Duolingo made a recent update that has users fuming, comparing the new look to that of the popular mobile game Candy Crush. Many are leaving the platform and canceling their monthly subscriptions.
Interestingly enough, many tweets and one-star reviews in the Apple App Store have accused Duolingo of going “woke” and placing a political agenda before what’s right for their users.
I wonder how "go woke; go broke" translates into all the languages @Duolingo offers. https://t.co/cydKf2VA7s
— Aldous Huxley's Ghost™ (@AF632) October 27, 2022
They may not be far off as Duolingo itself tweeted a goodbye once Elon Musk officially became the owner of Twitter.
bye bye birdie 🙁
— Duolingo (@duolingo) October 27, 2022
Users of the earlier version of Duolingo progressed through a tree of lessons, whereby finishing one unit would reveal a list of additional lessons from which they could select. Users were urged to go back and forth between the various topic units as they advanced to keep moving up their tree.
Users may no longer choose which new lesson to take next in the updated edition of Duolingo because there is now only one learning path for them to follow.
Between the woke podcasts and now this dumpster fire of an update, i won’t be renewing my subscription.
— electrumwire (@electrumwire) November 3, 2022
One review said, “I just can’t stand this redesign. It reminds me too much of how much passion and authenticity Duolingo has lost over the decade since I discovered it. I actually want to thank you for this redesign, because it woke me out of my stupor. It helped me realize I’ve put up with this soulless company’s gimmicks for too long.”
Another complained, “This new layout is one of the worst designs I’ve ever seen,” comparing it to candy crush and lamenting the loss of a 700-day learning streak.
Users are also complaining that they’ve lost significant progress, hours of time invested gone in the blink of an eye with no recourse options.
I spent over a year earning at least 2 crowns in every course of Ukrainian. My motivating goal was to get every single crown. Worked towards it every day. Until one day I woke up & it was all gone. Incredibly demoralizing. And so depressing that @duolingo doesn't seem to care.
— Cindi Reed (@cmoonreed) October 26, 2022
@Duo_is_sad I haven’t a clue what I’m learning anymore after the new @duolingo update. There seems to be no link to what I’ve already learnt in the old version and what I’m forced to learn now. Feels like I’ve wasted 449 days learning Spanish.
— RhysO🏴 (@rhyso73) November 3, 2022
It seems the update has been made in waves since August, affecting users one group at a time.
CEO Luis von Ahn said he has no intentions of reverting the update stating:
“This is why we decided to do this: to simplify Duolingo and also to make it so that new users understood how to best use Duolingo.”
Twitter pages like @duo_is_sad and @RevertTheUpdate have popped up solely dedicated to swaying von Ahn into changing his mind.
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