Google’s Duolingo competitor is surprisingly good

My current Duolingo streak is 631 days and counting, and that doesn’t take into account the 223-day streak I had before missing a day (yes, I was sad about that). So when Google recently rolled out beta access to a new feature in its popular Google Translate app — a prominently-placed Practice mode — I knew I needed to try it out right away.

Practice mode not only has a heavy emphasis on speaking, which I find helps me a lot more than multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank methods, but you can also create new lessons entirely on the fly, thanks to a heavy dose of AI powering this feature. I’m honestly surprised by how polished Practice mode is already, and I’d imagine the small qualms I have will be remedied as it moves out of beta. And the best part is that it’s completely free.

When you first fire up Practice mode, you’re asked a simple question: What language would you like to practice? For now, if you’re starting from English, you only have two options — French or Spanish. You can then jump right into a handful of “recommended scenarios.” These are genuinely helpful situations you might find yourself in on any given day: ask for help in a store, greet an acquaintance on the street, order food and drinks, etc.

While I appreciate the science behind Duolingo’s constant notification nudging and absolutely love the owl mascot and branding overall, it’s been a really nice change of pace having a language learning app that isn’t begging for my attention. I go to Translate because of my desire to learn, and that’s that. Perhaps a good middle ground would be letting users add a custom reminder if they want to.

The idea of AI-generated lessons made me skeptical before trying Practice mode, but my hesitation quickly turned into delight. With each scenario, you choose if you’d like to focus on listening skills or speaking skills. The AI then quickly puts together the lesson.

In a listening lesson, you press play on a sound bite, then select the words you heard and comprehended from a list of words. From there, you can either move on to the next sound bite or tap one of two buttons: “Make it easier” or “Make it harder.” This “always-be-adapting” methodology seems to be a foundational functionality to Practice mode as a whole, as it’s built into various parts of the app. Because Translate is generating these lessons as you go, it does a great job of adapting to you.

In a speaking lesson, you’re given three tasks to complete in an open-ended conversation. Fortunately for beginners — like me with Spanish — you can enable hints to help guide you on what to say. I’ve heard other language learners suggest that full immersion is the best way for a language to stick, and unless you can spend a lot of time living in an area where your desired language is spoken, this very much feels like the next best option to me. You can say whatever you want in the conversation, and the replies will be tailored to what you say. You can make the lesson go on for a long time if you really want to, as it isn’t completed until you finish the three associated tasks. It’s a great way to explore conversation in the language you’re learning, with help along the way.

Below the recommended scenarios section, you’ll find the most interesting button in the app: a full-width button with the text, “Create your own practice scenario.” To me, this is the true superpower of Practice mode. You still get to select your focus — listening or speaking — but then you punch a scenario into the text box, press the “Create” button, and within moments, you have an entire lesson based on your desired outcome. This is so powerful.

For example, imagine you’re going to Paris, and you know you’re going to be using the train to get around. Perhaps, leading up to your trip, you create scenarios like “Asking for help finding my train station” or “Asking a stranger for help buying the right train ticket.” The real-life applications of this are endless, and for someone who wants to put in the effort to learn the basics of a language while traveling, this is very useful.

Practice mode is only just entering beta, and while I would honestly be fine if all Google does is add more languages, there are some other areas I hope to see improvements in as well.

Let’s start with the addition of more languages; for now, if you’re starting from English, your only options are Spanish or French. I do think that with so many languages that the main translation part of the app offers, it’s only a matter of time before we see this expand to a lot more languages. I’m also encouraged by the fact that lessons are AI-generated, mainly because I’ve seen how great Gemini Live works for practicing my conversation skills in another language.

Hungarian, for example, isn’t an extremely widely-used language — a quick Google search estimates 13-15 million speakers worldwide — and yet Gemini Live does an incredible job with the language, even down to sounding like an actual Hungarian (instead of an English-speaker trying to speak Hungarian). This leads me to believe that Practice mode is ready for all the languages in the Translate app, but that Google just wanted to test out this new functionality with a smaller subset of users while in beta.

Speaking of Gemini Live, I’d love to see this added natively into Practice mode. This feels like a natural fit for a language learning app, as it already does a great job in Gemini. If you tell Gemini your goal with the language you’re studying and ask it to help you learn new topics or to converse with you, Gemini does an incredible job being your always-on language tutor. It’s truly a magical experience, and one that would surely be useful in the Translate app.

My last couple of qualms are minor, but would go a long way in making the habit of language learning stick for more users. I would take a page out of Duolingo’s playbook and create a widget that shows how many days in a row you’ve completed a lesson. This is honestly the most effective part of Duolingo’s tactics for me. The Duo owl consistently gets more and more annoyed, then even angry, until you complete a lesson. A widget would also help me keep the Translate app at the forefront of my mind.

I’d also love to be able to take my practiced words list and, with the tap of a button, generate flash cards to study those words further. I think building up vocabulary is one of the most challenging parts of learning a language, so this would be super helpful to me. This would also help Practice mode to know which words you need to spend more time on, and which words are really sticking for you.

Here’s something I haven’t seen in a language app, but that I think would be possible thanks to AI: what if the AI could analyze your pronunciation? With both Duolingo and now the Translate app, when you practice speaking, the apps don’t seem to care how well you pronounce the words you’re saying, only that you get something out that somewhat resembles them. I strive to speak in other languages as fluently as possible, and pronouncing letters and words as a native speaker would go a long way in sounding legitimate in another language. Many languages have letters that don’t even exist in English. An AI that not only checks what you’re saying but also how you’re saying it would be a game-changer in the world of language learning, and I think technology is at a point where that’s very realistic.

Duolingo has a huge head start in the language learning world, and I love its mission to bring free learning to the masses. One thing that may be a struggle for people trying out Practice mode in the Translate app is that it doesn’t feel nearly as structured as Duolingo.

Duolingo has a very clear path laid out for each language of how you will progress in your language learning journey, and it’s been proven effective. I’ve been studying Spanish in the app for a while now, and although I still consider myself a beginner, I can definitely tell that I’ve made progress in my learning. Duolingo also gives you a score that correlates to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages), so you can get a real feel for where you are in your journey compared to established frameworks.

Contrast this with the Translate app’s Practice mode, which doesn’t have much structure at all, and it can feel like your language learning is a bit directionless, unless you know exactly what you want to study. This may change over time, as Practice mode already allows you to select your Proficiency setting. Currently, you can choose between Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced, but there’s also a more basic mode called “Just starting,” which is greyed out and stamped with “Currently unavailable.” This may solve the structure issue for those who are brand new to a language. All that said, if you are motivated and take the initiative, Google’s Practice mode is perfectly suitable for beginners.

To be fair to Duolingo, it does offer a “video call” mode, which allows you to speak to a Duolingo character that responds to what you’re saying. But this is behind the app’s highest price tier, whereas speaking in Practice mode in Google’s app is free and doesn’t even have ads. I get that Duolingo has to make money, but the Translate app is only furthering Duolingo’s own mission to bring free language learning to the world.

Does this mean I’m saying goodbye to the green owl?

I like both apps for different reasons, and I’ll likely continue using both in tandem to further my language learning pursuits. Duolingo certainly does not lack features of its own, and it also has a social element that you won’t find in Google Translate. I enjoy seeing my friends on the leaderboards in Duolingo, even though it’s not vital to my own success. I won’t be ditching Duolingo any time soon, but I’m extremely excited about the possibilities of Google’s vision for Translate.