Widget: Save first, then display on the screen

Setting up the widget fails because of the order, not the gesture. People press and hold the home screen, select DeutschSprechen, and the box remains empty. The app didn't yet know what to display. First, the app settings. Then the home screen. Three steps, then leave it alone.

I’m writing this down because I got it mixed up myself once and spent a week thinking an empty rectangle was a bug.

Step One, in the App

Menu. App Settings. Widget. Check the box for current vocabulary words and the number of due reviews. Don’t select everything on the list. Three to seven words. Save. Open it while logged in; otherwise, the number might be inaccurate. Without logging in, the widget will later be polite but useless.

The words are stored locally. You don’t have to wait for the cloud. You have to save them.

Step Two: The Device

Android: Long-press an empty spot, Widgets, DeutschSprechen, drag to resize. Some manufacturers hide this under “Edit Home Screen.” iPhone: Press and hold, tap the plus sign, find the app, and choose the size the system offers. The home screen provides the frame. Step one filled in the content. If you do step two first, delete the empty frame and start over at step one. Don’t set the same empty frame five times.

Step Three: Check Once

Compare the number in the app with the number in the box. If they don’t match, save, delete the widget, and add it again. Do the same after an update if the box is gone. Turn off battery saver mode if the counter hasn’t moved in days and you’ve learned the pattern. Then leave it alone. You won’t notice a widget you move around every week.

What to Do With It Next

Check the number in the morning. Over twenty: in the evening, only the ones due—eight of them. Under five: two new sets, out loud. Setup is complete. Usage is the stack. SRS doesn’t concern the frame. The frame only shows how many cards are due today. Swipe, try again, or “I know this one”—it stays in the app.

That’s also how it’s described in the Kılavuz: Widget. Depending on the device, the same instructions: Android and iPhone.

Then forget that these were steps

Setting up the widget takes half a minute. The next few weeks are just a glance. If you go through the steps again every Monday, you’ve turned the setup into content. The content is the words. App settings set correctly once. Home screen set correctly once. Then the cards.

I only check if something looks empty or if the number freezes. Otherwise, I don’t touch the settings. Every time you reopen the toggles, you turn a reminder into a project. The project is the sentence. Three to seven words on the screen, the number next to them, eight cards in the evening, two of them read aloud. If the box disappears after an update, repeat the three steps again, in the same order, and then forget about it again. The home screen is a nail. You don’t pull nails out every week to see if they still work. If the box stays empty, step one has almost always been skipped. Back to the app settings, check the box, save, clear the frame, reset. Check the login if the number is acting up. Don’t keep fiddling with it after that. Setting up the widget is done when the number matches the stack. Eight cards on the same evening are the test—not moving it around a fifth time on the home screen. Android and iPhone differ in the gesture. They do not differ in this order. First the app, then the pin. If you reverse that, you’ll end up with empty frames and blame it on a bug in the app. It’s the order. Get it right once, then leave it alone until an update actually removes the frame. Then do it again, and forget about it once more.

DeutschSprechen fills out the form in the app settings. The device displays it. Setting up the widget follows this sequence—it’s not about a third app.