I read a lot of reviews of people really unhappy about the change to the "energy system" (basically their lever to control how much content can be consumed before the paywall pops up), and it sounds pretty heavy handed. I can't comment on that since I'm a paying user, but for me as someone heavily immersed in learning a second language, this plus the changes that made the immersive gamified elements like audio positive reinforcements way too intense, I'm all-in on other learning aids like Anki or Babbel. I also liked how with Rosetta Stone there's a different focus on how you engage with the learning - the cards that appear require cultural context focusing (such as inferring the correct tense based on the calendar shown in the card) that add to that immersive variety and challenge. Duolingo is really just a low-effort mobile game as the popular argument goes.

I also tried an app that was going AI first with agents and feedback (Langotalk) but since I used it 6 months ago I felt like it still lacked the polish and thoughtfulness to make it worthwhile. But that would be the game-changer for immersive learning.