Duolingo regularly changes their app icon to weird things. It’s not done to get users to buy things. It’s so you post the icon on social media as a form a free advertising. The company really loves that their mascot has become a meme and play into it.
Evil corporate wants us to fucking birdwatch
Good thing birds aren’t real.
The sheeple gotta stop giving free advertising to corporations
This scared my housemate too. It’s manipulation to get you to continue, so you buy their subscriptions and/or microtransactions. I love Duolingo, but fuck this manipulation shit.
Personally all it did for me was make me uninstall the app years ago (this picture has been appropriated for comedic use)
Fair.
I mean, of all the ways to manipulate people into paying money on an app, I feel like changing the app icon to draw attention is fairly benign?
It’s a [accidentally(?) nightmare-fuel] sad face designed to get you back in so you spend money. It might not be the worst thing ever, but it’s still pretty gross. Also the app is used by children.
Also the app is used by children.
It’s not scary in any way though? Or inappropriate for kids in any way?
Calling it nightmare fuel is quite the stretch tbh. It’s like calling a 6ft basketball player incredibly tall.
Wrinkly people are nightmare fuel apparently
well it’s a language learning app so a little bit of motivation to use the thing like every day can be a great thing for the user
Emotional manipulation wouldn’t be a good way, especially not a face that scares the shit out of people (I can’t even look at it, as I’m sensitive to uncanny valley and distorted faces, especially the kinds of sad or scared faces 1940s cartoons used to freak you out. My nightmares often have these in them). Especially not so that it can get you back to spending money, and tripley-especially not so that it can get you back to spending microtransactions.
They’re always doing creepy shit with that bird
He just wants to talk with you about your Spanish lessons. In an alley. In the inner city. At night.
With a baseball bat. Politely.
I know, what’s up with too-old lingo?
Same, what’s this about anyway? xd
Same. The bird is dying because you haven’t completed a lesson in a long time. He so sad… only you can cheer him up.
Edit: I just completed three lessons and he still looks haggard, so I don’t know what that little fucker wants. Probably for us all to purchase the paid version.
It’s just the newest icon update. They change the icon every once in a while to get people to open the app again.
It has nothing to do with your actual usage.
Well it worked, I just sat through three commercials trying to perk him up. And now I want Taco Bell. Fuck.
I have the paid version, I’m on a 109 day streak, and the stupid bird still looks like that. Must be a bug
1643 day streak here, and it still looks like it’s going to die on me any second now. I guess it was just an icon change (but… why?!)
Just use the icon from the streak society…
I think they just changed the icon to show that duo was sad/bored to get you to open it again. It’ll be there regardless of if you use it frequently or not.
huh, the wrinkles go away when I enlarge the image for viewing.
