Products · Product
Duolingo
Raised as a usability problem by 112 people on Hacker News over 13 years (2014–2026), in 56 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Ads appear after lessons, blocking exit until watchedUnreviewed
20142026- Too many ads to tap through to reach any lesson content2025-11-04
- Popups, forced ads and social nags eat into short learning sessions and can't all be turned off2025-06-03
- Forced run of gamification popups after each lesson, longer than the lesson itself2025-05-26
Lessons after basic levels are repetitive and slow to progressUnreviewed
20142026- Prior lessons reset and block progress until redone, with skipping discouraged2026-02-06
- Repeats known material endlessly, progression is too slow to learn at own pace2022-12-10
- Lessons after basic levels feel repetitive and slow to progress through2022-09-27
Grammar rules are never explained, so patterns must be guessedUnreviewed
20142026- Never explains grammar rules, so users must guess patterns from examples2025-04-29
- Doesn't explain grammar rules, forcing blind memorization through repetition2017-02-19
- Exercises expect grammar like 'dem' vs 'der' with no explanation of the rule2015-06-10
Forced animations and pop-ups slow lessons, no fast modeUnreviewed
20142026- Forced animations and pop-ups slow down lessons with no fast mode2024-12-13
- Unskippable animations and interrupting messages clutter the flow after each lesson2022-07-03
- Constant slow animated Plus reminders and ads delay reviewing familiar lessons2021-07-29
Notifications keep nagging even when turned offUnreviewed
20142026- Turning off notifications in-app still leaves random spam reminders, so users must disable them at the phone level2025-05-26
- Turning off notifications still results in constant nagging messages2025-04-20
- Constant notifications are useless and make the app worse2023-04-24
Uses dark patterns to keep users engaged over learningUnreviewed
20142026- Known for dark patterns that push users into choices they did not make2026-05-24
- App uses dark patterns to keep users engaged rather than learning2026-02-06
- Learning became too slow and was pushed into dark-pattern design2025-09-30
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Known for dark patterns that push users into choices they did not make2026-05-24
- App uses dark patterns to keep users engaged rather than learning2026-02-06
- Prior lessons reset and block progress until redone, with skipping discouraged2026-02-06
- Too many ads to tap through to reach any lesson content2025-11-04
- Social features, learning path, and leagues are poorly designed and don't make sense2025-10-01
- App pushes users toward easy side activities that distract from the course2025-10-01
- Must tap through word-arranging exercise to proceed, even when already known2025-09-30
- Tearful owl guilt-trip shown above the erase personal data button2025-09-30
- UI is incredibly annoying, so the commenter disabled sounds and animations2025-09-30
- Word-pair exercise is awkward to use with a keyboard, forcing number-key workarounds2025-09-30
- Learning became too slow and was pushed into dark-pattern design2025-09-30
- Subscription forgotten after upgrading, repeated upgrade nagging, fixed only by hidden restore step2025-09-25
- Popups, forced ads and social nags eat into short learning sessions and can't all be turned off2025-06-03
- Japanese course never explains grammar and introduces new grammar too slowly2025-05-27
- App is becoming cluttered with features that get in the way2025-05-26
- Has to click through multiple gamification and engagement prompts between each exercise2025-05-26
- Social nags and upsells default on, constantly interrupting learners2025-05-26
- Forced run of gamification popups after each lesson, longer than the lesson itself2025-05-26
- Lessons are too easy and word bank lets users avoid recalling vocabulary; TTS voices sometimes hard to understand2025-05-26
- Fonts and bottom buttons are too small, with no option to enlarge them in the app2025-05-26
- Turning off notifications in-app still leaves random spam reminders, so users must disable them at the phone level2025-05-26
- Gets 10+ pop-ups after each lesson, cluttering the app2025-05-26
- App shifted from teaching language to dark-pattern money extraction2025-05-26
- Paid users still face gems, quests and upsells, making learning feel like a guessing game2025-04-30
- Never explains grammar rules, so users must guess patterns from examples2025-04-29
- Overbearing gamification gets in the way of simply learning a language2025-04-29
- Free version pushes users with dark patterns and gatekeeping to pay2025-04-29
- Turning off notifications still results in constant nagging messages2025-04-20
- App has become nearly unusable, compared to its earlier version2025-04-14
- Dragged correct word turns into a different incorrect word, even when careful2025-04-01
- No feedback on how to improve; correct pronunciations rejected and translation hints mismatch2025-04-01
- Ads appear after every lesson on the free tier, making the app annoying2025-02-11
- Manipulative prompts push users to buy gems, streak freezes, or watch ads2025-01-31
- Forced animations and pop-ups slow down lessons with no fast mode2024-12-13
- Free version has so many ads it is virtually unusable2024-08-05
- Gold-earned lessons get reset when new content is added, so progress disappears2024-06-16
- Ineffective for learning a language from scratch, per the commenter's experience2024-02-14
- Makes learners repeat the same words and phrases over and over2024-01-08
- Tournaments eat hours daily but don't improve skills; feels like wasted time2024-01-08
- Can't always find an explanation for why an answer was wrong2024-01-08
- Forced to click through promotions and chest animations that waste time2024-01-08
- Gamified cheering and layout changes distract from lessons, making focused learning harder2023-11-18
- New app UI broke the commenter's workflow, so they dropped it2023-10-07
- Gamified engagement mechanics push users to spend more time in the app2023-10-07
- Excessive ad interruptions and an energy system that limit lessons2023-07-03
- Signup popup cannot be skipped, so user cannot see the site before signing up2023-06-13
- Constant notifications are useless and make the app worse2023-04-24
- After each lesson, must click through about six ad, subscription and points screens2023-04-22
- Users stopped using the app after a major UI redesign made it harder to use2023-03-15
- The translation UI is confusing for using it on real articles2023-03-15