how do they plan to reduce friction? (answer in english)

Duolingo's plan to reduce friction for its free users is centered on making the app more encouraging and less punishing. Their strategy involves four main areas of change, all in service of reaching 100 million daily active users by 2028:

💖 1. Replacing the "Hearts" System with "Energy"

Duolingo is phasing out its long-standing "hearts" system on mobile and replacing it with a new "energy" mechanic. The old system penalized every mistake by costing a heart, which would halt progress when all five were gone. The new system aims to be more motivational and less punitive.

• Less Punishing, More Rewarding: While each exercise and mistake still deducts one energy unit, users can now earn bonus energy at a random rate for completing lessons consecutively, encouraging continued practice.

• More Practice Time: A full energy bar now has 25 units, a huge increase from the previous five hearts, allowing for much longer, uninterrupted study sessions.

• Positive Reinforcement: As Duolingo's senior staff engineer, Moses Wayne, explained, "We feel like this is a way that we can motivate you to focus on things you're getting right rather than penalizing for the things that you're making mistakes on".

This shift also addresses a major source of user frustration, as many learners felt the heart system harshly punished them for mistakes that are a natural part of learning.

🛠️ 2. Adding More Valuable Free Features

Duolingo is actively investing in AI to offer more features to its free users, who make up about 75% of its learners. This includes several new tools:

• Speaking Adventures: Scenario-based spoken tasks (e.g., "go buy a sandwich and give it to that person") that are being introduced for both free and paid users to help practice real-world conversations.

• Flashcards: This newer feature helps with recall and vocabulary, and also gets users speaking by prompting them to say the translation aloud as they flip through cards.

• Explain My Answer: An AI-powered tool that breaks down why an answer is right or wrong in plain language.

• Practice Hub: A new section in the app dedicated entirely to speaking exercises.

• Duolingo Score: A new proficiency scoring system to help users track their progress against curriculum standards.

• Streak Recovery: To address a common point of friction, Duolingo now allows eligible users to restore a lost long-term streak, removing a key psychological barrier that prevents lapsed learners from returning.

🤖 3. Expanding AI Features to More Users

Recognizing that its advanced AI features are powerful learning tools, Duolingo is making them more accessible.

• AI Video Call to Super Tier: The popular "Video Call with Lily" feature, once exclusive to the premium Max tier, is being added to the Super Duolingo subscription. This exposes the feature to 10 times more subscribers and makes AI conversation practice far more accessible.

• Future Plans for Free Users: The company plans to roll out even more AI-powered speaking tools to free users, a move CEO Luis von Ahn says is about "maximizing learning" as these AI technologies become cheaper to run.

📺 4. Reducing Ads and Friction in the Free Experience

The company is deliberately reducing the frequency and intrusiveness of advertisements in the free version.

• Fewer Ads per Session: Reports from early 2026 show the number of ads in a session has been cut from two to one by some users. Additionally, some third-party ads have been replaced with simple promotions for Super Duolingo, which likely feel less disruptive.

• Less Annoying Ad Formats: As part of their new approach, the company is avoiding "disruptive monetization methods like increased ad loads or subscription upsells" in favor of less intrusive options, such as selling customizations for avatars.

This entire strategy represents a major philosophical shift for Duolingo. After years of aggressively monetizing its free tier, which CEO Luis von Ahn admitted added "friction" and came at the "expense of daily active user growth", they are now prioritizing scale. They are willing to sacrifice over $50 million in short-term bookings to create a smoother, more welcoming experience that they believe will build a larger and more loyal user base for the future.