I think Duolingo is giving out artificial streak freezes to boost user retention
A few years ago, when you lost your streak you actually lost it. It was devastating. If you had a streak freeze, great. If not, it was time to start from zero.
But now, with my 500+ day streak, I only go into the app when I remember which is like every odd day or so and my streak still remains. “Duolingo will be like “watch this to regain your streak” or “we gave you a few streak freezes.” I also have notifications turned off and do not check daily.
“Isn’t that great?” Well, kind of. But it speaks to the general theme of their business model. Duolingo would rather you feel like your streak is still solid when in fact it’s not to drive engagement for their app. They need these numbers to show active users every quarter. Pair that with their use of AI and constant subscription model — don’t even get me started on their energy model (bring back the hearts — they are clearly doing everything they can to stay relevant with AI looming over.
I kind of missed when it was just a learning app. Now it’s a tech company that needs ferocious profits — not just regular profit — and it’s unfortunate. Anyway, I still plan to use the app but wanted to share my concerns for the direction of this app.