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If you are looking for a fun and yet effective way to learn a new language, Duolingo is one of the best you can find. Launched in 2019, Duolingo’s co-founder believes that free education will really change the world. This free app provides self-paced lessons to users getting acquainted with a new language or improving their existing skills. The app works well on both desktop and mobile devices.

Duolingo offers a skill tree of lessons that user listening exercises, flashcards, and multiple choices questions to help user build a base understanding of new words, phrases, and sentences. There are plenty of bite-size tests to help you review those you have learned as well.

Not only that, but with its gamified approach, Duolingo also engages users through a variety of exercises, including vocabulary building, grammar practice, listening comprehension, and speaking exercises. The app supports a wide range of languages, making it a versatile tool for language enthusiasts worldwide. Duolingo's innovative features, such as personalized learning paths, progress tracking, and social interactions, make it an effective and enjoyable language-learning resource for hundreds of millions of users globally.

In total, 15,279,395 reviews are found in Google play store with 4.3 stars rating. There has been 100,000,000+ installs and it has also been collected in the most authorized "Editors' Choice" list. While in Apple app store Duolingo is ranked No.1 in Education category with 4.7 stars rating by 1.9M users. 

In the latest update, the development team of Duolingo: language lessons not only corrected and optimized the overall fluency and stability of the application based on the suggestions and questions raised by users, but also supplemented and updated the courses and relevant information in various languages required by users to meet their growing thirst for knowledge.

Duolingo started out as a free app and it has kept its original promise of “Free Forever” by becoming ad-supported and offering a paid membership called Duolingo Plus. Duolingo has infamously persistent notifications that pester user to come back to learn something new on a daily basis. 

The app is better at teaching basic conversational phrases that are useful when you’re traveling. You can definitely learn some things from it, but if you want to become fluent in a language, it may not be enough. Let’s not forget that language apps are not human. The purpose of learning a language is to communicate with another person. You can learn as many words or sentences as you want, but the ultimate test is that you should be able to hold a conversation with another human being. Duolingo should not be used as a stand-alone language course, but it's an excellent addition. 

While Duolingo offers instruction for dozens of languages, one potential problem with the app is too much diversification. Some courses offer a lot more than others. For instance, West European languages offer access to short stories with questions after reading them. And if you're learning Spanish as an English speaker, there are podcasts, interactive short stories available, and even on-line get-togethers with other learners. Duolingo's community guidelines indicate that Duolingo maintains a safe learning environment by removing inappropriate and offensive content, but some personal information may be publicly visible. In that case, Duolingo warns users not to overshare personal information when interacting with others.

PROS:

•Free

•Excellent podcast if you are learning Spanish or French

•Clear and easy to follow lesson structure

•Offers multiple languages

CONS:

•Quantity of learning content and material varies among languages

•Persistent notification or reminders sent by the app

•Not enough if you want to be fluent in one language