Duolingo Used iPhone's Dynamic Island to Display Ads, Violating Apple Design Guidelines

[Agent007]

I used Duo for years before it went to **** but I deleted it after they went "all in on AI". IMO the brand is tarnished and will be associated with "en****ification" for years to come.

Their share price peaked at $530 in May and is now below $180.

 

[arc of the universe]

duolingo is not a total waste of time and money.
i had fun using it for a three month period to learn some Vietnamese.
i never considered it to be a very serious way other than to pick up some phases. thats about it.
but there are better apps even for that.

babbel is similar to duolingo, but maybe a bit more effective in actual help for people learning a new language.
i would advise people to check out babbel before they push the button for duolingo.

but the best, IMHO, in most definitely the Pimsleur app. it is megabucks, but for serious learners, its the best.
...my French is finally actually usable, i think thanks in large part, to this app.
and for Pimsleur, the in-app notifications categories are fine tuned so that i can actually leave on Notifications for it, without getting ad-blitzed.

 

[CATiNTHESTORE]

The Duolingo owners / developers are super annoying, so I’m glad they’ve gotten in trouble.

If im not mistaken it is ruzzion application

 

[mansplains]

Seems like a good time to share Language Transfer, a well-regarded, free program. Their app is fairly simple, and less than a tenth of the size of Duolingo.

 

[dafire]

My dream is that Apple will change the notification API to require a category for every notification, and our notification options become more granular per app per category. I can only dream though, I can’t imagine them wanting to protect us in that manner anymore.

So you mean fixed categories or categories the developer could create himself? Every app developer can already do that .. but I guess they are not really interested in doing so.
How would apple check and enforce that? They can't see messages the developer is sending during review. Maybe checking every message that a developer sends over the api using AI to check if it has the correct category? Creating a way to report messages sent in the wrong category?
And wouldn't big developers start sueing that apple is interfering in how they can message their customers? I guess the EU would for sure.

 

[bluecoast]

I like Duolingo and you get a lot for free.

But after learning French for three years on the free tier I’m unable to have anything other than a basic conversation in it!

Duolingo might argue that the paid tiers would help me achieve that.

Whatever the case, its in-app up selling has got more and more frequent in the last few months. Isn’t it a private company? I guess not if it needs to grow.

 

[ItchyRat2160]

If this becomes a thing I will smash my iPhone to bits.

 

[polyphenol]

When I used Duolingo for a while, I avoided the app entirely (though I did try it) and used it in a browser - with ad blocking.

Over time, it lost multiple features, and became effectively useless. While repetition is a necessary aspect of language learning, I saw something that ended up saying - in paraphrase: 'What is German for "red"?', followed by 'What colour is "rot" German for?'. Many times in one exercise.

Hyped up gamification. I abandoned. Absolutely terrible user experience.

(It was not using the browser, nor using an ad blocker, that made it terrible. They did that all by themselves.)

Adding:

Anyone got any suggestions for Welsh?

 

[LimpHamster]

Just wait, Ursula von der Leyen will fix this for us all. Ads incoming.

 

[raykv23]

You gotta be insane if you include ads in Dynamic Island/notifications.

I may not like Apple as a company but at least they clearly knew some idiotic stuff like this is delusional.

Glad I never jumped on Duolingo bandwagon because I hear that Duolingo is never accurate. This and some of the comments I read furthered that even more.

 

[svish]

Disappointing to see ads in this form. Hope the app will not be displaying ads on dynamic island now that it is widely known.

 

[Diopter]

As we've seen, Apple only removes apps to appease authoritarian governments, so they won't be removing a big app like Duolingo over this, even if it's against their own rules that they insist are applied to all app developers equally.

 

[AppliedMicro]

It doesn’t stop Apple from potentially punishing the company by removing it from the App Store. And since this would be malicious use of the feature, it would not be surprising to see Apple use the KILL SWITCH to remotely remove the app from all installed devices.

It doesn’t stop Apple from punishing them.
What does stop Apple from punishing them and removing their app:

• being one of the most downloaded apps in the App Store‘s education category and
• offering in-app subscriptions (some of which cost more than $100/year), on which Apple charge a juice 30% commission

Which is why you should more than „surprised“ if Apple removed them.

may not like Apple as a company but at least they clearly knew some idiotic stuff like this is delusional.

…unless they do similar stuff themselves.

 

[hgfjhbvytjdnb]

Greedy bois.

Greedy wood?

 

[urnotl33t]

Duolingo isn't for people who are serious about learning languages. The gamification of language learning is a joke.

Yep. That’s why I used Rosetta Stone. It actually works. Immersive style is the only way to go. People forget that is how they learned their first language. People seem to think they were born “learned” on their first language. Even those that had kids and had to teach them the language.

 

[urnotl33t]

In protest, I am gonna stick to speaking one language real good.

Hahah I see what you did there.

 

[urnotl33t]

Apple Home.

Apple has INUNDATED me and my spouse, multiple times daily, in the middle of the night, early in the morning, “notifying” me that my Home is going to be updated. I KNOW. I READ THE NOTIFICATION THE FIRST TIME. As far as I’m concerned, this is no longer a ‘notification’, it is an ‘advertisement’ for more Apple products, because they’re even willing to TELL me that I have to purchase new Apple products because my older products will stop working. Well, so may a few of my once-HomeKit-compatible devices! But they don’t bother to tell me that, or which ones.
Therefore… I’ve CHOSEN, since the first notification I got, to ride the current solution out UNTIL Apple forces me off of it. A working home is a happy home. But that hasn’t stopped the advertising! So clearly I’m NOT in “full control over notifications”, as I cannot turn Home notifications OFF because being notified of certain events is INTRINSIC to the premise of the ecosystem. What I do NOT need is to be continually told what I already know.

I don’t happen to think Apple’s abuse of their own rules is rare at all, they do it unabashedly. Just my experience.

They seem to have cut it off about 10 days ago. At least for me. c.Dec 23, all my devices stopped functioning for HomeKit. I had no recourse but to move to the new architecture which voted my iPhone SE off the island. Sigh. Now I come home to a dark home like a caveman.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

It doesn’t stop Apple from potentially punishing the company by removing it from the App Store. And since this would be malicious use of the feature, it would not be surprising to see Apple use the KILL SWITCH to remotely remove the app from all installed devices.

I don’t like advertising anymore than anyone else, but I don’t want Apple removing anything from my device without my consent. I don’t care what it is or the reason why.

If they ever do, that will be the day I shut down my phone and never use Apple again.

 

[urnotl33t]

I like Duolingo and you get a lot for free.

But after learning French for three years on the free tier I’m unable to have anything other than a basic conversation in it!

Duolingo might argue that the paid tiers would help me achieve that.

Whatever the case, its in-app up selling has got more and more frequent in the last few months. Isn’t it a private company? I guess not if it needs to grow.

Rosetta Stone. If you save your lunch money and some apple gift cards, you can use those to buy the language pack, or buy the unlimited package. I haven’t checked lately, but it was once $200 one-time for all languages forever. I bought myself apple gift cards on 15% (at the time) discount, using my credit card rewards points, saved a few of those a got it on the cheap. Worth it.

Its immersive style, too, so the only English (if your iPad or whatever is in English mode) is the startup and a few status screens. Inside the lessons, it’s 100% that learning language. Zero translation. Rosetta Stone has practice sessions, read-along stories (and optional recitation with scoring), spaced-repetition learning, and blending of learned concepts with new concepts.

Each major lesson ends with you in a scenario where you have to speak your part of the conversation with other characters.

If anyone is serious about language learning, Rosetta Stone is it. Everything else is a gimmick. Once you see it, you’ll know.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Rosetta Stone. If you save your lunch money and some apple gift cards, you can use those to buy the language pack, or buy the unlimited package. I haven’t checked lately, but it was once $200 one-time for all languages forever. I bought myself apple gift cards on 15% (at the time) discount, using my credit card rewards points, saved a few of those a got it on the cheap. Worth it.

Its immersive style, too, so the only English (if your iPad or whatever is in English mode) is the startup and a few status screens. Inside the lessons, it’s 100% that learning language. Zero translation. Rosetta Stone has practice sessions, read-along stories (and optional recitation with scoring), spaced-repetition learning, and blending of learned concepts with new concepts.

Each major lesson ends with you in a scenario where you have to speak your part of the conversation with other characters.

If anyone is serious about language learning, Rosetta Stone is it. Everything else is a gimmick. Once you see it, you’ll know.

I try to keep up with my German and prefer Babble over Rosetta Stone, personally. I own both.*

Edit: *on my Mac. Never used them in my phone.

 

[polyphenol]

Rosetta Stone. If you save your lunch money and some apple gift cards, you can use those to buy the language pack, or buy the unlimited package. I haven’t checked lately, but it was once $200 one-time for all languages forever. I bought myself apple gift cards on 15% (at the time) discount, using my credit card rewards points, saved a few of those a got it on the cheap. Worth it.

Its immersive style, too, so the only English (if your iPad or whatever is in English mode) is the startup and a few status screens. Inside the lessons, it’s 100% that learning language. Zero translation. Rosetta Stone has practice sessions, read-along stories (and optional recitation with scoring), spaced-repetition learning, and blending of learned concepts with new concepts.

Each major lesson ends with you in a scenario where you have to speak your part of the conversation with other characters.

If anyone is serious about language learning, Rosetta Stone is it. Everything else is a gimmick. Once you see it, you’ll know.

Fine - but useless if they do not include the language you want to learn.

 

[rishey]

That company is so tacky and toxic. Just use LLM's to learn languages.

 

[jsmitty]

My 9 year old daughter has been pestering me over holiday break for the $60 “Super” upgrade. I then realized the app was pestering her with ads every 2 minutes. That’s a “delete me” tactic as far as I’m concerned.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

That company is so tacky and toxic. Just use LLM's to learn languages.

They are tacky, but don’t use LLMs. Use a real language-learning software like Babbel or Rosetta Stone, or take a class.

 

[recurringdream]

Language learning app Duolingo has apparently been using the iPhone's Live Activity feature to display ads on the Lock Screen and the Dynamic Island, which violates Apple's design guidelines.

According to multiple reports on Reddit, the Duolingo app has been displaying an ad for a "Super offer," which is Duolingo's paid subscription option.

Apple's guidelines for Live Activity state that the feature cannot be used to display ads or promotions. From Apple's developer website:

Apps that violate Apple's interface guidelines can be pulled from the App Store.

We were not able to replicate the Live Activity ad, so it's possible that Duolingo stopped displaying it after user complaints.

Article Link: Duolingo Used iPhone's Dynamic Island to Display Ads, Violating Apple Design Guidelines

Design Guidelines and App Store Rules are different things. Design Guidelines are just suggestions, that sometimes are promoted to become rules.

But still, what an awful anti-user choice by Duolingo.