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Why users complain about language learning apps

What 436 real negative reviews say

We analysed the 1500 most recent public reviews of Duolingo (App Store), Babbel - Language Learning (App Store), Duolingo (Google Play) (2025-06-26 – 2026-10-19). 436 were 1–3★. Share of those negative reviews tagged with each theme (a review can have several):

Examples, quoted verbatim

“Errors are coming up more and more often. You can’t just add or remove the letter ‘s’ from words wherever you feel like it. Also Male and female getting translated wrong. And if words have multiple meanings you need some sort of indicator as to which translat” — Duolingo (App Store), 2★

“Energy replacing hearts just ruined the app. Can’t even complete 2 lessons without running out of energy even if I get every question right… used Duolingo for years for different languages thought it was a great app punishing you for incorrect answers. But typ” — Duolingo (App Store), 1★

“This program does a better job of presenting grammar than the other programs I have tried. It however, does a lousy job of actually teaching it. Their teaching recordings blur words together and lack good phonetics. They also create misunderstoods when they ” — Babbel - Language Learning (App Store), 1★

“The AI voices speak too quickly; my husband is French and even he can’t always understand it! Make it impossible to move levels without the necessary grammar and bring the price down as apps do not cost to run” — Babbel - Language Learning (App Store), 3★

The recurring complaints in language learning apps

1. Hearts/energy or daily limits that stop a lesson mid-flow
2. Course quality: wrong answers accepted, robotic audio, missing grammar explanations
3. Price and renewals compared with what the free tier used to include

What to do with this

1. Pull your own last 500 reviews and tag them the same way. Your mix will differ from the category's.
2. Fix the theme with the most 1★ reviews first. Pricing complaints often need clearer copy, not a lower price.
3. Reply to every review that names a fixed bug, then edit the reply when the fix ships.

Ready-made replies for these situations: language learning app review reply templates.

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Theme percentages come from our automated tagging of public reviews; quotes are verbatim. Not affiliated with Apple, Google or the apps named.