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Drops: Language Learning Games App Complaints & User Negative Comments 2024
Drops: Language Learning Games app received 52 complaints, negative comments and reviews by users. Have you ever had a bad experience using Drops: Language Learning Games? Can you share your negative thoughts about drops: language learning games?
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Drops: Language Learning Games for Negative User Reviews
✓ Rating- IMPORTANT!!Hi, this app is great for learning words. It’s not so great for learning how to make your own sentences and grammar rules. I would recommend using this to extend your vocabulary rather that build language from scratch. Additionally, my review dojo’ doesn’t seem to have a limit on how many words I have to do. It’s currently and around 300+ words and I feel like I can’t keep learning new topics until I finish. It fills up so fast and it resets a lot and adds new words. I also wish your could toggle on and off the streak. I personally don’t like the mandatory streak and wish I could have the option to turn it off. To conclude, this app is great for pronunciation and building vocabulary. It still has a ways to go. Cheers, a Drops user..Version: 36.64
✓ Does do Māori but I wish there was something elseHas a childish design and some quite obscure graphics (my partner thought the one for “tea leaf” must mean “compost”). Would be much clearer without the garish coloured design and kiddy graphics. The system seems to encourage getting points and pseudo progress by constantly pushing superficial learning of more new words without enough review to be effective. Overall the prime motive seems to be to sell one of the many confusing subscriptions which all seem unjustified given that the main content and algorithm never changes except for ridiculous changes to the graphics..Version: 36.42
✓ Not useful for Thai without knowing Thai scriptThe design and different tasks to memorize the vocabulary are great. However, the latin script for the words is without any indication of the tones of the words. This is crucial because the tones change the meaning of the words. In addition, a lot of the words are not correctly spelled in the latin script, for example, the month January should be spelled “ má-ga-raa khom” but instead is written “ma ka raa khom”. Overall, the app is only useful for people who are already familiar with the Thai script and can read the tones. Otherwise you will have a lot of trouble when practicing your vocabulary without being totally misunderstood because the lack of correct tones. For beginners or intermediate learners who only want to practice speaking, I would recommend other apps that indicate the tone of the words..Version: 36.67
✓ Great fun app!This app is fun and easy to use. Leave me wanting more than the session which is why I bought lifetime version. I like it, but the free was fine as well. I just didn’t want to wait 10 hours for my next free session anymore. Why not 5 stars? Some words are inaccurate. I’m learning Brazilian Portuguese and my wife is from Brazil and the use different words for some things so I get confused at times. This isn’t a lot, but so far maybe 3 or 4 words so far were like that. Also, one was completely wrong and has yet to be corrected. Also the phrases are great phrases to know, but the images correlating to them are no good. Would I buy again? YES! I still use it almost every day. It’s overall my favorite language learning app for vocabulary. Once I learn Portuguese I plan to love to another language. This would be great to keep the mind going and active. This is a great enhancement to Duolingo. You can learn sentence structures and that from them, but you can increase your vocabulary from this app. I really don’t like all the LGBTQ stuff. I want these removed or to have the option to do so. I can’t stand these political statements. Had these been available beforehand, I wouldn’t have purchased. This has been added since purchasing and I’m highly disappointed that it was added without option for removal..Version: 37.0
✓ Good visuals, not level appropriateNeed a better way to assess my level.Version: 38.13
✓ Decent language app but the agenda they push kills itI was learning Greek, they have about 20 categories where only 2 you have full access to when using free version and with the other ones you have to work your way to get full access. The two categories you have all access to is fundamentals and “essential LGBTQ vocabulary” on gender transitioning, pronouns etc. you are a language app not an indoctrination app, I understand people have their beliefs and that’s ok even though I think they are wrong, but don’t flaunt LGBTQ Ideology on a language app, much of it is destructive, especially the gender and trans ideology. For that reason, I am not using this app and will not until the LGBTQ ideology is removed from the app. Some may think I’m making a big deal, but values matter..Version: 36.40
✓ Big Fan, But...I’m a big fan of the actual app itself, but I’m getting a bit tired of getting constant notifications telling me to buy the premium subscription, or about fancy offers and deals for various subscriptions, when I’m already on the premium subscription! I’m not sure if there’s a bug or not, but if the developers could please maybe make a patch so that people who are already paying for the premium service don’t have 3-5 notifications a day trying to get them to buy something they already have, that would be awesome! Otherwise I have literally no complaints about the app. :).Version: 35.33
✓ Why the subscriptionThis app was very helpful for me to learn mandarin, except that once you spend 10 minutes on the app your time is up and have to wait ten hours. This seems quite pointless as other language learning apps (Duolingo) let you learn as long as you want. It is also quite stupid how if you make an app for people to learn languages, then why do you limit the time people can spend on it? Also the prices you charge are quite high seeing as Duolingo is free. There is a subscription, but it doesn’t restrict you from using the app at all. And by the time you have learnt the language you were learning fluently, you will have spent over $500. It’s quite dumb.Version: 31.27
✓ Auto renewed even though it was set up toCan’t cancel it anywhere.Version: 36.1
✓ The most boring language app everI put myself in as an advanced speaker of Italian as I used to be but haven’t spoken it in twenty years and have lost my vocabulary. I’ve been through five ‘lessons’ where it’s gone over the same two basic phrases and six food items. Over and over. It doesn’t appear to move you on any quicker if you get everything right in record time. You just have to keep answering the same questions over and over until you’ve lost the will to live. Oh and advanced is not remotely advanced. I would not consider simple things like egg, knife and fork and the present tense like I cook to be close to advanced. At least duolingo makes some basic learning a lot more interesting than this..Version: 35.51
✓ Could be better4 lessons in and I’m still practising the same 2 words…. Just why. It’s turning me off upgrading. It’s really frustrating waiting 10hours only to receive the same l soon over and over, the excercises are annoying repetitive and I really want to enjoy it but finding this very irritating.Version: 36.48
✓ Too much time in between?All in all, the app’s been wonderful and exactly what I need to learn a language. Let me explain the situation that occurred which made me give it a 3-star. Yesterday, at 14:15, I finished up with a lesson. It told me I could come back ten hours later. I’m not really sure how, my I managed to start another lesson immediately after, but it only let me do one word. That’s not what the problem is. I really wanted to finish learning, so at 12:15am (10 hours later, as instructed) i was going to come back to it, but never did. Now, at 7:08am (17 hours after I finished the session) I apparently have to wait another 17 hours to do my lesson?? I will seriously delete the app, I really did like it but if this is a reoccurring issue I’d much rather just using Duolingo, because while the functions are worse, it just doesn’t bug like this..Version: 34.47
✓ Great but it does not save streakI love the languages it offers but it seriously annoys me when I do the learning everyday but it does not save the streak at all. Even better it does not save your progress honestly. I finished one topic and moved on to the next topic but i find myself doing the same end of one topic/ beginning of the other everyday which is very discouraging and I really don’t want to use the app anymore. It’s honestly better to use the individual drop apps for the language you wish to learn..Version: 36.7
✓ CX issue after accepting the Premium upgradeI am loving and enjoying the app. I need to get some basic Korean into me before World Scout Jamboree next year when I will be on the operations team ordering food stocks for 45,000 people to eat for 2 weeks and liaising with locals in the supply chain. I am therefore committed and in, was pretty much sold on Drops after my first lessons in bread, fruit, fish…. On Day 1 I accepted the upgrade. It is showing in my Apple pay subscription as payment due to be taken. However the app still believes I am still undecided and later offered me premium again - at a lower price!! This happened again, so now my apple subscription plan page is now having around 20 different price options - but your app is still not triggering my licence entitlement and I can’t access premium content yet. I appreciate the app is new and so maybe with this customer onboarding issue I might need to look at another which is more ready to use. The content and UI is really great and after 4 daily lessons am engaged and enthused. It’s a real shame. Thanks.Version: 36.28
✓ Something Has ChangedI want to love Drops. I did love Drops. I have a 543 day streak as of amending this review and rating. It has been a great app for bite-sized vocab learning and really makes me feel like I’m picking up some basics of Hebrew. But I’ve been using the app for a while now and in the past few weeks I’ve noticed a definite shift in usability. Pop-ups for new challenges and features now come up in the middle of lessons and when you close them it sends you back to the homepage rather than the word you were on. Furthermore, you can no longer look at the vocab list of a section to see the translation of a word or words without skipping the slide you were on. I find this to be particularly frustrating because it means I get less opportunity to cement the meaning of a word I’m struggling with in my brain. The key to learning most things is repetition and that’s been taken away. As I said in the beginning of this review I want to love Drops, and while my streak is not quite 2 years, I have been using the app since it came out and it’s always been the language app that’s worked best for me. If the developers read this review please consider what I have said. I hope this helps anyone considering downloading as well..Version: 38.0
✓ MoyenPermet d’apprendre des langues moins connu comme l’estonien, sans avoir a passer par l’anglais. Les pictogrammes aident, mais parfois ils sont trop similaire, et manquent de clarté. Le choix des mots à apprendre: l’application me fait apprendre des mots compliqués, qu’on utilise très peu, plutôt que de mettre l’accent sur des mots plus important et qu’on utilise plus souvent..Version: 38.17
✓ The 5 minutes rule is absurdGiving people 5 minutes every 10 hours, is in my opinion, not effective in free learners learning journey. Yes, making the learning time 5 minutes will increase the need to focus and will increase productivity and memory with the language however it’s only 5 minutes per “day”. We should be able to keep replaying the level or words that we just worked on or have already learned in the past without having to wait so that revision is easier and we don’t need to revise, say, 100+ words in 5 - 10 minutes a day. I get it’s a marketing technique to get people to subscribe and make them pay for your app however giving only 5 minutes per lesson in my opinion is not effective when someone is learning a language..Version: 34.10
✓ Potentially good app but missing audioDrops is a good app for easy flashcard style vocabulary practice but the app seems half finished with many words and phrases not having audio. This becomes a problem during the practice when it’s a listening question for a word/phrase with no audio. If they could finish developing the app it would be great.Version: 38.13
✓ GlitchI used to love using this app but lately when I start a lesson it gets stuck on a blank purple screen and I can’t do anything. Very disappointing. I have an iPhone SE running the most recent software update..Version: 36.58
✓ Topical inconsistenciesFor me I am using this app in conjunction with another learning app that is specific to my chosen language of Japanese. My other app is good for teaching sentence structures and the hirigana and katakana so I am finding drops a good partner app to learn sone more fun words in topics that interest me and keep me interested in learning my language instead of always feeling stuck in the basics. I would have been tempted to upgrade to a subscription to access particular topics that interested me but when I do get to a topic I like I am often disappointed by the word choices. Outdoors was really just all about camping which isn’t my interest. Flowers was filled mostly with gardening terms even though elsewhere there is a topic dedicated to gardening? I am working on wild animals and again half the words seem to be insects despite insects being another topic group itself. With only 17 words per topic I also feel the choices can be heavily western/American and not necessarily reflective of the culture I am studying..Version: 35.46
✓ Used to be my fave app????So originally I loved this. Super smooth transitions, good word games etc. I updated it a couple of months or so ago and the romanised help is just super annoying now... I understand why the numbers are there but I preferred it when they weren’t (at least for now!). But when I turn it off it takes away the letter spelling in Cantonese ... which makes it unusable for me. Just updated it again today in hope - it’s somehow gotten super clunky ? And I feel like the voice has gotten slower? Idk. It’s hard to pinpoint everything but this is SO much worse than the original app I downloaded. Also, I pay for the cheapest one yet my profile says pay for polyglot and won’t let me change it? I’ll have to see if that amount of £ comes out - if it does you’ll be hearing from me. Super disappointed, please don’t ruin a good thing!!!!! Or if you insist, give people an option to turn it off without losing things..Version: 27.11
✓ Can’t learn for free…It cuts you off after 5 minutes a day and won’t let you learn more unless you pay them… Duolingo is free, so I don’t know why you’d come here 🤷🏼♂️.Version: 38.12
✓ AMAZINGIt’s soooooo good it is good to learn.Version: 38.13
✓ Cantonese transcriptions are sometimes wrongThe app itself works well, is well designed, and makes learning and remembering words easier. Unfortunately, of the 150 or so words I have learnt so far in Cantonese in drops, about 5% are not written correctly in Jyutping (i.e. the transcription does not match other sources, or the audio, which seems to be good). For example bed (睡房）is written seoi6 fong6 in drops but seoi6 fong2 in other sources. Phone call (電話) is written din6 waa6 in drops but din6 waa2 in other sources. Blueberry (藍霉) is written laam4 mui4 in drops but laam4 mui2 in other sources. These are only some of quite a large number of examples and this makes the learning process much harder because having to double check what you heard and then remembering the transcription is wrong for certain works takes effort - I haven’t found a way to fully turn the transcriptions off and, if reliably right, they would be very useful. So a really good app let down by inaccurate content in Cantonese - if this is fixed I would give it 5 stars but currently I can’t give it more than 3 from my experience..Version: 36.55
✓ Good idea, but basic vocab and too slowI like the format (although it’s a bit frustratingly slow, it would be better sped up as you hardly cover any content in 5 mins) but the vocab choices are ridiculous. If I’m travelling the most important vocab is food and phrases for use in restaurants and bars. The food vocab includes things like muffin, donut, milkshake, hot dog, hamburger, cookie, lollipop - it’s massively biased towards American junk food. Some of these were even showing up in the ‘herbs and spices’ module. I need to know the different cuts of meat and preparations, or names of soups/sauces/vegetables. It’s too basic, it’s too slow. The last ‘foodie’ module I did included the words photograph, guide, tour, and handle - I don’t know how they choose these words but it’s bordering nonsensical. Please get someone actually interested or knowledgeable about food involved in the vocab choices..Version: 36.35
✓ Great app, recurring bugs hold it backBeen using for a while and have moved to a yearly membership to get even more value. devs seem to be responsive to user comments/complaints, something reflected in the constant app updates. i will admit to having liked a couple of changes that were rolled back when a majority of users disagreed, but as a high PL + VL individual to each their own. however, two things continue to hold this app back (and from making me comfortable giving it a full five stars): (1) every few days, the app will prompt me to create a login despite me having had a login since the first week of dl. this is esp frustrating because when i click on my profile, it says i am (already) logged in. what gives? (2) every few months, the app will fail to log my progress causing me to lose two days. its like, for 48 hrs, even if i am logged on and the app is working fine, drops will act as if my sessions did not count. if i have two saves or less, my streak is over. this has already happened once and when i reached out to the devs in oct/nov of last year, i was not given a solution (i did not have to start over but my streak was "-2") overall). why cant the devs fix?.Version: 38.17
✓ Wouldnt let me inI downloaded the app and when i tried to sign up it said there was already an account with my email so i clicked forgot password and reset it. when i tried to log in again a popup kept coming up saying “duplicate email error” or something like that and when i clicked the “okay” button it woudl just keep taking me to the email sign in where the same thing happened. i want to use this app to help with my language learning but I cannot get in.Version: 38.11
✓ Beautiful design but full of errorsI love the design of Drops and the way it focuses on vocabulary and I was induced to pay for a year because of that. But oh my word, the quality control is terrible. At least with respect to the French option which is riddled with errors. And I’m not talking translation choices or anything stylistic. I’m talking about actual errors and mistakes like (A) the written words not matching the spoken words, (B) the same picture being used for two different items within the same subgroup, (C) words being cut off in their pronunciation, (D) the written and spoken words being correct but the picture is of the wrong thing. I just cannot understand how the quality control could be so poor and no one caught these things before they were released to the public. Essentially this is damaging to people learning the language who may not know some of these mistakes are there. There does appear to be a *limited* way to report these errors while using the app, but even that is very flawed. You can report the error ONLY upon its first appearance and before you swipe down the first time. So you have to immediately know it is a mistake which, if you are a learner, is hard to do. Even being advanced, it’s hard to stop the swiping in time to make the report. Once you make that swipe though, it is impossible to make any error reports for that word. That option is gone forever..Version: 31.9
✓ A Bit WeirdI started intermediate French and so far it’s been 5mins every lesson of learning select words within a certain category. The same damn word over and over. It would better to see it within context of a sentence, to practice pronouncing it etc. Words themselves aren’t helpful if you aren’t learning the rules, structure and so on of the language. I find it boring and frustrating. That being said the design of the app is pretty neat, but turning on the VR component and giving access to my camera didn’t do anything..Version: 24.5
✓ A rip offThe below was my review. I paid for 104 minutes a day and now am being asked to pay AGAIN to access more than 5 minutes at a time. To be honest with you I’ve stopped using it because I keep having to repeat the lessons I’ve already done and I’m only allowed 5 of the 104 minutes WHICH I HAVE PAID FOR a day. Not impressed. I am currently learning Italian, and use it alongside duolingo. The combination of the both has taught me so much in such a short time! Drops is best used alongside another method of learning as it doesn't teach you how to form sentences, but for the soul purpose of learning new words this is quick, easy and fun. After using the app for free I was offered a discount on the price of 104 minutes a day. For what you pay for it though this is a cheap, easy and effective learning method with plenty of language choices! You do need to remember the English (in my case) the first time you are introduced to a new word - which is proving slightly problematic as not every picture is clear - but I am definitely addicted to this app, and my family are too!.Version: 24.17
✓ Great App!I really like this app, especially how it teaches using images rather than translation. The game-like exercises make learning more enjoyable. The features available to free users are still pretty good so it makes learning a language accessible to those who can't afford premium too. The reason why I gave it three stars was a couple of things. Firstly, this is specific to Japanese which is the language I am learning. It teaches new vocab with Hiragana rather than Kanji and continues to show them in Hiragana, but it's much more useful to learn them with the Kanji. Also, so far, I have not come across any features that show you how to use the vocab you learn in context which would be useful. Lastly I think it would benefit from a reviews system to make sure that you don't forget old vocab while learning new ones. Apart from that it's a really great app, but I think it's a useful resource to use alongside other things, not entirely on its own (but I would say that about most language learning resources)..Version: 35.93
✓ Works well when working.IPhone App keeps crashing every time I want to change language. Also, the help function just continues to put you through never ending loops of information and small text to email them. Workflow for getting help could be better. The app is nice to use when working..Version: 36.28
✓ Just a vocabulary App?The user interface is nicely designed and easy to use, and fun. There are lots of topics to choose from in any particular language. I already speak two languages, and wanted to learn a third. But can you actually learn a new language with Drops? I’m not so sure, as Drops only gives you new words to learn on a daily basis. There is a lot more to learning and speaking a language than just a good vocab. You can learn lots of words in a particular language, but there is no grammar, no phrases, and no sentence construction lessons. For example I might learn ‘good morning’ , then ‘lovely’ , then ‘day’, but how do I say ‘Good morning it’s a lovely day?’ Or how about past or present tense? Drops can work well with other kinds of language support, but just learning 1000 new words will not make you fluent, or a speaker of a new language. Use Drops as a learning aid to support other ways of learning a new language..Version: 35.51
✓ Copy and PasteThe app aesthetics itself are amazing and the animations help distinguish the images to some extent. However the problem with this App is that it’s the exact same formula for every language. Copy and Paste. Cantonese is a very colloquial language, but some of these phrases are basically the Cantonese version of its Mandarin equivalent. For example, there are two ways of saying Monday in Cantonese, but the learner will only be learning one and chances are it is the written one, which is used far less frequently in conversation and might even confuse natives. There should be an option to view these different ways in the collection, or an option whether the learner wants to learn formal or informal language. In Japanese, learners are taught informal language without being able to differentiate between the two as they are not told. Alongside another learning app, Drops just seems like a word bank as it does not go into depth about its vocabulary. Please implement a feature that shows the whether a word is masculine or feminine for European languages!.Version: 34.74
✓ Serious login bug. Also spammers.Feel like logging in on a different device tomorrow. Well don't bother. The log in will work fine, but then it will reset the timer. Had 15 mins left to wait until your your next 5min word game? Well now your wait is straight back to 10 hours! On a more sinister note, were you thinking about hitting the "unsubscribe" button at the bottom of their spam emails? Well don't bother with that either. The unsubscribe button doesn't work. Despite the unsubscribe link containing tracking data, it just leads to a webform asking for your email address. In theory, you could just enter your email address in the form (remembering to use the apple privaterelay address from iPhone settings if you you use 'sign in with Apple'). The trouble is, your email address will go unrecognised and you will continue to receive spam. It's not as if the developer doesn't know you tried to unsubscribe - the "faulty" unsubscribe link was encoded with tracking data..Version: 35.74
✓ Don’t try and get supportDespite paying for this app the support is terrible and worrisome that you think you are paying for a cloud based app that they actually know nothing about your history or status and just send you the same set of instructions despite the information you provide them. This app is probably okay if you only want to use it in one device but cross device is bug ridden. The integration with apple single sign on is also woeful and the only way to reset is to delete the app and start again. Despite reading some promising reviews i’ve given up and would rather use something that’s perhaps not as well designed but actually has decent support and works as it says as well as enables sign on via the 3rd party authentication..Version: 35.65
✓ Robbing me every month - Drops is a SCAM.I got Drops Sept 2022 to learn Samoan, then deleted my account earlier this year. Deleted the app and went into Apple to cancel my subscription. It cancelled. Since the beginning of this year Drops have taken $30 from my account for an app I no longer have on my phone, and a subscription that’s been cancelled. I made two refund requests in June and have heard NOTHING back other than “thanks for your email! we’re busy and we hope you appreciate that :)” useless emails from their so-called “Support Team”. I have sent them the email the account was associated with, and the receipt and they maintain it’s deleted. I was charged AGAIN yesterday $30. There’s nothing left to do at this point other than going to the bank and deleting my bank account, then re-directing all of my life to another account because Language Drops are ROBBING me every month. DO NOT GET THIS APP..Version: 36.69
✓ Nice but needs verb category!Hopefully I’m not mistaken, but I would really love an option to categorise words by parts of speech. There are times I really just want to brush up and look up studied verbs, nouns or prepositions but there doesn’t seem to be a way to just learn them or they’re not put into their own subject. I think this would be a really great feature to put into Drops and gives users an option to improve vocabulary by grammatical usage. For example, I have 1000 Words in Spanish by Usborne for my daily noun vocabulary but Drops could not only be a tool for learning nouns as specified as “light filament” but to drill other parts of speech too..Version: 34.62
✓ Zero customer service, huge bug with app wiping progress randomlyI would have scored this app a 5 yesterday, and forgave the first time the bug issue happened. I have had a subscription for 1.5 years and have successfully learnt French and Portuguese, and have moved onto learning Japanese over the last 3 months. I never experienced a problem with the app until it logged me out without warning 1 month into learning Japanese. When I logged back in using the exact same details, it had wiped my progress for Japanese, including the 1000+ words I had learnt in both French and Portuguese. I started learning again from the beginning, and reached 300 words learnt in 10 days. When I opened the app to make sure I didn’t break my learning streak the app had logged me out again. I logged back in, again using the same login details, and all of my progress has been wiped. I am so frustrated because starting over again is just ridiculous and makes me feel so demotivated. It takes time and dedication to learn the amount of words I do in a day and I can’t keep starting from scratch. Drops really needs to get their act together and respond to complaints and messages. I have tried to contact them multiple times and no one has ever responded to me. So, 1 star it is..Version: 35.93
✓ Used to be good - unstable and unwieldy to use nowI’ve been a long term drops user (3+ years) but recently the app has been irritating me to no end: 1) it constantly crashes - I try to open the app from iOS, it opens the main page, hangs for a couple of seconds and then crashes. Most of the times it’s a couple of times before I can in but today it’s been impossible. 2) the CONSTANT restructure of the course content is extremely confusing to follow!! I get you are trying to add new content but please leave the old topics alone. They constantly split and splice the old topics so it’s hard to revise your old topics you’ve “mastered”. It’s also become unintuitive on how to practice specific areas. It seems like you have to level up before unlocking specific topics - something which is not well explained..Version: 36.69
✓ Love the app- terrible for customer supportI am a paid user, I have been using the app over a year now. I have never encountered an issue until a few weeks ago. I’m not sure what is going on but I’m having some sort of login issue where the app is having an error message repeatedly pop up over and over if I leave the app for longer than a few minutes. It never resolves itself and I’ve tried all common sense trouble shooting methods. I figured I would try to get help from Drops to solve it. I went in to “create a ticket” but it was actually really hard to find *how* to make one. The help pages told me to make a ticket but it was not user friendly in how to actually make a new ticket or where the link was to make a request. Finally, I found an email address for customer support and sent a message. It’s been over two weeks now and I’ve sent up a follow up message and I have heard nothing. The problem has only gotten worse and now if I want to continue using the app, I literally have to delete it from my phone every time I want to use it. Completely annoying and inconvenient. I tried to commenting on an instagram photo for help and didn’t get a response from their official page. I don’t know what else to do. I paid a lot of money for the unlimited lifetime use of this app and I don’t know who to contact or if anyone reads that supposed email for customer service support..Version: 34.84
✓ An utterly useless language learning appYes, it is a beautiful looking app, but if you’re serious about learning, Drops is both a waste of time and money plus it will likely hamper your learning ability. It’s really disappointing to see this app has an editor’s recommendation when it just so bad. My review is based on it’s claimed support for Thai. I subscribed to the premium features for 1 month; as the month comes to the end, I’ve canceled my subscription. Drops is teaching more of a “Google Translate” version of language learning. There is no thought given to how the target language work. At best you’ll just end up speaking English in Thai. First problem, it’s too focused on words. This is fine for building vocabulary as a supplement to a full featured language course, but it’s not suitable for forming core of your language learning. It’s definitely overpriced for what little it provides. You are much better off using Anki for your SRS/flash card needs. Anki is both cheaper, more usable, and customizable. Plus you get to create your own vocabulary lists with Anki and you can include sentences so you can see the word in context. The only advantage Drops has over Anki is looks. Let’s talk about that focus on words. It could still be workable if Drops cared about the language you’re learning. But they clearly don’t or are engaged in some extreme cultural imperialism. They try to force Thai into a variant of English. The two languages are quiet different. Thai words simply work different than English ones and doing this straight across translation makes no sense. Worse, it will make you come off as extremely rude when speaking Thai as it used the extremely personal versions of Thai pronouns and it’s doesn’t take into account the gender of the learner. In Thai the 1st person singular (I/me) is gendered. But Drops uses ดีฉัน, or the slightly less formal ฉัน, if the speaker is female and ผม if the speaker is male. Often the images show a male doing something with the pronoun being ฉัน. Yes, men can use ฉัน too but only in extremely informal situations with people you’re already very close to. You would never refer to yourself as ฉัน if you’re a male speaking to someone older than you. It would be incredibly rude, but that is what Drops teaches. Likewise Drops completely messes up family relation words, because, again, they work differently in Thai than English and Drops only cares about English. For example the English word “sister-in-law” doesn’t have a direct translation in Thai as which side matters in Thai but doesn’t in English. So there are two words: น้องสะใภ้ and พี่สะใภ้. But Drops doesn’t explain the difference. Then don’t get me started on the transportation section — trying to translate so many words that are irrelevant in Thailand, like tram. Hell, who even says “tram” in English? There is no attempt to focus on words that would be useful in Thailand, this is most obvious in the the food sections. I doubt anyone from the Drops team has ever visited Thailand. Then there is no discussion of tones or discussing how Thai syllables work. Drops breaks words in naïve ways. Thai has strict rules how to make syllables. To test your knowledge of words Drops presents words broken in parts that you must put together in the correct order. It’s a good idea but, like so much of Drops, it’s poorly executed. You don’t have to know the word to know the order, you just have to know the syllable rules because often the words are broken up in a way that there is only one possible way to combine the words. Thai vowels are often written before the word the come after. You can’t end a syllable with ใ for example, you know that it must start a syllable. So if you are presented with two parts and one ends with a vowel that starts a syllable, I.e., ใ, ไ, โ, เ, แ, you know it must come before the second part. The “typing” exercises would be better off using the built in keyboard. It’s good for practising spelling but since in real life you’re going to use the keyboard, why invent a new interface for it. It would be better for the user to get used to the keyboard for the language they are learning so they will be able to chat once they have minimum skill. On that note, the most important part of learning a new language is conversation. There is no attention to conversation at all in drops. No way to map out question/responses like you’d do with Anki. So with Drops you’re just going to end up with a grab bag of words with no understanding of how to use them. Finally, the UI for Drops is frustrating. You can’t rotate it and you’re forced on the iPad Pro 12.9” to hold it in the uncomfortable portrait orientation. The Apple Pencil is completely not supported in any meaningful way. You end up having to use your fingers like a savage. It feels like such a downgrade because the Apple Pencil is so much more natural than touch. TL;DR Drops ignores the culture behind the language you’re learning; Drops ignores the way the language you’re learning works instead forcing you into an English centric model; You’re not going actually enhance your skills using Drops. Best bet is to just go grab Anki. Learning languages is work and you have to put that work in. It’s so worth it. Drops will not help you if you’re serious..Version: 30.25
✓ So good overall but a few big issuesHonestly this app is so good with one major issue which until it’s changed I would never go premium and it irritates me a lot using it now. The image system works great for basic things, but as soon as you get into anything a bit more complex like actions or ideas it becomes so hard to differentiate. So you end up wasting energy trying to remember this this image means aunt but this image means step mother and they basically look the same. It’s especially difficult if you take a break and come back to it after a while. I can’t work out what the image is and there’s no way to show the English without digging through your collection. Really simple fix please: include the English with the pic or have it as an option to tap and show the English text. I’d also love past words to come up more frequently because I’m struggling to retain things, they aren’t quite sticking in my brain like from other apps. It’s easy to take in a lot and not go over them after the initial blitz. Otherwise the app is amazing in function. It’s super easy to use and has a great free option with 5 or so mins a day. I also love they have Te Reo Māori in there, thank you for that! I just wish those things were a bit better and then I’d be all in on drops..Version: 36.40
✓ It used to be very goodDrop added new section recently, may be already several weeks, but all those new sections are very unstable, they don’t even have sound now; the sentences are so long that they got cut of before next frame come in; the space in the “word collection” cannot accommodate such long sentences. Not sure if they will fix it soon. Very disappointed! I’m using the paid premium version..Version: 38.13
✓ I appreciate the effort, but....As a long-time learner of Cantonese, I was excited to hear that an iPhone app was actually starting to offer Cantonese vocabulary practice. However, my enthusiasm has been dampened by the number of errors I have discovered within the vocabulary decks (sometime as many as six words within a section will have an error). The errors usually involve incorrect tones in the jyutping romanization, though the audio recording will be correct, leading to a bit of cognitive dissonance where what I hear doesn’t match what I see. A lot of these error are likely due to the fact that Drops has specific jyutping spellings hard coded 1-for-1 to specific Chinese characters, but in Cantonese, some characters switch tones depending on where they are in a word, so the logic needs to be fixed. I also found some instances where the audio and the reading didn’t match at all (like 我闖入). I used the “report and error” function weeks ago for many of these problems, but Drops has yet to change the vocabulary cards in question or even respond. As such, I can’t really recommend the app at this time. (also, Cantonese learners often deal with two separate romanization systems: jyutping and Yale. It would be cool if Drops followed the lead of other apps like Pleco and offered the ability to toggle between the two).Version: 33.20
✓ My honest reviewHey Drops team! I really love the app , I downloaded multiple apps pertaining to learning New languages, and this app by far exceeds all of them. For the simple fact that one doesn’t feel like they are in a car dealership lot just browsing and have a swarm of salesman coming at you from all angles and potentially losing the interest of the potential customer. What I mean by this is Drops not only let’s you enjoy the app and get into it with its user friendly features, but unlike most language learning apps, doesn’t try and get you to pay for it with a bunch of pop ups, it lets you actually want to keep the app. Which in turn would make you want to pay for premium. The only con that I can think of have using this app for awhile now is that, while trying to review all the words you have previously learned thus far, a pop up opens and does try to get one to pay for the upgrade. To me personally this part of the app could be changed. Just for the simple fact that it is a smart marketing strategy I could see, but for those who don’t have any form of card payment, it is kind of a bummer not to be able to see the words you have learned thus far. I appreciate the time it may or may not have took to read this review, but I would like to send appreciation to those who made this app possible for people who want to broaden their minds and try something new like learning a new language for what ever reason one might have. Thank you Drops..Version: 32.25
✓ Hate the way apps are now5 min then you have to wait 10 hours or $90 for one language or 130 for all...hey can’t afford to buy no problem you can just pay 9.99 a month instead...plz.Version: 24.16
✓ Great but…I’ve been using drops to learn Mandarin Chinese and I really like it as a way of boosting my vocabulary and recognition of characters. I also really want to learn to write, so drops helps with that. BUT the one super frustrating thing is with the writing. I’m not sure exactly how it’s programmed, but it isn’t very adaptive. It seems like it’s recognizing how close you get to their set path, instead of actual character recognition. Sometimes it has you write characters without any guidance which is great practice. But, I find it impossible sometimes to get it “right”. I know what the character looks like and how to write it, but since I’m not putting my strokes exactly where the app wants them, it gives me haptic feedback and forces me to start over. It’s really frustrating when I know I’m doing it right but I can’t get the app to recognize it. There’s value in striving for proper proportion and handwriting, but this is too much. It makes it really hard to enjoy the app as I spend a lot of time just trying to get through these types of exercises. I’d probably be getting a premium membership if it weren’t for this. It also constantly gives me the message “stop the stroke a bit earlier :)” which seems nice, until you get it 1000 times (even when that isn’t the problem, I’m just doing it completely wrong)..Version: 36.5
✓ Used to be much betterDrops used to be much better and was a joy to use and really helped my language learning. However, longer and longer words have been introduced to the stage where you are learning whole sentences at once rather than just the vocab you downloaded the app for. The app seems to enjoy doing back-to-back activities where you have to enter the letters one by one, this takes a long time if you have a sentence to do and you can waste an entire session only completing a handful of words (sentences as they’re no longer words). Gameplay needs to be updated to reflect longer words as it’s getting quite boring/frustrating and it’s hard to make any progress. Have reported this to the app team but nobody helpful responded so unsure if any change will be made. Will be sad to lose my years’ long streak..Version: 38.12
✓ Smooth design but frustratingI gave this a go for a few sessions but already some things are making practice sessions feel unproductive. When a phrase is introduced, the English translation is visible but after when reviewing the phrase you can only see the picture and not its meaning any more. This would be good if I could always remember the meaning of the pictures but they are not that clear and I feel like I have to memorise the pictures and the language phrases at the same time. Also when spelling a phrase, if I fail to remember it the answer is given but it stays on screen for too short a time. Especially if learning a new script it’s not like I can reread the phrase in half a second. That’s not going to help me spell it right next time as I didn’t get a chance to recheck the spelling at my own pace..Version: 31.64
✓ Best app everOne day i was at home and I randomly thought I wanted to do Japanese, so i decided to download the app. If you don’t subscribe, you get 5 mins per day to do a session and learn loads of word that I can actually obtain and isn’t stressful. As it started working for me, about 8 days in I bought a monthly subscription for £8 and i’m never turning back! I have unlimited access to lessons and I can learn offline. Learning Japanese is a breeze now as it has 3 alphabets but they make it so simple instead of rummaging through the internet trying to find what “cheese” is and it comes up with 40 ways to say it, this app saves you all the hassle trust me! If you want to learn a language the right way and easiest way, this is for you. Thank you! EDIT: i don’t know why but my monthly subscription has ended randomly!!!!! I’m very outraged and i feel robbed. I will keep updated if i can..Version: 35.86
✓ Drops App Te ReoGood to learn singular words and build the vocabulary basics, but that’s it. Imagery is terrible; quizzes are confusing with poorly thought through questions that don’t make sense half the time and are repetitive and tend to focus a small range of words. This app needs some serious work, better L&D design and is the poor cousin to Duolingo. I can’t recall ever leaving a poor review before on anything; but, I couldn’t find any way to send feedback within the settings directly to the developers..Version: 37.0
🙂 Drops: Language Learning Games Positive Reviews
Drops: Language Learning Games works most of the time. If it is not working for you, we recommend you excersise some patience and retry later or contact Drops: Language Learning Games.
⛔ Drops: Language Learning Games Problems
