Random Cards

Opening the app for the first time

Tap the icon and the screen goes white. A single playing card appears in the center. No tutorial. No menu. No settings button staring back at you. That is the entire onboarding experience for Random Cards. The developer, Bilal Emre Gürkan, built this thing to do exactly one thing: show you a random card every time you tap the screen. Nothing more. Nothing less.

The card flips in with a simple animation. Tap again and it changes. The deck is a standard 52-card set. No jokers. No custom suits. Just the familiar faces — Ace through King, hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades. For someone who just needs a quick random card for a board game or a magic trick, this works. The interface takes up the whole screen. The card sits centered. There is a small counter at the bottom that shows how many cards you have drawn. One user review mentions you can currently draw up to 20 cards in a session. Beyond that, the app does not track what you have seen or prevent duplicates. Every tap is a fresh, independent roll of the digital dice.

This minimalism is the app's strength and its weakness. It gets out of your way. But it also leaves you wanting more. The Play Store description promises it is "perfect for game night, magic tricks, or a fun surprise." For game night, it works fine. You need a card, you tap, you get a card. But for magic tricks? That is where things get complicated.

When ads break the illusion

Magicians rely on flow. The audience watches every move. Any interruption breaks the spell. Random Cards shows an ad after every few draws. Not a banner at the bottom. A full-screen video ad that takes over the entire display. You are in the middle of a routine. You need the next card to complete the reveal. You tap. The ad loads. The audience waits. The moment dies.

This is the original tension at the heart of this app. The feature that makes it useful — quick, one-tap card generation — is directly undermined by the monetization model. Users have been vocal about this. One reviewer wrote: "I honestly just wish there was a way to purchase this app instead of dealing with the adds. ... Mechanically the app is great, but at this point it's basically unstable for my purposes." Another user changed their 5-star review to 3 stars specifically because of ads, noting that "when I initially downloaded it, they didn't exist at all." The ads were added after launch. The app was once ad-free. Now it is not. And there is no premium version to remove them.

For a casual user drawing a card for a board game, the ads are annoying but tolerable. For a magician performing for an audience, they are a dealbreaker. The app offers no way to pay your way out of the interruption. You cannot buy an ad-free experience. You cannot subscribe to remove them. You are stuck with the ads or you uninstall. This is not a problem the Play Store description mentions. It is something you only discover after using the app for more than thirty seconds.

What actually happens when you use it

The ad frequency is the main real-world performance issue. Reviews confirm this repeatedly. One user said: "I am not fond of the ads. since there is no way to get rid of them. why can't we go back to no ads..." The app worked smoothly before the ads were introduced. Now it feels clunky for anyone trying to use it seriously.

Beyond the ads, the app runs without crashes. The card generation is instant. The animation is clean. No bugs in the core functionality. The version history shows minor fixes. APKPure lists version 1.7.1 with "Minor bug fixes and improvements." The Play Store changelog simply says "*52 cards" — which confirms the app uses a standard 52-card deck. Older versions had different sizes. Version 10 was 70.9 MB. Version 1.7.1 is 60.6 MB. The app has gotten smaller over time, which suggests optimization.

The app requests the INTERNET permission. This is how it loads ads. It also collects location data, app activity, and other information according to the Play Store data safety section. The developer states data is encrypted in transit but cannot be deleted. For a simple card generator, this is a lot of data collection. Users who care about privacy should note that the app shares data with third parties — specifically location, app activity, and two other categories. The developer is based in Bursa, Turkey, with a physical address listed on the Play Store: ARABAYATAĞI MAH. ÖNDER ÇIKMAZ SK. NO: 8 İÇ KAPI NO: 3 YILDIRIM / BURSA.

Some users have asked for more features. One reviewer wanted a setting for poker so they "don't have to shuffle as much." Another asked for the second joker. A third wanted a way to import or paste a list to write text on the cards. None of these have been added. The app remains stubbornly simple. It draws cards. It shows ads. That is it.

The INTERNET permission and what it means

Random Cards requires the INTERNET permission. This is not for the card generation. The cards are generated locally on your device. The internet connection is solely for loading advertisements. Without internet, the app still works — it generates cards just fine. But you will not see ads. This is a strange loophole. If you want to use the app ad-free, you can simply turn off your Wi-Fi or mobile data before opening it. The cards still appear. The ads do not. The app does not require an internet connection to function.

The data collection is more concerning. The Play Store data safety section shows the app collects location data, app activity, and two other data types. This information is shared with third parties. For an app that does nothing but show random cards, this level of data collection feels excessive. The developer does not offer an option to opt out. If you install the app, you accept the data collection. There is no privacy policy linked on the Play Store page beyond the standard Google data safety labels.