After you uninstall the app, the icon will be entirely invisible.
this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2025
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I will if I have to, but for now it's still a more productive use of my time than shitposting here
Le merde posting
I used to use Duolingo - hell, even paid for premium - as it was a nice way to improve my skills in a language I was already learning.
But as time went by the app got more and more enshittified. How can somebody use it today, I don't know.
My biggest gripe is that it went from “let's help you learn" to "let's get you competing against each other to stay in this made up league". Once I realized I'm doing lessons only for this and not learning anything, it was game over for me. And, most of the time, I'm competing against people who are there solely for the score. And because of that, rushing through the lessons and not learning anything.
In the end, I would imagine there are only so many only-Spanish-speaking people in the US learning English. And only so many only-English-speaking in Germany learning German. And these people usually topped my leader boards. Yeah, Helga Klauss from Köln definitely doesn't speak German.
And don't get me started on streaks. I've had a death in my family and no, Duolingo, these days is not a good time to practice my Spanish. I'm on a 14-hour flight. No, Duolingo, I'm not pestering everybody on the plane with Klingon for your streak. I've been up since 6 o'clock and came home at seven in the evening. No, Duolingo, spending time with my family is more important today than you.
I want to learn, but at my own pace. I've uninstalled Duolingo and never looked back.
It forces gamification and external motivation.
Internal motivation is much stronger but gets 'defeated' by external motivation.
Gets me every time, I wish there was a way to turn off all the extra shit, then I might actually learn something.
I report a bug each time the lightning happens
I have a similar gripe with Brilliant. “Do your exercises now in order to keep your streak and to defend your place in this stupid league that means nothing”.
And you get notifications of this every few hours in both your phone’s notifications as well as in your email. Stop bothering me!
I once did a streak based walking routine, it became so stressful that walking stopped being fun and became a chore to check off. At 1000 times I forced myself to quit that app.
My library offers free access to Mango. I recommend everyone check the services offered by their library.
This is frustrating to read. I used Duolingo over ten years ago, and was going to use it again to get back into some things, but now what? It seems that it is not what I remember it being. I only used it on a computer, and probably would now.
Could use a custom launcher to set it. Assuming you're on Android.
Funnily that doesn't work. It's still changing
Oh interesting, cause I know Nova launcher lets you replace app icons with custom ones. I am a bit surprised it's been overwritten.
Depends on the launcher.
Disable automatic updates in the play store. I have them dissbled for all my apps to have better control over what is pushed upon me. I noticed that also stops the Duo icon to change when I was slacking off.
Icon pack
Nice work. I also share this gripe, it seems the people at Duolingo are biased in thinking that getting started early is better, which is not true at all. I wish they removed the angry icons and replaced them with ones that weren't so biased.
Like this, but with the kinky green owl:
*I think there is a setting in the app that turns off changing icons entirely. Can't find it rn tho...
Don't open the app for three months and it calms down.
I'll never get how it's possible to fall for marketing so hard
Duolingo has me caught hook, line and sinker. At first I installed it to see what the fuss was about. Then I got a notification about starting a streak. Thought I'd do it again. Did it for three days and gave up. Then I started getting "streak freezes" added. Next thing I know I was on 7 days. Then two weeks. Then a month. Then six. Then a year. Now two. I cannot bring myself to remove the app or break the streak.
On the flip side, the language that I'm learning really is a language that I actually should be actively learning (probably more than just Duolingo). But the app has defeated the part of me that would never be bothered to. Sometimes I enjoy it and do a few lessons. But even if I'm lazy, it still makes me do a bare minimum refresher. So I'd actually recommend it if you need to learn a language properly. It really does keep you sunk in during your low periods.
Although many suggest using it only as a supplement (although I can still say basic phrases with what I've learned and I'm happy with my progression in it)