Duolingo
A language-learning app that turns daily practice into a game.
Duolingo is an app for learning languages in short lessons of a few minutes: translate a sentence, pick the right word, repeat a phrase out loud. It was created in Pittsburgh by Luis von Ahn, a Guatemalan computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University who had earlier co-invented the CAPTCHA, and his student Severin Hacker. It launched to the public in 2012.
What made it famous is gamification: borrowing tricks from video games to build a habit. You keep a streak of consecutive days, earn experience points, climb weekly leagues against other learners, and get reminders from Duo, its green owl mascot, which became a meme for how insistent it can be. The lessons adapt to your mistakes, and the company runs a constant stream of A/B tests to see which changes keep people practicing.
The core app is free with ads, and a subscription removes ads and adds extras such as unlimited mistakes and AI-powered conversation practice. Duolingo has added courses in math, music and chess, and runs the Duolingo English Test, an online English exam accepted by many universities. It went public on Nasdaq in 2021. Researchers and teachers still debate how far an app alone can take you toward fluency, but few dispute that it gets millions of people to practice every day.
Keep in mind
- Co-founded by Luis von Ahn, also a co-inventor of the CAPTCHA.
- Short lessons that adapt to your mistakes.
- Streaks, points and leagues turn practice into a habit.
- Free with ads; a subscription adds extras.
