The icons at the top, including the gems, act as buttons. If you click on gems you'll see you can buy powerups and more hearts and that's about it.
this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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Shoot, I liked the accessories they used to have. Thanks
Gems are just a premium currency designed to make you pay for duo.
Challenges, power-ups, streak-freezes etc.. all cost gems. The goal is that you spend on boosts and stuff, and then when you miss your streak and you're out of gems, you can either drop you streak or pay for gems. You'd be surprised how many people pay for gems.
I've been on duo almost a year, never missed a streak and have not needed to bother with gems at all.
Okay thanks
Aren't they just used to refil your hearts when you have used them all up for a day?
I don't know what language you are learning as I believe it is different depending on language but for Spanish Duolingo is honestly trash, if you actually want to learn a language rather than just having shit thrown and you and seeing what sticks I really recommend Busuu. For a start it doesn't have a debilitating heart system that stops you from actually learning but it also explains concepts properly.
I've learned more than one language in Duolingo, but I haven't been in in a while.
If you run out of hearts you're not allowed to keep learning?
Nope, not unless you pay them. To learn obviously you need to make mistakes and I found it extremely frustrating to sit down to try and learn something with that app only to be locked out within minutes just because I made mistakes. I found it demoralised me and really was counter productive for the learning process as a whole.
You can earn the hearts back but I don't want to go back to being quizzed about simple stuff just to earn a heart to then try and learn something new, possibly get it wrong again to be back with no hearts. It is a horrible loop.
Ew, that is a new development that could easily make me give up duo altogether.
New for me anyway, that is not how it used to be. That sucks! Thanks.
What are the cool duo alternatives I should check out?
Yeah, I enjoyed Duolingo a lot more in the past before all this was implemented. They also changed the lesson structure a little under a year ago so now it is a lot more linear. Before if I was a bit tired of a particular subject I could choose from a couple of others to keep the learning fresh. Since the change I felt like I spent 6 months or more slamming my head against the wall of the same subject.
I have given up Duolingo entirely now as it was making me hate trying to learn. I have been using Busuu instead. I found it explains stuff a lot more rather than just throwing random words at me and I also enjoy helping others with their learning of English. I recommend checking it out if they offer a language you are interested in.
I'm open to other options too as that is all I have. I'm learning for my girlfriend so I pick stuff up from her and practice with her as well so that definitely helps. She hated Duolingo too as it would often teach me incorrect things.
I had great success with several languages on duolingo while I traveled, but yes, I don't like the new structure where I have to repeat a lesson three times or something now, and my genes are worthless and the hearts are ironically disheartening.
Busuu, I'll check it out, thanks. I'm looking to brush up on Chinese right now
Ho hooookay, Well I've done a few lessons on busu today and it very much seems like the duolingo that I remember before I used it, or rather the interactive learning tool will do a lingo was trying to be, with the videos.
I'm really liking it so far so I'm just going to keep on using that for now.
Such a shame about duo, I traveled and I studied Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, French with it to at least conversational avail.
Oh well, the tides are always changing
Ho hooookay, Well I've done a few lessons on busu today and it very much seems like the duolingo that I remember before I used it, or rather the interactive learning tool will do a lingo was trying to be, with the videos.
I'm really liking it so far so I'm just going to keep on using that for now.
Such a shame about duo, I traveled and I studied Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, French with it to at least conversational avail.
Oh well, the tides are always changing
They are indeed, unfortunately, so much these days is being made worse to try and incentivise money changing hands.
Good luck and I hope you enjoy your time with Busuu :D
Yea, It's so weird what duolingo has changed, I can't imagine how they received such bad advice for making a more engaging language learning platform. But I've done a couple more lessons now with busuu and I'm definitely into it so I'm going to keep that up.
Thanks for the tip and have a good rest of your day
I’m also very curious what we can do with gems. I can’t even send them to my family. I don’t see the buttons the Duolingo doc pages say it has.
I guess they're useless now, except for streaks. You used to be able to buy fun accessories with them.