I don’t like language learning apps that much, not to learn at least. I think they’re useful as a complement.

That being said, I’ve used Duolingo and Memrise in the past, and currently use Busuu. Here are my opinions:

• Duolingo is by far the worst option: nonsensical sentences, no explanations, heart system and so on. They worked very hard on marketing and gamification, they did zero work on language acquisition. It’s also supposed to last forever since you’re not supposed to learn, you’re supposed to stay forever and consume ads.

• Memrise is better, with some actual videos of people. But at least the last time I used it, not all courses had the same quality.

• Busuu: this app is in my opinion MUCH better than the other ones. The exercises make sense, they come with little explanations when needed and the community interactions are very good. They also have only real audios, real videos with real people and they also teach you some of the culture of the languages. In the Dutch course, they even expose you to both Netherlands and Belgium accents. Besides, the free version has some ads, but that’s basically all it has. You have access to everything and there’s no bullshit heart system. And my favourite thing about it: it’s not something that lasts forever. It’s a little app that knows its limite and knows when to stop.

TLDR: If you really want an app, ditch Duolingo and use Busuu. Duolingo is what you use to share little memes on social media.

I really like being able to read news in other languages.