New LingQ 5.0 update and other issues?

As you have probably seen from the title, this topic, again. It has been brought up a couple of times but still not enough? Firstly, I should probably just make it clear this is a “motivational” post for developers at LingQ or/and productive criticism you could say.
At least a few dozen people have taken the time to post/comment on this forum (some others under app reviews) about this elephant in the room but even after many months, there has been no change (yet). If there are so many people who take their own time to point things out, then you know there must be some sort of an issue somewhere.

I believe the idea behind LingQ is amazing. Importing your favourite content from books, movies, yt,… and then learning from it by listening, reading, … is effective and fun. However, the development side of things at LingQ has been a bit underwhelming so far, unfortunately. I have read about some users switching language because of problems, saying that some features are completely unusable etc. (and consequently, others have frustrations because new languages are not being added?). But I wouldn’t go so far. It gets the job done. There is just a lot of details that need to be improved and as Steve said, the interface is outdated. Working on this takes time, we all realize this.

Where everything gets particularly annoying is how long this is taking and the attitude about it. Plans and approximate times were said in beginning/middle 2020? After already being delayed you randomly find Steve commenting in October 2020 how the platform is going to look modern like Netflix and it’s going to be done in a month or two. That video has more than half a million views! Half a year later, …. Setting ambitious goals is in my opinion not the problem here and can even be helpful. Where the problem lies and how to fix it only the dev team knows. My very far-fetched guess is there just aren’t enough people on the team or that not everyone is actually up to the task. (Maybe the reason was addressed somewhere already? I don’t have the time to read everything.) Luckily, only the results matter here – how to get it done? The possible timing of this 5.0 update lining up with Covid is(was) also an interesting opportunity…but that’s another story. To sum up, remember that users who post here represent a minority and the average user who doesn’t care much won’t bother to deal even with the slightest frustration and will seek an alternative. If 30 people are wishing for changes here, there are thousands in total with the same issue. But you already know that.

If LingQ would be free, none of this would matter (almost). Nevertheless, since you can find some good and interesting alternatives for half of the price or even make a slight compromise and get almost the same utility for free I think matching price with the quality of the thing you are selling is crucial. Not that having a higher price is bad or that I am not willing to pay that much but you have to then at least try to match that standard. Having delays and 1 month turning into 6 or 7 months is not the standard one would expect. Some very concrete updates on a monthly (weekly) basis would also be appreciated by some, I suppose. I may be willing to pay for it without even thinking about it, but the average user has to be taken into account, who is definitely not happy about it.

As I have already mentioned in the beginning, these are just a few observations that anyone who has spent at least a few minutes on this forum has noticed. I like the idea behind LingQ, Steve seems great so I want this idea to succeed and be even more popular. On some other posts, there have always been one or two believers who tried their best to embrace the status quo and explain why everything is just fine, I am not going to go into any debates here… If you think presenting a business as “premium”, pricing it that way and then not delivering your own promises is good for you in the long run then we’ll just have to agree to disagree. I believe it is in the best interest of everyone at LingQ to figure out how to get this done in max 1 month, get this huge update done and everyone can get what they want. (If you think they should work “with what they have got”, take it slowly, wait another 6 months or 1 year before getting this done then please share your perspective on this - would like to hear it).

A huge pat on the back to the LingQ team for all the work behind the scenes and a friendly reminder not to take anything for granted. I hope you find enough qualified developers and manage to roll out 5.0 in the next month or two. Good luck! :wink:

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The biggest problem for me is the bug of a Xiaomi devices. It’s not possible to select phrases (more than one word), and I am learning Persian, a language where many words are phrases, and as a result, I can hardly learn, because most of the day I do not have access to a computer. This is a serious problem that does not allow me to study properly and it is not clear to me why it has not yet been fixed. In addition, I think in relation to the price it is highly recommended to add additional functions, such as games with the saved LingQs, not just reading aloud and saving words. This is done in free apps and I think a paid site should give more functions.

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Yeah, it’s kind of tricky to say the obvious and not to offend the good guys, but if you really love them, you should. It’s like the feeling, when you’re considering whether or not to say to a girl on a date that her mascara is running :smiley:

Firstly, the LingQ is the Best. Of the Best.
But… (Slap!)

The notorious membership strategy makes the LingQ one of the underestimated apps and as a result - doesn’t allow you guys to employ more developers for more beautiful updates. And honestly, it’s a bit annoying when you defend your way of things in the comments. Even the minor updates like the 1.2x speed for audio take years after it’s agreed as useful.
Slap! Slap!

I just saying it, because I love you.

Very good post and totally agree. Some of us have asked why we cannot have the new languages posted even if it is on the present system. We still wait for a reply. If this was a free site I could understand, but it is not. Lingq is not treating its customers with any respect. I have been paying for over a year awaiting a new language but it never comes, only the odd promise here and there. Please get something sorted.

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The lack of transparency, or even response to some of the most basic requests is somewhat insulting as a paying customer.

I have the utmost respect for Steve and what Mark and the team have built here. I just think that being transparent about where the platform enhancements are at makes good business sense from a customer relations standpoint.

Additionally, the continual excuses for not getting the mini-stories done, yet not really participating in any creative solutions with paying customers is another thorn in the side. I’ve suggested a few times that they could perhaps crowdfund (Patreon, GoFundMe, Kickstarter, etc) the effort, since expecting people to do everything for free is ridiculous, yet never heard any response. How would they go after larger partnerships to import content, if they have such massive trouble effectively contracting a pair of native speakers (probably language teachers, coaches, etc) to proof-read text and record some audio?

I’m hopeful for the future of the platform, but really don’t understand the lack of transparency and communication of “the vision” to paying customers.

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Totally agree.
Some months ago I made a post about the transparency of LingQ.
I got quite frustrated that they would go out a claim that LingQ 5.0 Was just around the corner and the launch a deal on the yearly subscription - Nothing wrong with great deals. :wink:

But it almost seemed a bit scammy when you promise something very sweet and lower the barrier of entry only to then completely turn 180 and be closer to a year without any updates.

And we know that they are developing so I do not see the harm in just posting how it goes, even if it’s vague. Last I heard anything was in Nov with them saying that they are testing Betas etc. Well how’s that going? Would be nice to know.

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and still no response to these comments

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As a new user who just discovered lingq I’m interested in seeing what the response is to this. I understood immediately that this is a unique system. I can read and write in 5 languages and I have done more in the last ten days with Norwegian than I did in eight years learning greek! It seems unfortunate that whenever a truly unique and worthwhile innovation happens it is hindered by people who don’t seem to understand exactly what they have discovered and made or what to do with it to make it the best. Monitoring this thread because I have faith that they’ll do right by the community.

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Have told Lingq very similar points, that they either stick to the world class level and go on selling their subscriptions for some 100$ a year or drop it to 5$ and be as much punk as they wish and explain reluctantly why the way it is is the way it should be.

Avatar staff is amazing though, check it out. My 9 year would be thrilled )

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Hi All,

First of all, I would like to apologize for the slow response to this thread. I just became aware of it today or would have responded sooner.

As for LingQ 5.0, believe it or not, we are trying to get it ready as fast as we can. We know it will provide a better experience. The reality is that LingQ is a big project with a lot of functionality, all of which is essentially getting rebuilt, across 3 platforms. There are improvements coming but largely this is a rebuild and facelift which is coming to prepare us for future feature enhancements. We had built up a lot of technical debt which prevented us from moving as quickly as we would have liked when it comes to enhancements.

We therefore made the decision, perhaps faulty in hindsight, to rebuild all of our apps. Because we have many existing users, we simply don’t have the option to put out something half baked and let people deal with it. We have an existing app that works well as it is for many people. Until we can get our beta versions to at least an equivalent state, there is no point in releasing them.

We thought we would have been done by now. It is taking us much longer than expected. We have essentially doubled our development team in the last 6 months. Things are moving but we have stopped promising delivery. I hesitate to say any more than that. We are moving as fast as we are able.

We are using alpha versions internally. The apps are all close to being feature complete. Conservatively, we hope to have beta versions of all apps available within the next 3 months.

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Thank you for voicing how all of us feel :frowning:

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Any chance at getting some screenshots or some concept art to show the direction the new site is going? Maybe a livestream with steve?

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Hi Mark, thank you for your reply and update!

Things are apparently a lot more complex than you initially anticipated since another 3 months to get to the beta is far longer than planned. I can completely understand some who are frustrated and feel “scammed” since they bought the membership based on the promises at the time. However, a lot of this has already been mentioned here so I don’t want to repeat it over again.

If we focus only on the present/future I completely agree with you that rushing with 5.0 won’t change anything if the update doesn’t actually solve any of the problems it is supposed to.

To focus more on the bright side/future…as someone else already pointed out, LingQ already has many users - use them to your advantage. Instead of working together, you have left your customers in the dark/avoided their questions and requests/ignored them, … (Few people have mentioned this exact point in this thread alone - so there must be some truth to it, right?)

From my experience, I have always struggled most in life with challenges where I have done everything possible, didn’t get the desired result but also didn’t get any “feedback” so I couldn’t figure out what was the issue. I don’t get why you would avoid “hard conversation” from which you can learn the most. Asking insiders (team, friends, …) what to fix, what is good and what isn’t, is probably not efficient and often you can’t even see “the obvious” no matter how hard you try to be unbiased…

Anyways, I am really looking forward to 5.0 and a lot of happy language learning in the future. If we could just get a bit more transparency/communication/updates that would be great!

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Thanks for the update Mark!

Naaah don’t ruin the surprise.

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Mark, thank you for the update! I can appreciate that it’s no small task to re-imagine, and consequently execute the re-development of the platform across its web and mobile versions.

We, your users, care deeply about the platform and its direction as language learners. Even if things aren’t going according to estimated schedules, this is exciting news to hear and I’m glad you shared it with us. You will have an army of testers, once you reach beta!

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At this point, we’re waiting for the beta.

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I’m not sure exactly what you mean. I am not aware of us ever having used the new version as a reason to upgrade now. The current version is already an excellent product and all we have ever promoted. As for feedback, we get a ton of user feedback all the time. And, a lot of what is being done is being done to address shortcomings that are pointed out to us by our users. I don’t really see where we have avoided questions or requests. Yes, we have not improved the current version since we have been trying to focus on getting the new version complete. We are sorry it has taken far longer than we thought it would.
As for feedback on what we are doing, I have no doubt we will get a ton once we’re in beta and we’re looking forward to getting it in our users’ hands.

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I would love for them to say, “To be honest, it will not be ready for another x months at least” or something like that. I feel bad that they are getting a lot of backlash for the delayed 5.0 but I hope everyone working at LingQ knows it’s just out of EXCITEMENT!! I can’t wait to learn Vietnamese with LingQ. It’s the perfect tool! I am happy to hear that the beta versions may be ready in a few months. I can’t wait

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Couldn’t agree more!

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