Speakly: Learn Languages Fast Reviews

So far I’ve used Speakly for just a little over two weeks. It’s fun and easy to navigate. I like the live situations and choice of words and phrases. They’ve been starting to stick and the listening exercises are also nice with the option to translate it to your native tongue or target language as well as the live situations. I didn’t give it a 5 star because it’s crashed on me twice and my progress for the particular lesson was lost. It’s not a deal breaker but when I’m at work on a short break and trying to squeeze a quick lesson in its slightly frustrating. It’s not so bad when I’m on my leisure time I just start over something I normally do anyways after a lesson to repeat the lesson. And last but not least. The audio on certain words is clunky and not always spot on or mashed together so I have to go to google translate type the (German) word or phrase I’m studying and get a second opinion from google. It’s not the most convenient thing when you have to stop open up another app to hear the word/phrase slowed down or pronounced correctly. I hope the this app team is able address these issues in the near future. Overall I really like Speakly so far and and combine it with other free green bird apps, podcast and good ole text books when I want to unplug. I hope this review was helpful, take care all. 🌍 ✌️🧠

I can understand that sometimes problems can be difficult to fix, but not being able to fix such serious issues within 2 months is inacceptable. On top of that, they keep sending me ads for a lifetime membership for $99. i.e. they are still trying to sell a product for a lot of money (even if that‘s 75% off), although they know it‘s currently completely unusable. It‘s a shame as I like Speakly per se.

ETA: The problems seem to be fixed now, everything works great. Got additional months added to my up till now useless subscription. I can now wholeheartedly recommend Speakly again!

Update 3 If you are looking to buy it for the first time or returning after giving up because Speakly was unusable, it is now stable. I have to give it some time before I can assess how much I learn using it, but so far, I find it engaging and feel like it is a really good balance of different skills. I’ll give it four stars for now, but if stability and pedagogic approach stay strong, will increase the rating later.

Update 2 The developer claims I did not respond to them. However, I did respond, and nonetheless have not yet received a refund.

Update 1 Speakly should not be for sale. Do not purchase it. The ‘compensation’ they offer if you point this out is a one-month voucher – for an app that does not work. It’s a scam, as far as I can tell, and its continued sale should be prohibited.

Original Post: The ‘connection problem’ makes it unusable. I’ll update if they ever fix it but it’s been a while. Don’t bother getting Speakly right now. It does not work. Other issues, based on the minimal time I’ve managed to get in before it crashes: 1) once you place into a level you can’t go back and do earlier levels (you can just review the words). I’d like to be able to go back to review using the exercises; 2) it’s a lot of steps to switch between languages if you want to practice more than one each day.

While Speakly can be slow, buggy, and crash once in awhile, it is still absolutely the best app to learn a language. The Spanish course is extremely high quality. As an advanced student going through it from the start you can tell the designers know the language well and how to best teach it. It is also the most holistic app available. It includes SRS clove flash card review AND speaking and listening activities. The audio is also significantly more natural than what you find on Duolingo. The creators of Speakly are better at teaching languages than designing an app (which is ultimately a GOOD thing). Also, they are incredibly responsive, provide excellent support, and are routinely working to make Speakly work better. It’s improved significantly over the last year.

The test was great and I feel like I’ve been placed at a level that’s challenging and appropriate. I hate starting new courses and I have to start from the beginning. The placement test seems to have nailed my level. The apps varies the training up so well that time passes by quickly and it’s very enjoyable to learn and work through. I’m impressed at how slick Speakly is. The listening activity this morning was so good. I could understand 70-80% of the words and infer some of the ones I didn’t. The speaker wasn’t too fast or too slow for my current level. I’m impressed. 👏👏👏

When I switched to this app from Duolingo I instantly loved it way more. I love the look and feel much more than Duolingo, and I really like the music recommendations. Overall it looked great and I was getting really excited to start learning. After a little more than fifteen words in russian there was a question that I literally couldn't pass, the continue button did not work at all, closing Speakly , restarting my phone, reinstalling Speakly , nothing worked, thankfully the support said that they're gonna fix it and gave me a month of premium, so at least I can use the website during that time. Hopefully it does get fixed soon, support said about a couple of weeks so I'll edit my review then, but until then, literally COULD NOT learn more than twenty words.

I’m not a language expert but this app seems to be one of the best ways to learn a new language. I’ve already used some of the things I learned in this app which I cannot say for other apps that I have tried.

While Speakly isn’t “gamified” like some of the others, it is fun. There are multiple ways to study and they all feel productive.

That said, there was a serious connectivity issue that lasted for months. Speakly was not completely unusable during that time but it was very frustrating. I do wish this app was more communicative during that time (whether it be in Speakly , socials, website etc.) They were largely silent aside from some comments in these reviews. They are however very responsive via their support channels.

Now that Speakly is fixed, I’m a paying user of Speakly. I absolutely recommend Speakly but would be remiss if I didn’t mention the recent issue.

I like it how the program is challenging me to make the effort to translate. This will help me with building sentences when talking to people. And when I’ll have a better idea about the language, I’m sure it will help me learn to understand it spoken to. I like the challenging approach because if I answer something correctly, it means that I already have an idea about something in my own head and can try to use it in a conversation

By far, this is one of the best Language learning applications in my opinion. It covers many of the things that apps like Duolingo and Rosetta Stone are lacking. But the huge downside for me is the recent connection bugs. I was really looking by forward to using Speakly as one of the my daily language learning apps. But it’s completely impossible to get past. Even time I’m complete with a exercise it completely crashes on me or it just freezes, resetting my progress for that question. I hope this bug gets fixed soon because this is a really great app!

Currently I’m learning Russian using this app and so far I’m quite impressed. However, I do have two issues with the application preventing me from rating 5/5.

Firstly, the flash cards for the vocab review have an empty “Full Translation”. Every time I flip a card there is no definition. I also don’t see a way to tap on the individual words in a flash card to get their meanings either. It would be fantastic if the first issue was resolved and even better for the second feature to be implemented.

My last complaint is that there is no staring system for struggling vocab words. When I find myself constantly struggling with the same set of words I often go to quizlet to review them. If you could manually isolate these words in Speakly that would be game changing!

Otherwise, Speakly takes a unique approach to language learning and I adore it! Thanks team!

Two main annoying issues.

1. The streak feature doesn’t work properly. It counts only when you complete your word goal for the day. It used to increment when you would even do one word. Some days I don’t have time for my set goal, so the days don’t increment, and I don’t have any clue how many days I actually have in a row.

2. Sometimes, the multiple choice questions truncate the different words in the exact spot where the differences occur, rather than spilling over to the next line. You end up having to guess randomly and hope you got the right one.

Besides that, I enjoy using Speakly . I think the content is really good and useful, and the exercises are well done.

Just wish Speakly was more stable, some days the server seems down so all pronunciation is marked as a failure.

Almost perfect with a little more effort.

I’m experiencing the Connection Problem Bug that was mentioned in one of the reviews I read here. It involves not being able to load new cards in the study area and having to restart Speakly so that it reverts back to the previous card. Otherwise, I have been really impressed by Speakly and got a half year subscription, keep up the good work!

I’m a huge fan of language learning and I typically find most apps fall flat and don’t provide complete experiences. this app on the other hand, is the most complete, enjoyable experience I have had in a single app with learning language. I love their listening exercises and especially music recommendations. I can’t recommend it enough and I am excited to see it grow.

I didn’t understand how to best use Speakly when I first downloaded it. Now it is my favorite app.

It makes you make a lot of mistakes or write down vocabulary. It’s harder than other apps but can be used even as a beginner.

I took a placement test and started at 1300 words for Spanish. Wish I could do the entire Spanish course as I am with German.

I definitely recommend this application to my fiends. It helps me to not only learn new words and phrases, but also enhance my listening and writing skills.
on the other hand, I think the speed of the application have made it less user-friendly. Sometimes going from one section to another takes time for me.
By the way, it's a useful tool and I appreciate your efforts of designing this application!

Good luck

I love the content. I love ease of use, the reading passages, and the interface. However Speakly has many bugs. Plenty of times I have to restart Speakly to get to the next question. It’s frustrating to get into a groove and then Speakly freeze after a question. If they fixed this, I’d easily give 5 stars. I have the lifetime subscription and I’m happy to support the content creators but would love to see Speakly run smoothly.

Honestly, at first I thought it was too slow. But when you start getting the hang of it you learn to love it! I am learning French with Speakly and it’s going well. However, one thing... I do wish it had more options to learn different languages. My sister wants to learn Portuguese but that’s not an option.

Ok, there my review. Good

i really like Speakly. great method, great design, it’s really just an enjoyable experience when it works. unfortunately it’s pretty buggy at the moment. i often need to close and reopen Speakly as it gets stuck trying to load the next phrase. i did my 15 words today and had to close and reopen Speakly about 20 times. if they get this issue sorted Speakly will be a great that’s easy to recommend.

ps. i hope you are working on bringing portuguese (and i know it’s a pipe dream, but also catalan) to Speakly.

Personally I think Speakly has so much potential BUT - I’m experiencing a huge error where it is not calculating words I’ve learned. It brings me to the start page and shows I’ve learned 0 words but then gives congratulations that I hit 40?

Why I’m giving a 1 star is because there is NO SUPPORT. I’ve searched everywhere for help. The only access is a chat bot and they will not be available for 6 more days and online midnight my time? I’m very bummed because I do love everything about Speakly. I just want it to work. Any advice on contacting them?

I was looking for a good app to help me learn Estonian, which is my dad’s native language, and I couldn’t find any that helped me get past the very basics. Then I was looking online and came across this. I’ve only been learning for 3 days but it has helped so much and I plan on continuing until I am fluent! Thank you this app for all your help!

I think Speakly has some unnecessary criticism left over from when it was just very early in development. Speakly is EXTREMELY well rounded as far as learning goes.
I was so happy when I first started using Speakly, because I could immediately tell that it was made by polyglots. It’s the most complete package out there. (Minus native speaker interaction.) It’s only fundamental flaw is being very harsh to correct on the fill-in-the-blank questions; however, real writing and conversation is harsh too, so I see why it has value, but it’s frustrating.
Speakly is designed in a very well organized way, although it does have a small learning curve.
I have not used the free version yet, but I plan to once my trial runs out. Then I’ll edit this to a very comprehensive review.
Also, the support team seems to be very responsive and I will give them an email of my first impression and what relatively simple features could be improved to make the experience much more fluid. It’s already good, but it could be great.

Ok so when I first got Speakly, it crashed often. Now, it’s working a LOT better without crashing (only every once in while) and I can actually do lessons without being disrupted. This is in my opinion one of the BEST apps to learn a language. I love any app that uses spaced repetition, and Speakly actually challenges you. I love that there are no sounds when you get an answer wrong and Speakly doesn’t make you feel like a failure, it encourages you to keep practicing. Also, the music recommendations are amazing. I can’t wait to see what new changes come to Speakly, but I’m definitely enjoying it a lot more now!

I have used other language apps, such as Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, MosaLingua, and Babbel but this is one is one of the best ones out there. The placement test is pretty accurate and challenges your the right pace. I didn’t give it 5 stars because I’ve noticed that Speakly crashes sometimes and the voice recording is not always accurate. Apart from that, there is potential.