Looks like the AI-first strategy is really working out for them
this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2025
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The AI-first certainly isn't helping
They also recently changed their life meter, which just feels like a weird move. Now instead of having 5 hearts that only deplete when you get a wrong answer they have an energy meter that slowly goes down whether you're getting questions right or wrong
Which feels like a really weird choice for a business model that I assume gets a lot of money from showing ads.
With the hearts I could keep doing lessons forever as long as I wasn't getting them wrong and they could keep showing me ads the whole time
Now after a while I'd just bottom out the energy meter and then I just can't keep going
Obviously it's an attempt to get people to pay for a subscription, maybe it works to get people to do that, but I know there was no circumstance where I'd ever pay for it.
I've been thinking about ditching Duolingo for a while over the AI thing, but I'm really damn close to the end of my course and I kind of planned to just finish it out then delete my account. I may just ditch it early now.
That would maybe indicate the adds weren't cutting it, and they have to juice you for a direct payment.
Did not know they were liste on the stock market - I guesa that explains why they turned to shit.
But anyway, the title makes it seem like the drop was because they lost users or smth ( or due to the AI-first bullshit ) but no, they grew and their revenue grew, it just didn't grow enough. Line did not go up as high as the investors wanted so they lost faith. Man, fuck this system
Wow thats fucking dumb lol
Cancelled my sub last year when they announced they were going to make their service worse by doing it with chatbots
Just unsubscribed from duo, after a 1500 day streak, and 8 years being a paid member
Sent them this email
Just reaching out to let you know why, after years of subscription and a 1500 day streak, why I finally intentionally broke my streak and unsubscribed
I joined early on, like 10+ years ago, and loved the weirdness of early Duolingo to learn Spanish, I ame and went, but always spread the gospel
But over the last 3-4 years, duo has been showing the enshitifcation more and more. Going from a fun system to this entierly linear system, changes to the unpaid energy system, removal of comments and the forum
Then, recently, pushing Duolingo max, removing practice for a max button, a service I don't have, ever increasing of AI slop, removal of paid volenteers.
I really loved duo, but hate to see it in this sad state. I loved learning a second language, and would continue to pay for it, but it's clear you no longer view your self as a language platform, but just a way to make a quick buck
Duo would cry if he could.
(PSA you can patch the app with revanced and just use an old version of the app pre-ai with no ads)
When it stops working I'll figure out something else to use but language learning has been a background thing with my friend who knows the language better, so I don't really wanna sit down and try out new stuff for the moment