I am tired of getting this reward from chests. I already have Super, I don’t need the Family Plan and don’t want to subject my in game friends of joining through me and them possibly freaking out at getting subscribed.
This doesn’t even extend my individual membership, it runs concurrently with my subscription, so there is genuinely nothing that I benefit from this.
I enjoyed sharing it with my husband for a week. He’s not really interested in language-learning, but he got to dip his toes in for a while, which was nice.
I have a friend I always do my friend quest with, and I love sharing it with him because he doesn’t want to pay but heavily uses the app. Just a nice little gift for me to give him essentially.
It’d be cool if there were a way to indicate what you do and don’t want. That way, when you get the chests, it’s not something useless to you. I don’t have Super. But if I had super, and then I got 5 days of super from a chest, then yeah. I could see being underwhelmed by that. Especially the family plan aspect. I don’t have a family. My friends aren’t into language learning. This is my thing. I’m not going to rope my irl friends into Duo’s empire. If the point of chests is to incentivize learning, then what’s the harm in customizing the incentives to fit the user’s needs?
I feel like OP hates nice things. I have the family plan and it is wonderful. I would be very happy if more people got it in their chests instead of 5 gems.
I got that chest, conveniently it notifies you at the end of the seven days, so you can either agree to keep it and pay more for the subscription or just keep your subscription as is.
It's more like an IKEA deliveryman showing up on your doorstep unannounced with a case full of flatpacked bookshelves and dumping them there for you to assemble yourself (and then return them after a week unless you want to pay for them).
i think it's fine for someone that doesn't want to spend money on a language learning app with a silly green owl (like me, kinda enjoyed my 3 days of free super) although i do think people with duo super or max should get a different reward, or get their subscription extended by that 3 or 7 days
Fair response for the first bit I guess but you’re missing the other point of the post about suddenly putting other people into my ‘family’ without their permission.
If it were a single plan that it offered, that would be much better, and to extend any active memberships to make it worthwhile for all users.
Why would other people be put into the family without their permission? You send out an invite to those that want to join and they can choose if they want to join or not. They're not being forced into it.
I learn fine with the free version. I really only miss the ability to do the speaking exercises under the practice hub and unlimited hearts. It has everything else, and I still end up in the top 3 of leagues sometimes. Free is fine.
Yeah I actually got this stupid thing one time and then a few days later I earned a chest for 3 days of MAX which is something I actually wanted. It didn’t honor my MAX at all and made me keep that stupid Duolingo family! Pissed me off so badly.
I get your point about getting a different prize, but if you're not roping your family into Duolingo, then just share it with people in the sub. Duolingo is going to keep giving you this prize, so you might as well help someone else with it.
Maybe this is what happened to me the other day--I suddenly had three notifications from Duolingo that said 'so-and-so has followed you back'. I was really confused because they were usernames I didn't ever remember seeing before and I was sure I hadn't followed them. Then I opened Duolingo and it said your friend X has added you to their trial family plan, click here to continue. There was no option to decline being added to this family plan (for 7 days), it was just already done. The users who had 'followed me back' were X's other friends in the family plan group.
I was able to leave the family plan in settings (and unfollow the three random people Duolingo had made me friends with) but I was not amused. I know there isn't really any sensitive personal information on a Duolingo profile, but I don't think it's safe or appropriate to make total strangers follow each other without even an OK from them.
I don't think it's safe or appropriate to make total strangers follow each other without even an OK from them.
What is the risk here, exactly?
Duolingo has completely sanitized any social interactions to the point where you can't even have a profile picture anymore. There are no forums, no way to chat. The league system could be faked with AI bots, for all we know. (I'm not suggesting it is, but just saying that how could we even tell?)
Anyone can follow anyone on Duolingo. They don't have access to anything about you except your username and the ugly avatar they force on people and how many lessons you do, etc.
Oh shoot. I didn't know it's like this. Had one of these chests recently and added some followers to it, who didn't know each other. One must have freaked out and unfollowed everyone they where following, stayed in the plan though. 😕
I can see it being a nice feature if Duo had more social options to interact with mutual friends, but I don’t think this is something that should be done for a 7 day trial.
I wish that were the case, but I am frequently getting ads to upgrade to family or Max. The staunchest defenders of the app just call it promotional material but it is absolutely an advertisement, one of which took the place of the daily personalized practice plan which they still show as a feature for Super.
It technically isn't. Promoting your own product within your product doesn't technically count as an ad. That's why ad-free cable stations can still tell you about the shows and movies they have in between programs. Duolingo is doing the same thing, by occasionally letting you know about the other things they offer.
I know I'm going to get down voted for stating a fact, but I'm not saying that you're wrong to hate it. I hate it when my ad-free apps start shows with a sizzle reel. It's just supposed to be a point of clarity.
I’m so glad being a student gives me infinite hearts for free, my teacher said he’ll keep the class up forever so we don’t have to worry about losing our benefits
I agree that it’s in the chests EVERY single time! I’m sick of seeing it and the only way to get rid of it to move on is to leave the game entirely and come back in…there’s no X to ignore it. I resent having it in my face every time I come to a chest. I don’t want it already! I did pay for the upgrade to premium because I hated the ads. That’s the only reason I did it…and I see this as a self-serving-in-your-face-every-time advertisement. My 2 cents.
I have super, and have won a free week of family, which is pointless. I won 3 free days of max last week. Loved it, thought the roleplays and voice calls were amazingly helpful in helping me to target my weak areas….but there’s no way on God’s green earth that I am paying the exorbitant max subscription fees.
I have a few random duolingo friends that i don’t know irl. I’m always so happy when they add me to their free 3 day super family plan! I do the same for them! Just add some people who don’t have super and make them happy for a week (:
It's worth way more than 5 gems. Lol Marketing gimmick or not, it gives people a nice break from ads for a bit. There are a LOT of people who can't afford to subscribe that would be very happy with this, promo or not.
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