Matt's Duo Dispatch
News. Tips. Tricks. Insights. Every Monday at 14:05 ET.
is the Duolingo owl REALLY dead? ☠️
hello 👋 perhaps you’ve heard. perhaps you haven’t. for the past week, tributes have been pouring in for Duolingo’s dearly departed owl. yes—according to Duolingo, Duo is dead... killed by a Cybertruck, apparently. (The latest bird to meet its fate at the hands of a certain billionaire.) confused? yeah, me too... so what the hell is going on? 😵💫 if you’ve been minding your own business, dutifully working your way through your daily lessons, then this whole saga might have passed you by for...
is Duolingo PAY to WIN? 😬
hello 👋 we all know Duolingo is famed for being free but, like everything nowadays, it's got some paid tiers that owly really, really, realllllly wants you to consider (not that he's pushy or anything) these paid tiers - namely, Super and Max - promise to enhance the free experience by adding some new features and removing some annoying ones 🔨 but here's the thing: these features don't take you any closer to fluency 🤨 they just give you a bit more freedom to actually use the app free users...
this Duolingo feature is (almost) brilliant… 🔥
hello 👋 the other day, I got a request to start a friend streak on Duolingo it's the first time this has happened in a while I already had 4 on the go -- and not one of them looks like ending any time soon 🔥 anyway, I duly accepted (it was from a fellow Matt, after all)... but I can't lie -- it did get me thinking... these friend streaks... what are they all about? 🤔 they've been a thing for well over half a year at this point... and they're pretty much exactly the same as when they...
is this Duolingo's BIGGEST weakness? 🤔
hello 👋 one of the best things about Duolingo is also one of its biggest drawbacks: a lot of what it teaches us isn't relevant 😵💫 you know what I'm on about... those mental sentences that make about as much sense as a grayscale traffic light 🚦 sure, they're funny (and, as always, I've got another cracker for you at the end of this email...) but they don't really set us up for real-life interactions. this is something I'm working really hard on at the moment with my German 🇩🇪 I want to get as...
Duolingo just AXED another feature... 🪓
g'day 👋 everyone knows the Duolingo owl has a bit of a merciless streak just you miss a lesson and find out what happens... 😱 but it's not just his loyal followers he subjects to such fatal reprisals... for even his own platform is vulnerable to the axe 🪓 many features have come and gone over the years 🍃 some just didn't make the cut whilst others were actually pretty popular (r.i.p. sweet audio lessons 😔) these comings and goings drive users crazy especially when they're in the middle of a...
THIS is how to use Duolingo in 2025... 🚀
hello 👋 so then, what is the best way to approach Duolingo in 2025? 🤔 how best can we use this fluffy green app to catapult us to fluency? loads of lessons? dominating the leagues? video calls til you lose your voice? roleplay til there's no roles left to play? no, none of that 🙅 that's much to busy and, for me at least, my resolution for this year is to work less... while achieving better results than ever before 🤯 perhaps this sounds like a pipe dream but I assure you, my friend, it is not...
Duolingo’s weird cheating problem… 🥴
hello 👋 wanna know my favourite part of Duolingo? it’s smashing out a bunch of lessons, soaring to the top of your league… only to get blown out of the water by some random churning out close to 600,000 XP in just a few days... fair play? or something more untoward? 🤔 sadly, it’s often the latter. a very real problem on Duolingo, one that dissuades even the most passionate of owl fans it begins with a C and ends with a G you know what it is (you saw it in the subject line)... CHEATING it’s a...
did Duolingo go STALE in 2024? 😬🥛
hola 👋 how would you rate Duolingo's year on a scale from 1 to 10? 🤔 with 1 being terrible, and 10 being excellent? I've been mulling this over all week and I'm still struggling to settle on an answer the reality is -- it's been a very mixed bag lots of highs... but also many lows Duolingo definitely ended the year with a flourish but it got off to a very rocky start... a poor first half 😬 the first half of 2024 was anything but pretty for Duolingo at times it felt more like a basic mobile...
can Duolingo REALLY do this? 🤨
Ciao 👋 have you received any weird messages on Duolingo recently? 🤔 Duolingo's famous for it's weird, guilt-trippy notifications but in recent weeks, they've taken a slightly different approach... and it's catching many users off guard 😧 i'm still not sure how I feel about it... can they really do this?... what's going on? 🤔 basically, a number of Duolingo users have been receiving weirdly personal notifications from their Duolingo friends now, of course, weird notifications aren't exactly...
Duolingo's got a NEW speaking mode... 🤩
hola 👋 have you noticed Duolingo's latest level? 🧐 it's started popping up on a number of courses over the last few weeks it takes a fresh spin on one of Duolingo's classic exercises, and aims to pitch it in a more practical, effective manner but does it really make that much of a difference?... what's the new level? 🤔 Duolingo's new level is called Speak you'd be forgiven for missing it as it takes on a similar look and feel to the Speaking practice available in the Practice Hub it suddenly...
News. Tips. Tricks. Insights. Every Monday at 14:05 ET.