Well, look who’s back! If we didn’t know any better, we’d say you missed us.

We’re here to announce a pretty awesome update.

Will you love it? Yes.
Will it aid you in your language journey? Yes.
Will it grant you three fantastic wishes? Sorry, but that’s not in the budget this time around.

Linear progress bar

The ability to see how you are doing during a review session is a powerful thing, and we want to empower you. So, from now on, you will see a progress bar in the header while you are answering flashcards.

You might be asking yourself, what are the rules to this?

Well...

When you mark a flashcard answer as correct, you will see your progress movement on the bar. Any incorrect answers will not show any progress. Incorrect cards are recycled within the review session for you to try again later. When these cards return during the “revisit” section, you will get sweet credit if you answer them correctly.

For minimal pairs, the progress bar will move forward once you mark both sounds on the flashcard as correct. Tapping just one of the sounds as correct will not move the bar.

Now you know the drill, so let’s see this new feature in action.

Well, lovely humans, that’s it for today. Remember to drink some water, and also…

Lovely humans, it has been too long! We hope you’re doing well and making sure to drink some refreshing water throughout your day.

Also, we’re here to bring you some really exciting news. Ready?

That’s the proper level of excitement we are looking for, random little human being. Good job!

Hebrew is here!

Check out our latest language addition by tapping on the Settings icon. Then, select “Change Language” and choose Hebrew. If you’re worried about your current data and progress with other languages you’re learning, we got you. Everything will stay safe, and you can easily switch back to the language of your choice at any time.

Let’s take a quick peek at what’s in store for all you new Hebrew learners.

As you can see, you write Hebrew from right to left, and we’re sure that you will notice many more new and exciting details as you begin your journey with this new language. Of course, Hebrew content on the app will keep growing. As with our other languages, you will learn so much as time goes on.

That’s it for now, but don’t worry, we’ll be back with more news soon. Until then, make sure to drink that water!

Well, look who’s back!

Are you ready for your next game? Kidding!

Sorry for the scare, but rest assured that you have all green lights coming your way as you get another dose of new features.

Watched video sections

Ever thought to yourself that you wish you could watch videos from the Pronunciation and Method sections over again?

We had a feeling that would be the answer, fan-favorite 10th Doctor, David Tennant.

Now, once again, this is for the Pronunciation and Method sections. For example, if you go to the Pronunciation tab, across from the Lessons section you will see a new tab called Watched Videos.

Of course, you have to watch a video first for it to be listed. Once you do, that video will be set as “watched,” and you can easily access it and other videos whenever you want.

Check out the gif below to see it in action!

My flashcards

Do you like being fancy?

Do you like fancy icons that won’t impact your experience but still remind you useful information?

Well, lovely humans, we present My Flashcards! This new icon, available on the home screen next to the notification bell, lets you view the words which you are learning and have already created flashcards for in one straightforward list.

Now, with that said, it’s important to remember that Pronunciation flashcards are not included here.

For a look at this fanciness in action, check out the gif below.

Smashed bug

We heard through the grapevine that a bug prevented Castilian Spanish learners from reaching 100% completion on the Pronunciation Flashcard Progress tile for the Ear Trainer flashcards.

Well, we couldn’t have that going on. So all you exceptional Castilian Spanish learners can now reach 100% and enjoy all the glory because that bug is…

That’s it for now! Make sure to drink some water and have a snack!

Aaand we’re back!

Now, if you think we’re here to warn you about the zombie apocalypse, we are not. That is decades away from now, so we are safe for the time being. But we do have a hoard of awesome updates to unleash.

Home screen carousel

So, first things first, you may have noticed that the home screen has received a pretty obvious update. All the information that was previously in the bar at the top of the screen has moved into a carousel for you to view more clearly.

We can neither confirm nor deny that we know Beyoncé.

We will be introducing new tiles and more functionality within the carousel in future updates, so for now, enjoy swiping between the tiles to check out your most up-to-date stats! If you’d like to see this in action, check out the video below.

In-app help

Speaking of the home screen, would you like to be greeted with a smiling face the next time you open the app?

It’s not Beyoncé.

But wait: what if we told you that a tiny smiling helper will appear each time it has something that will help you with your learning experience, tailored to the screen you’re on?

We knew you would like that!

Tap on your learning buddy whenever you like, but remember: once you read what it has to share, it won’t come back with that specific piece of wisdom again. So always try to put what it is sharing into practice as soon as you read the advice.

You can see how this will look in the quick video below.

Isn’t it adorable?

Stickers on flashcard backs

There are many different types of flashcards in the app, and we’ve received feedback that there isn’t always a clear intention behind each one. So we listened to you and came up with some help on that front.

It’s actually on the back, but you get it, right?

When you encounter a designed flashcard that helps you learn how to pronounce something in your new language, you’ll see a “Pronunciation” sticker on the back of the card. Remember: for these cards, we aren’t trying to teach you the vocabulary word itself. Our goal here is to help you learn how to speak in your new language and master that accent!

You will also see an “Ear Training” sticker for flashcards designed to help you hear in your new language. Another sticker for “625 Words” showcases the 625 awesome word lists we’ve specially curated to contain some of the most common words you’ll need to know in your new language.

Watch the video below to know what to expect with these lovely stickers.

If you have ideas for future stickers you think would benefit your language learning, go ahead and share them in the survey included at the end of this update 😊.

Review session up

We’ve made a pretty big update when it comes to what flashcards appear (or rather, don’t appear) during your review sessions. Your learning is more efficient if you don’t see flashcards related to each other (aka “sibling” cards) in the same review session, so we’ve taken care of that.

It’s likely that you previously experienced review sessions where we’d show you a picture and ask you to recall the word. We would then show you that same word (in the same review session) and ask you where it goes in a sentence or another related question.

Well, this isn’t an optimal learning experience, so we’ve stopped doing it. From now on, we will purposely delay any sibling flashcards to future review sessions.

That’s right, random panda.

And there’s one more impact to consider: sibling flashcards also apply to words found in the same sentence. For example, let’s say you are learning the word “cat” from the sentence “The cat chases the dog.” We won’t show you flashcards for other words such as “dog” in the same review session anymore either.

This update is to make sure that each review session you engage in has the most significant impact it can have on your journey to fluency.

So keep being awesome and doing your reviews every day. Pretty soon, you’ll notice how good it feels when you see a sibling flashcard not in the same review session but a future one, because you should start recalling these more easily!

Word Order flashcards

Typically, you can choose to create up to five flashcards for each word you are learning (this doesn’t apply to brand-new learners).

One of these flashcard types, called “Word Order,” creates a flashcard that asks you where the word goes in the sentence. We know that many learners choose not to create this type of flashcard, so we’ve made that process a lot easier.

No, we save witchcraft only for October...and for special birthdays.

There are two ways to prevent the app from automatically selecting the Word Order flashcard type for creation. You can either go to your settings menu or deselect the Word Order flashcard type when creating your flashcards.

Check out the video below to see this in action.

Still, if you choose to have these flashcard types turned off, you can always create one in the moment by simply tapping on the Word Order flashcard type before making your flashcards.

Known Word count changes

Has your “Known Word” count changed unexpectedly? Has it caused a fair amount of shock and surprise?

Well, lovely humans, let’s find out why.

When you signed up and chose your fluency level, we made an educated guess about your CEFR level and Known Word count based on your selected fluency level. We revealed our guess in the form of your Known Word count (and associated CEFR level) initially being higher than zero—unless you were a true beginner, in which case it was zero.

To present a more precise picture, we have removed that educated guess and instead rely solely on input from you to populate these numbers more accurately.

For example, let’s say that yesterday you had a Known Word count of 600 words, and today that count states 483 words. Why has this count decreased? Well, after analyzing all of your activity in the app (via review sessions and swiping cards as “known”), we calculated an accurate count of precisely 483 words.

Now, you can track your learning journey in precise measurements and view your progress as it happens. You will be able to see your Known Word count moving in real time, giving you even more reasons to celebrate as you move forward towards your goals!

Smashed bugs

We recently found out that if you started a review session but left early without finishing it, we would ask you to start the review session over again when you next tried to pick it back up (meaning we didn’t remember the flashcards you had already answered).

We are sorry about that. From now on, feel free to confidently leave a review session partway through if you need to, knowing it will be waiting for you where you left off.

Because that bug is...

Many thanks for checking out this latest update! Several of the updates in this release resulted from feedback from lovely humans like you, so please continue to share your feedback and anything else you’d like to see in the app via this survey.

And also, drink some water!

Welcome back, lovely humans. The time has come for you all to receive a power-up!

Flashcards!

You can now create flashcards for any word or phrase you want, even if we currently don’t have that word/phrase in the app.

That’s right, gif of Lionel Ritchie. We said it right.

Even if we don’t have the word/phrase in the app, you can still create a flashcard. Just navigate to “See it? Learn it!” (located in the Learn tab), search for a word or a short phrase, then select the “Create a custom flashcard” button and make it happen!

Here’s some vital knowledge for you: we only support up to 50 characters when you input the desired translation. This feature is not intended to be used as an “add your own sentence” tool.

Now, check out the video below to see the process in action! Also, if you have feedback related to this feature, please consider sharing it with us via a brief survey located here.

Let’s talk about corrections

We want you to know that your feedback on errors you spot in the app doesn’t go unnoticed, and we are hard at work addressing them. We finished reported errors for August of this year and are now moving on to the next ones.

FYI, you can report a suspected error for a flashcard while you are engaged in a Review session by clicking on the menu (while on the back of a flashcard) and tapping the “Report Error” option.

Smashed bugs

In our last release, we added a new tile to the home screen (for Beginner and Intermediate users) that keeps track of your pronunciation progress.

Well, we found that a minor bug snuck in, resulting in the progress on the tile not constantly updating when you returned to your home screen. We’ve now fixed that so that the progress reflected is always accurate and up to date, no matter what!

So consider that bug...

That’s it from us for now! Make sure to drink some water!