italki - Language Learning Reviews

I’ve been using this app for years. Never had any trouble with italki until today. I mostly just use it to schedule lessons and chat with my teachers. I’ve updated to the latest version and was greeted with a loading screen that took about 8-10 seconds to complete. It asked me to see all the new tools for learning, but when I clicked on the button, it launched another loading screen that ended up with ghost divs. I could see the page layout but every box was greyed out and without any text. Would love to know what the new tools are but alas. I clicked the other menu buttons and luckily my conversations are in tact as well as my profile and whatever the planet icon represents. So it's only the first menu item that is malfunctioning for me. Please fix as I now have a sneaky suspicion I probably need that page for something. Thanks!

Update: Actually I just tried to access the #readingcomprehension prompt and that page won't load. The header is there but there is no text and no questions to answer. So it looks like the new changes are cascading through the other pages even though on first glance those pages seemed fine.

The concept of this app is fantastic and there are some great tutors out there. I have been using it very happily until…There are a few teachers who are unreliable and don’t show up. Unfortunately this app does not resolve these well. Here’s why: if a teacher cancels within 12 hours, you cannot schedule another class during that timeframe. You have to just wait until it’s over. The teacher does not get penalized in any way, in fact, their attendance rate still shows as 100%. So you cannot filter out the reliable teachers/tutors from the unreliable ones. There should be a “late cancel” option. Furthermore I have a teacher who did not show up, then wrote to me and said “oops I didn’t notice I had a class” yet he didn’t want to mark the class as no show. The class has gone into dispute and I can’t block this teacher who keeps sending me nasty messages because I didn’t accept his request. this app is good, but this is a very bad way of handling No Shows and Last Minute Cancellations. I have a busy schedule and I want to take a class every day yet due to this unfortunate feature, I cannot. Currently looking into this app alternatives.

Every time you have a lesson, in order for the teacher to get paid, you have to login to the website or app and confirm the lesson. This further requires you to enter your password each time, which is an additional irritating step. It also forces you to leave a rating for the teacher every single time. I don’t mind leaving a review after the first lesson or having the option to leave a review after each lesson, but italki forces you to do so after every lesson or else your teacher doesn’t get paid right away - it makes them wait for their payments. I use other apps for other types of lessons and the teacher is paid automatically - there’s no need to login after the lesson unless there was a problem. I like the teacher that I use on this app which is the only reason I keep using it. If I am able to switch to a different platform with the same teacher, I will definitely do that because this is the most user unfriendly of all apps I have. I am reminded of this each week on each lesson.

I’ve known about this app for more than a year but never got around to trying it because I was skeptical that it would be a good experience and I was a little tired of doing online meetings all the time for work. That was a huge mistake. Just do one or two trial sessions and you will quickly realize like I did that the quality of instructors is really amazingly good and the experience is fantastic. I’ve had sessions with three instructors, all excellent, and I am very excited to finally be making real progress towards my language learning goal. And the sessions are fun. I am learning so much. Oh, also the scheduling is super easy.

I’m learning Japanese with a couple of teachers during this lockdown, and this app has been great so far. italki has some annoying bugs, though, like not retrieving payment info from my keychain, teacher reviews coming up as white text on white, and a few other things I’m forgetting. In time this should be great.

Edit: it just ate a message I spent some time composing in Japanese. Had to redo it on the website. I’m uninstalling and will stick to the website. italki is definitely not ready. Also, all of my lessons have moved to Skype, as the classroom function is extremely slow.

To the devs: Sorry, I’m spending quite a bit of money and time taking lessons on your site and will likely soon be teaching English on here as well. Your employees should be the ones testing italki , not paying users.

Thank you guys for what you do! I love being a teacher the past 3 years.

I have a request. Is it possible to make notification sounds or pop up banners to notify me when a student messages in the chat bar of the this app classroom during the this app classroom lesson? I’m usually on another screen the whole lesson and don’t realize when students type something.

Skype does this with a sound and banner no matter which screen you are on. WeChat does this because the notifications are linked to my notification center and it pops up in the top right of my computer screen. Same with other conferencing apps.

Sign in with Apple is basically a lie. You can sign in with Apple, but then if you try to use italki , you’re blocked from most basic functionality (even just marking a lesson as completed) without creating a password and more of an account in the this app system. I wish they would respect the Sign in with Apple account and actually let it be fully functional. Also, the ‘free trial’ is broken because you have to confirm your phone number, but then get an error loop about it not being confirmed, so that’s false advertising/a lie? And things like calendar integration are very limited, you can’t select which calendar to put lessons on, instead this app creates its own new calendar (not what I want at all) and writes to that. Great teachers, good service, very rough app. I look forward to better app versions in the future!

Why did you take away the option to search for language partners and move everything else to the phone app and remove it from the website?

I downloaded italki to look for language partners and there is no way to search for them. You have a large community of people serious about learning languages but no way of finding them. You call these new changes the community but how is it a community if you can’t find the other members.

Now italki is just full of people writing requests for language exchanges because there is no way for them to search for other users and ask them directly.

There is a section for practicing writing and getting corrections but you have to do it on your phone keyboard because this feature isn’t available on the web app anymore. Writing in another language is hard enough, nobody wants to do it using a tiny keyboard. These changes make no sense. this app was great how it was before.

I have paid for lessons on this app weekly for a year and a half but because of these changes I think I will either find a teacher I can pay directly without going through your app or start using one of your competitors. I honestly think your going to lose a lot of your users with these changes. I can’t be the only one.

I have been a student on this app for 4 years now. I have connected with approximately 150 teachers. I have a favored set of about 25 teachers that I have students with over months and years. Through my work on the platform, I have become very proficient in Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese, while also studying Russian and Arabic. I have connected with teachers from many regions, so I feel comfortable with native speakers, regardless the accent. I highly recommend this app

I used italki for many months with many teachers without having major problems. I had good teachers and other regulars but still enjoyed using italki . Until I had a problem with a 5 lesson package with a teacher. The teacher was absent for no reason and then she didn't answer my messages and disappeared still owing me two classes from the packet. I went to the administrators of the platform and they always directed me to solve with the teacher but the teacher did not answer me. After many attempts with the administrators, they still have not credited me money for some classes that the teacher did not offer. They cannot be counted on to help you effectively and quickly if you have a problem with the teachers.

I’ve been teaching on the platform for 3 years, and I had one student one month before who had some problems with his wallet. this app claimed that the student’s payments can’t go through the platform so they locked my wallet without any notification!!!!! I kept on teaching for another 2 weeks and when I tried to withdraw the money!! I can’t. They said they will not pay me unless I have the proof to have the class with the student. How? I never recorded our lesson and plus it’s privacy. I gave them the proof of video call timeline but they said it’s not sufficient. Avoid this platform!! As a teacher I never missed any 15% penny commission fee to them and now they don’t blame the student but me! Also you will never get back the money if you buy credits even though you don’t like it.

Searching for tutors on a specific date/time doesn’t actually work, and support staff don’t really seem to read your support requests the first time. There’s a consistent back and forth with support staff when that could be improved with more attention on their part. italki would be 5 stars if the support staff was reliable. As it stands, the incentive is to close the case quickly without solving the problem, discouraging you from using support services in the first place. this app is overloading their staff or hiring the wrong people. Either way the answer is to hire more/new people.

I was on this app for about a year. Then I found a job and tried to place that I wouldn’t be available for my students. They blocked me from getting new students and when I tried to get back to working with them they completely ignored me when I told them I needed more students or it wouldn’t be worth for me to be on italki . Kept blocking me so I stopped logging in italki and they canceled my teacher account completely. Now that I could go back to it full time. I’m just not even going to try because they are the worst I’ve ever have in customer service! Even for those they got money from. As my past student keep asking me for lessons and I am just not allowed to. También hablo perfecto español (soy nativa). Lo cual era muy conveniente para mis estudiantes. Esta aplicación ha sido muy decepcionante para mi. Aunque al principio haya sido conveniente. Es una lástima.

My only complaint is limiting how frequently you can post answers to questions. People post questions because they want answers. If no one answers and you are limited because you answered someone already then it can become frustrating for the other both parties.

Also if I just answered a question and they send a thank you, you’re forced to wait to reply back. This can make people think they’re being ignored. Or worse, that you’re not interested in starting a dialog to help one another.

Bottom line, these types of limits shouldn’t exist.

I personally did not run into any issues with italki itself, and I really wanted to say the idea itself is GREAT! I think your experience really depends on the teacher and I have to say the very first several teachers I found on this app are awesome. I am learning French and honestly wasn’t able to find great teachers offline mainly bc in language institutions you don’t get to try out different options and choose your own teacher. this app really fills that gap.

…at how wonderful the interface of this app works. Typically (from experience), smaller platforms have some glitches or mistakes within either the navigation or sometimes buttons/drop downs don’t work but everything works seamlessly. Currently learning Thai and there are a plethora of teachers available. I turned my sister in law to it to improve her Ukrainian and was able to give her $10 credit. Super awesome experience

italki helps teachers around the world during a global pandemic provide excellent services, and students to practice with both community and professional teachers. The platform is secure and easy to use. There may be some needs around accurate scheduling for time differences. However the Tagalog teachers were of the highest quality and communicated well to avoid confusion.

I have found great teachers at this app. My Kids’ Chinese teacher is very hard to book at the appropriate time because she is popular and the time zone difference bet New York and Wuhan. I try to book a few months in advance, but this app does not allow me to choose the month, instead I have to scroll down from the current month then move month by month. italki is a pain to use, but the teachers on the platform are great!

italki and the website are inexcusably unintuitive. Trying to figure out where to go to do something unacceptably difficult. Add to that the fact that, even with all notifications turned off that you can turn off, they will still SPAM the crap out of you. (I just got one that said, “People are talking about #this app 14th Anniversary, check it out!” That is absolutely USELESS to me and incredibly annoying.

In fact, I’ve started an account with Preply, just because of the proliferation of SPAM from this app. I’m keeping my this app account FOR NOW, because I like my tutors, but I can see dumping them pretty soon if the infernal SPAM doesn’t end. I’m fed up.

italki works well for communicating with my teacher/s, however the calendar section of italki doesn’t work well with linking my lessons to my iPhone calendar, i cant seem to get it to automatically sync up. The only thing I see is the link from email but it just shows text info.

Edit>>
From devs

"Dear user, thank you for informing us! To sync iCal with Apple's calendar, you simply need to access our webpage (no app), go to "Calendar", then click on "Get iCalendar Feed" and you will copy and paste the link in your Apple's Calendar by clicking "+". Then all of your Apple devices with the same ID will have all of your this app lessons :)"

ME.... does not work, the only thing that happens is the calendar ‘adds’ the typed url. Nothing from there in. Sorry, just working for me

Thanks for the survice. But please open links to Zoom, not Skype.
Skype is sometimes inefficient to share screens and Zoom's UI and functions are way better to do online classes. So if it's possible, make a link to Zoom in italki.

this app disabled access to their website from mobile devices and replaced it with italki. It is missing important functionality, particularly for teachers. I am no longer able to change my availability or make a withdrawal from my electronic wallet. I have to access the website via my laptop to do these things. The application also makes it appear that there are unread messages even after I have read all of the messages.

italki makes practicing languages super convenient and effective. Besides scheduled classes, italki also offers discussion forums which provide the opportunity to meet up with other users and do language exchanges for free through Skype. I’ve met lots of great people through the forums and enjoyed learning about their cultures and doing language exchanges.

I am learning two languages: Spanish and Hindi. I have had more than 20 sessions with my instructor from Mexico. italki is great. The video chat feature is great, I can use it while walking outside and I can easily toggle back and forth from cellphone to my laptop. It’s easy to buy classes and functionally it works well all the time.

They have an impressive collection of tutors, but everything else about italki is trash. When I schedule a lesson in italki, I expect a notification BECAUSE THAT IS HOW APPS WORK, but this app repeatedly fails to notify me and I miss my appointment 🤦🏼‍♂️. Such a cluster€#%¥.

Also, they make it impossible to see which teachers are available for the same day, so you must always schedule a lesson days in advance. If you don't have a super regular schedule you need the notifications to FUNCTION!!

Absolute garbage.

Maybe students find italki useful but it’s now impossible for teachers who don’t have access to their computer to change their availability. You used to be able to do this on your phone by going to the website but this app now directs you exclusively to italki . I’m not always at home and it would be nice to be able to open up hours, or remove them, when I’m not sitting in front of my computer.

It is so bad there are no words to describe it. I set up a trial with a teacher and the audio would not work so we had to give up after a few mins. Then the stupid app sent me a notification. I selected the option indicating I could not complete the course but the Submit button does not work! This is what happens when a bunch of idiots decide to create an app. Hire a good programmer, you idiots!

Too bad it doesn’t support Apple Pay. I ended up not booking any clases as I do not putting my credit card info in every up. Their revenue would significantly increase if the supported Apple Pay.

Terrible tutor and terrible customer service!
I begged the tutor to cancel my class. The tutor refused to cancel the lesson, even though he is aware that he wouldn’t give me any lessons. He implied that he’ll take my money and not giving me any classes. Indeed, he didn’t even show up for the lesson.
Itaki’s customer service refused to give me full refund. So I’m wondering that will all tutors who don’t show up to class still able to forcibly take students’ money, by refusing student’s beg to cancel the class.
Did you see how robbery the action is and how ridiculous the policy this app has?
I’m super disappointed
Again, I demand my whole refund of this lesson!

With italki I found the courage to speak with many people in Italy speaking real Italian which would otherwise not be possible unless I lived there.

This is a great app to learn conversational French. My community teacher was very helpful and gave homework based on his assessment during my lesson. Highly recommend!!!

I wish italki had a few more capabilities that the website has such as changing teacher availability. Also, I do not like the countdown to the lessons. I know when the lesson is. The countdown is anxiety provoking.

The new version doesn't work for me! it looks like italki can't connect to the servers.

I tried many applications in app store but nothing can be compared to this app. If course this app for serious learners.