hola 👋
Duolingo’s always had some social features
friends, following, followers, leagues, challenges etc
but there’s always been something missing:
the ability to properly interact
seems kinda ironic for a language learning app, right 😂
a couple of years ago Duolingo *kind of* addressed this with high fives, congratulations, nudges and all that
but recently they’ve added a feature that finally takes this to the next level… 👀
introducing... comments 💬
at long last, there is now a (semi) meaningful way to interact with other Duolingo users...
you can now leave comments -- actual custom comments -- on activities in your feed 👀
it was announced at Duocon back in October last year and it’s been slowly rolling out across the platforms
Android users got it first and have been rocking it for a few months at this point
and now it’s finally trickling onto iOS devices as well 😁
before comments, you could only react with one of 5 emojis
which was better than nothing... but it was definitely restrictive and a bit hollow after a while
but now with the new comments feature you can express yourself in pretty much any way you like
how to leave comments 🤔
if the feature’s made its way to your account, then getting started with comments is really easy
on your mobile device, head over to your feed ((it’s the little bell in the bottom right, might be behind some dots depending on your course))...
then find a post that allows you to leave a comment. If you can leave a comment, it’ll have a box underneath saying “Add a comment…”
here you can type out your message. keep it short and sweet as you can only go up to 130 characters
obviouslyyyy I haven’t tried leaving any dodgy comments so I dunno if there’s any profanity filter ((there probably is)) but yeah... try to keep it clean!
haven’t got it?
most users on mobile devices should have access to comments now, but as always, if you haven’t yet... cool your jets — Duolingo likes to roll this stuff out gradually, so you will get it eventually
using Duolingo on desktop? as far as I'm aware it's only rolling out on mobile devices at the moment, and Duolingo hasn't given an ETA on when it might come to desktop 🖥️🙅
so if you want to take comments for a spin, you'll need to get yourself on the mobile app for the time being
thoughts 💭
Duolingo has been crying out for this kinda thing for ages
it’s always had those basic social elements but missing the most important one
the dream would be for it to add some language exchange functionality
I mean it makes sense: it’s the largest language learning community on the planet, the functionality is there and I can’t imagine it would be that hard for a company like Duolingo to implement
buuuut I guess it all comes down to those classic privacy and safety concerns. would Duolingo want to take on the challenge of running a resource-intensive messaging platform and all the moderation it would involve?
guess we'll have to wait and see...
but anyway, I'm buzzing to see the comments feature, definitely makes learning on Duolingo feel a lot less isolated
now if they could just bring back the custom profile pictures... that would be 👌
