What a difference eight and a bit months can make, eh? The last time I wrote about learning a new language (Danish/dansk), I was happy with how my first 500 days had gone. Much of this had taken place using the language app Duolingo but after a huge user experience update started to be rolled out over the past few months… I’m no longer happy with Duolingo. And Tuesday, 1 November 2022, sees the update I’ve been fighting with for the past month be rolled out to all users.
I hate the Duolingo update. It sucks. Here’s why.
1. I’ve lost control over how I learn within the app
While progress in Duolingo was previously only partly held back by how much progress you had made in the app, you could pick your own path through learning in the “learning trees”.
It’s not obvious from the above screenshot, but because I had completed food (for instance) I could choose which one of the next two units I focused on next. Often, I would focus only on one unit at a time and then move on to the next. Sometimes I would mix it up if I was dealing with two units that I found equally as hard or as easy.
Now, I’m forced to walk a completely linear path with revision of older lessons done by “personal learning” chosen for me by the app and set as an entire node on the path. Whereas before, I could just go back to an earlier unit quite easily and be rewarded reasonably well in gems for my time and effort. I can go back now to earlier units, but the rewards for doing so are far smaller payouts of gems.
I really don’t like this lack of choice.
2. The update messed up where I had gotten to
Because I had been learning, before the update, across several different modules, there was no way for the new Duolingo update to replicate this learning experience due to its linear nature. So, where I had made good progress with past tense but hadn’t completed it, Duolingo decided to discard all that progress I had made.
It did this just as I was getting used to signs of whether a word was being used in the past tense or not. How it then chose to throw me into learning made what I had learned already, confusing to recall and subsequently all over the place.
Also, because of how different the new setup is, I have no clear idea how I’m progressing now because it is so different.
3. Progress looks like it will take longer than before
The long wandering path of learning now sees me facing 45 units filled with ten individual modules/nodes of learning. Whereas before, the modules were split over far fewer levels.
For me, having to deal with what looks like a long singular journey of learning is more intimidating and off-putting than what was offered by the previous visualisation technique, which showed branches and shorter times to reach big milestones.
4. Where have all my writing exercises gone?
Throughout the previous version of the app, at least on the Danish course, I would be regularly asked to write various translations between English and Danish. While speaking is important in learning any language, I was trying to enjoy Danish media, so learning to read and write was also important to me.
Since the update, I only get full writing exercises during those “personal learning” segments and then it’s not very many and doesn’t switch between translating and writing.
Here are some examples of the older translation exercises I regularly did.
I was hoping to eventually read the Danish translation of Stephen King’s Carrie, but the removal of frequent translation exercises in Duolingo has me thinking that Duo isn’t the place to help me learn those skills anymore.
5. My Duo outfits are gone
Before the update, you could buy outfits for Duo, Duolingo’s mascot, to wear. And I bought every single one of the outfits available using the app’s in-app gems. They cost several tens of gems to several hundred.
Now the outfits are gone. Every single one.
This wouldn’t be so much of an issue if it were not for the fact that I didn’t have the in-app cost of those outfits refunded. Instead, the gems that the outfits cost are lost to the update… an update that has been focused on making gems scarer than they were before. Why?
6. The update is clearly about driving microtransactions, a.k.a. in-app purchases
I was already a subscribed user of Duolingo before this update. (Earlier this year, subscriptions went from being called Duolingo Plus to being called Super Duolingo. It came with a new colour scheme for subscription elements.)
So, as a subscriber who paid out £80.39 for a subscription last December, I’m not exactly keen on giving Duolingo more of my money during a subscription period.
And things were working fine. I would be getting something like several dozen gems a day, along with 30-50 XP, depending on much time I spent on the app doing lessons (usually around 15 minutes). I had a daily learning goal I set in the app. So, I would say that I wanted to get something like 50 XP a day, and I’d be given so many gems depending on much progress I’d made towards this goal.
(XP is used in the “league” Duolingo has, with Diamond being the top league. The more XP you gain per week, the higher the chance you have of progressing up the league.)
With the update, XP payouts are lower per module than they were before, and you gain fewer gems for completing learning goals that aren’t set by you but are, in fact, set by the app. That’s right, self-set learning goals are gone, so the update has taken away yet another element of user control.
But how does this all equate to driving microtransactions?
Two things:
- Bundles to buy gems and time for a timed exercise challenge using actual money are now featured prominently in the app when you go into the shop tab.
- In Duolingo’s 2022 Q2 letter to shareholders, they talked about using another feature that’s being rolled out with the update, “Side Quests”, and using it to “increase revenue by encouraging more people to buy gems.”
(Thanks to Duo_is_sad on Twitter for pointing out this bit of the shareholders’ letter.)
I don’t have access to side quests yet. This brings me to my final point.
8. Duolingo focused on finding ways to gain more money rather than improving people’s learning experiences
Duolingo is ignoring, it seems, nearly any and all criticism they receive about this update. I get trying to make more money. They have shareholders, after all.
But I hate the cheek of them acting like it’s good for users:
Duolingo has carried on like it’s business as normal since the update started to be rolled out.
And I hate that they invested time and money in this update, invested my subscription on it, on stuff that hasn’t made my learning experience better. Because ignoring the linear path crap for a moment, as a Danish learner, I have far fewer features than someone learning French.
Danish subscription learners, along with many other subscription learners learning different languages, are being charged the same subscription costs as someone learning languages that are far more fleshed out.
Features Danish doesn’t have:
- Stories (where you walk through a conversation and type appropriate replies). Stories were added to iOS in 2019.
- Grammar tips (tips about grammar) or lessons that call out aspects of grammar.
There might be more Danish doesn’t have but I don’t have time to go starting up a dozen different language courses in Duolingo to find out. As I summarised this on Twitter:
I have cancelled my annual Duolingo subscription
Once my subscription runs out in December, I won’t be renewing it. I’ve already set it to not renew. I’m working on moving away from such a gamified learning experience when it comes to languages.
Currently, I’m looking at Memrise and Babbel to take over as my main language-learning apps.
Ideally, I’d also take part in Danish lessons with actual Danish-speaking humans, but as I’m about to have a baby, that needs to wait. There’s nowhere in Cornwall, England, that seems to be offering in-person courses on Danish, so I’d likely have to look for online courses run by UK FE or HE institutions.
I’m not going to give up on Danish. I’ll have been learning Danish for two years later in November. It’s just clear to me that Duolingo isn’t worth my time to keep it as a daily fixture in my life, as it’d rather I bought gems than learn in a way that suits my needs.
EDIT: If you’re also peeved by the update there is a Change Petition you can sign about it.
Drowning In Multimedia 
YES! exactly!! I hate the new update. I am spending less time learning just because it has become less enjoyable.
I’m on there once a day at the moment for just one lesson. On Monday, once I’d fallen out of the Diamond league, I got asked if I wanted to spend 2000 gems to get back into Diamond league. Utterly gross what they’re doing with this app.
I hate it. All things mentioned here are spot on! I personally also hate the stories, compared to regular lessons they give me almost nothing but cost me more time and now I am forced to do them. And overall the progression starts to feel more like going in cyrcle which is slowly expanding. I get that practice makes perfect but since most excercises can be done almost without paying attention to caption simply by understanding context it feels sallow. I now feel like some mmorpg grinder doing same unchallenging thing so I can progress by tiny amount.
I liked being able to pick what I could practice, based on what I wanted to practice. The lack of agency now really grates for me. It definitely has that game grinding vibe now.
Off to sign the petition now. I’ve not got the linear path yet (shhh don’t tell them) and I hate the idea of it. Choice and variety are so important to help us feel like we have control.
I promise to say nothing.
And yes! Choice and variety really are important.
We hate the unnecessary and insulting duolingo update and i am canceling my paid subscription.
Hopefully the loss of subscriptions makes them realise what a terrible mistake this update was.
I was also doing the Danish Duolingo course and the update just made it so unfriendly! Your article really summed up a lot of my problems too. Not only does the linear format feel way too restrictive, but all the progress I made got messed up. While I don’t like it, I could live with the new format, but where did the educational value go? The lessons are confusing, I can’t easily navigate to review things, and I don’t have a choice in what I want to learn next. The lessons are dumbed down and these new timed minigames don’t feel educational.
I feel so demotivated now… It’s just crazy to me because just a little while ago I was considering buying a subscription to Duolingo but now I refuse to do that and am currently looking for a different app to switch over to. They’ve messed up big time with this update, in my opinion.
You’re the first fellow Danish learner to comment here or on social media about how awful the update has been.
Frustratingly for us, there are fewer app options, but I’ve been enjoying Memrise and Babbel so far.
Neither still has as much choice as Duolingo’s branches did but they do make you feel like you’re in control of revision, and in the case of Memrise there is “speak with locals” and you hear proper Danish accents pronouncing sentences and words.
Yep there’s not a lot of options for us unfortunately. I’ve been trying out Memrise and I like that it shows natives speaking but other than that I don’t find it too helpful. I will look into Babbel next, though! Hopefully there’s something better out there for us Danish learners!
Another disappointed duolinger here. My language of choice was Japanese and I was delighted with the old Duolingo interface mainly because I was allowed to review lessons that were harder to assimilate considering how difficult is to learn a language like Japanese. Now I was forced to go just forward, forced to learn more and more new stuff instead of strengthen what I have learnt so far.
So I cut my losses and I deleted my Duolingo account.
That ability to strengthen difficult to remember parts was a fantastic function. I hope you’ve found another platform to help you learn Japanese in a way that works for you.
Agreed! I am a Japanese learner and am very frustrated as well. For one thing I don’t like the new monthly quest format that limits your daily progress towards completing the quest. For another I don’t like the friends quests that you have no control over. I also miss having stories in Japanese and decent tips. This is all incredibly disappointing because I was a HUGE fan just a few months ago.
The friends quests are really bugging me.
I think a lot of people were huge fans before the update. Though I wonder how new users are finding it.
Also hate the update. I liked the plateaus (like finishing Spanish 1, then Spanish 2, etc.) even if they were arbitrary. It was motivating to try to complete all units for a level. Now it’s just an endless streak of units…
Those visible markers (the plateaus) really made it feel like you were getting somewhere.
I also hate new duolingo. I PAID FOR THE OLD DUOLINGO for 1 year but i could enjoy just 3 months. I want the old one or ask my money back!
I don’t know if it’s possible to get a refund but here’s a page on Duolingo support around it:
https://support.duolingo.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004068143-How-do-I-request-a-refund-
I agree with every single word.. 🙌🏻 And I am in the same situation, my premium ends the 31st of December and I don’t plan continuing it. I definitely would if it went back to the old version.. 😪
Mine ran out yesterday and I’d reconsider too if it went back to the previous version.
I’m utterly heartbroken. Have a 2257 streak and hate the update, it is genuinely awful and feels like it is tailored at children.
Thanks to duo is sad I currently have the schools hack in place, but for the few weeks between the rollout and getting the hack I too dropped to a single lesson a day to keep my streak with a vague hope they’d change it back. Only a few weeks left before the school hack will stop as they’re apparently ending this option in the new year and then, I guess that will be that!
They really don’t want anyone to have control over how they learn.
I miss being able to set my own goals quite a bit.
But the biggest issue I’m facing is the way it’s presenting stuff now, I’m just not getting the style of repetition I need to learn.
I agree with many of the negative responses. I, like a few others here, was learning Japanese, a tough language for an English learner. The tree method wasn’t great, but it was clear and focused and had a certain logic to it. all they needed was to add some explanatory pages to improve the learning experience. However, I’m currently nearing 1000 days and am looking to drop the service and delete it out of spite. This is mostly because the new “path” is clearly designed by someone who has no idea how to teach language, but instead how to be a carnival barker enticing you to waste money on additive games. I used to teach to a mix of international students, and this new design is a catastrophe that never would have been approved for a curriculum or just as a series of books for one.
Thank you so much for this article, it expresses exactly what I have been feeling struggling along with duolingo the past month. It is a chore I am paying for 😦 and I couldn’t find anywhere to complain directly to them.
I hope you find Busuu or memrise much better apps than Duolingo is now.
I absolutely agree with everything in this post about the new Duolingo. I am so disappointed. I had been using it for a few years to learn Spanish and Mandarin, and it worked, especially for Spanish. I too will cancel my subscription and they better give me a refund for all the time I had left.
Thank you, Emily, for giving us a place to comment. I agree with all of your points.
I’ve gone from doing 100 xp a day to 15 xp because the new system makes me dread Duo instead of loving it as I did before. I had been planning to subscribe in 2023 but will not do so now. Duo let’s hope you are listening!
It is impossible to set language goals with the new system and the force-fed friends’ quests are annoying. The one-size-fits-nobody format reminds me of so many other parts of life where we are being channeled into only being allowed to do things one way.
I’m playing with Memrise (better than new Duo, not as good as old Duo).
italki looks interesting too. I’ve tried Babble but was frustrated with it, and there was the cost involved.
I’ll probably still do a minimal amount of Duo only because of my 1431-day streak.
I’m also studying Danish on Duolingo. Once I passed level 35 or so, everything became “Personalized practice”… no new words in a week or two. This new path is very frustrating, and I feel like there were more words to be learned in the old version – like this new update made the Danish curriculum even less comprehensive than it was before. Have you noticed this change? So frustrating!
Duolingo gave me autonomy to learn. I loved it! This new system feels autocratic and confusing. Time is precious so I’ll have to find a new way of learning languages.
I am leaving duolingo after 633 days, new changes (refill) makes it difficult to continue am in search for an alternate app. Please suggest
some app who dont make frequent changes to their learning module.
It depends on the language/s you’re learning. Not all apps have all the same languages as Duolingo, unfortunately. For me Babbel is definitely a good one but it has a limited range of languages on it.
Hi Thanks for the fast reply, will check out Babbel, I was learning German in Duolingo and Babbel has German. Will continue learning at Babbel.
Thanks.
Duolingo’s office is in Pittsburgh, PA. If a lot of Duolingo users were to write complaining letters about the current versión to the Better Business Bureau office in Pittsburgh, that might get the attention of Duolingo. I’m sue Duolingo doesn’t want the local Better Business Bureau to show a lot of complaints about them.
This is the end of 2023, and because I have an old model iPad I avoided the update up until about a month ago… now that it’s forcefully update my app on my device without my permission, I don’t enjoy my lessons at all, I’m almost at 900 days but I think in January I’ll just stop because the lessons have become nonsensical, both repetitive and completely unrelated in some weird way and like you and everyone else says there are no choices and I don’t even know what I’m about to get when I click that start button. I’m better off creating my own curriculum… Sad. I used to dream of being able to afford the paid version, now I wouldn’t pay for it, recommend it or even use it…