigation and the drawer is going to be removed. That's an accepted GSoC 2026 project, mentored by other maintainers.

Adding a navigation drawer there would be temporary work because it would be removed later anyway. As it isn't the default screen + people can keep using the old one + we have limited human resources + adding the drawer may create bugs + there are sensible alternatives (the Browse and Statistics actions can be triggered in two taps if put in the menu, like the drawer, or even in one tap if they are on the toolbar or use a gesture/keybind), reviewing and merging it wouldn't be the best option, IMO.

About keeping the actions old order, send a PR if you want. Honestly, I don't think that's a necessary change, and I'd rather discuss it, but it isn't a bad idea either. If you are bothered by it, a PR would be accepted.

[timrae]

Based on the creation of a PR without replying here first, I feel that I'm not being heard.

Well, to be heard you first have to say something. If you had mentioned the GSOC project in the first place I wouldn't have opened up a PR or wasted half a day building it. All I heard from you with regards to the nav drawer specifically in your message was "no, you can configure a gesture for that".

In general there is an expectation of Ankidroid maintainers not to shut users down like this. Even more so towards fellow contributors; this is a community and we need to keep a welcoming collaborative atmosphere here. Of course I understand first hand how exhausting this can be, but that's part of the job.

the app is being currently moved to a bottom-bar navigation and the drawer is going to be removed. That's an accepted GSoC 2026 project, mentored by other maintainers.

Can you please point me to a UX spec or some detailed documentation for exactly what is the scope of this project, and why this new UX is preferred? A bottom navigation bar would not be a good fit for phones running AnkiDroid in my opinion, as it consumes too much precious vertical space. The slide out drawer UX pattern was chosen for this reason.

[BrayanDSO]

Can you please point me to a UX spec or some detailed documentation for exactly what is the scope of this project

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oZKdod9ddy5K3YAPIWHeSpoYt6PtONBvukxepOcBPkw

If you want to discuss it further, discord is a better place for that. There's a channel for the project and things are being discussed there.

[timrae]

Thanks for the link, that clarifies the direction a lot. The mock-up in the document with the navigation bar and FAB at the bottom of the reviewer looks good. I think this solves a legitimate pain point, and losing those pixels doesn't hurt too much there.

However the same UX regression (1) I pointed out here exists in that proposal. I think it's reasonable to expect that in the new design you should be able to navigate to any of the top level screens from the reviewer, without using a gesture.

For this keeping the hamburger icon around in the reviewer with some kind of popout navigation like in #21143 might still be the best approach.

[BrayanDSO]

you should be able to navigate to any of the top level screens from the reviewer, without using a gesture.

Currently, the user can navigate without using a gesture by putting in the menu or in the toolbar.

Screen_Recording_20260525_192716_AnkiDroid.mp4

Also:

1. It keeps looking good if the toolbar is put at the bottom of the screen.
2. It can be removed or reordered if the user don't use those actions.
3. It doesn't duplicate features (having both the menu options and the drawer)
4. Still two taps, or even only one.
5. Assignable to keybinds/controllers

So I still think that's a better alternative than a navigation drawer.

Fundamentally, those actions aren't very different from going to other screens like the note editor in Add, which are also menu actions

At the moment, they are not in the menu by default, but they could if a case is done.

---

About the other stuff currently in the navigation drawer:

1. Settings doesn't have a menu action, so it currently needs more taps to be reached. IMO, needing settings as a frequent action means that there is some feature design problem in the app making the user change something frequently, so I don't think that it should be added. If someone makes a strong case, I wouldn't oppose it too much, as it isn't something that problematic (besides [Bug] Reviewer isn't updated on changed settings while it is open #11046)

2. Help shouldn't be frequent.

3. I'd love if Support AnkiDroid was frequent

[BrayanDSO]

And if the user wants to have a lot of items in the toolbar, they can now, as it is scrollable

Screen_Recording_20260525_194753_AnkiDroid.mp4