Tandem: Conversation exchange Reviews

by Jay288436

I’ve been a member for a long time with a great reputation and received great reviews from native speakers. Now all of a sudden after all of this time, my account is getting taken down because this app wants me to reveal my entire face. I don’t show my entire face because I have a privacy concern. In the past I’ve personally had people steal my images and do things with my pictures (Which I won’t speak about). I don’t see what the issue is when you can see 80% of my face. My picture wasn’t offensive at all, and I received many compliments about my picture every other day. Whoever created Tandem should take into consideration that some people want to keep their identity private. What does me not showing my entire face have to do with learning and practicing languages? I’ve had this same image up ever since I had Tandem !!!! I don’t understand why it’s all of a sudden an issue after such a long time. Now I’m going to lose all of my good friends I’ve made on Tandem All because you can’t see 20% of my face. I’m very upset and disappointed, you guys have to do better. I want a refund now!

by Mr.Fauna

I was so excited when I originally joined this app and was looking forward to improving my foreign language which I have been working on for almost a year. I was a little surprised to be cajoled and messaged regularly to upgrade to their premium subscription. After about a week I had gotten a number of romantic type messages from different users which doesn’t really bother me but I wanted to focus on language so I changed my photo to something other than myself it was a humorous photo nothing inappropriate. About a week later I was messaging with someone and having a nice conversation and all of a sudden the conversation was gone and not only that I was blocked, I lost everything a half a dozen friends I was having conversations with everything gone. I have emailed this app repeatedly and they will not respond. Basically all human consideration and kindness is missing from the management. I have since looked online and found many similar experiences from this app, this is why I have titled it run like a prison camp. It’s really unfortunate they don’t communicate with you if there is a problem they just cut you off like you are valueless garbage. I recommend Hello Talk which is a better app anyway and their support treats you like a real person.

by Didibaobaoabc

I am a teacher, I helped a lot of people on Tandem learn languages. One day, this guy reached out to me and rudely asked me to teach him. I was annoyed by his attitude so I told him I didn’t teach on Tandem , I had my own online school. He then asked me if I would do it for free, I said no, I told him I would charge money. He then got upset and told me he would report me. He did. A day later, I got banned. I reached out to the support team and told them exactly what happened. I asked them why I got banned, and what I did wrong. I told them the guy was really rude, he asked me a bunch of questions, all I did was answer him. But they didn’t give me an explanation. They just simply told me the decision was final. I would never get my account back and I would never be able to get a new account either. How ridiculous is that? All the compliments and appreciation I got from others didn’t count, this one jerk said something bad about me, they listened. That’s so unfair and immoral. I am really disappointed in these people. They have no sense of justice. I am not gonna say anything anymore, god bless you all!

by DogeDemention3000

I downloaded Tandem excited to learn a language. After using for awhile, I paid for a subscription to receive extra benefits. Then suddenly without warning, my account was banned! I contacted this app and it took an entire week for them to respond. They said the reason why they banned my account is because I didn’t show my face in my profile picture. ITS AGAINST MY RELIGION TO SHOW MY FACE!!!!!! this app refuses to give me my money back too! I will never recommend an app that takes your money and bans you for not showing your face. I see many other profiles that don’t show their face but they didn’t get banned so why did I?? I thought this was this app not tinder?? I will not go against my religion SHAME ON YOU this app! This is ignorant and disrespectful to those who seriously want to learn a language!! Don’t buy the VIP because you won’t get your money back!! I’m glad for hello talk because I don’t have to show my face to practice languages.

by Appreciate49

Wonderfully designed app to connect with language learners, in multiple ways. Unfortunately there is very little effort to deal with the fact that many sleazy people use Tandem to carry on inappropriate sexual conversations. I know I can simply and quickly block these callers, but this app does not seem to make an effort to discourage the high prevalence of this behavior in the first place.
Also, there is slow and ineffective support. You are only allowed to have this app on one device at a time. But if your device is broken or lost, there is no instruction on how to switch to a new device.
•••After submitting this review, I received a “developer response.” Thanks developer for listening. Unfortunately the response suggested that I contact this app Support, the same fine group that I complained about in my review for their lack of effective support. So, I contacted them again and they gave me the same advice that has never worked before. Thanks for asking me if I’d like to revise my review. Still 1 star.

by Emmak0

Tandem seems like an amazing way to improve my language skills, however, I decided to delete it about 10min after making my account because I was immediately flooded with messages from men and had a shocking amount of notifications.

I’ve seen this issue repeatedly mentioned in other reviews. To fix: 1. Ensure that the “same gender” option is very obvious, I could not find it in the free version. 2. Limit communication, I should not be receiving a free for all of messages, both people should agree that they WANT to message BEFORE anything is sent after they read each others profiles. The fact that anyone can message you on Tandem is an issue that makes me unwilling to use Tandem and is frankly dangerous and unsafe. I experience enough harassment as a woman in my day to day life, I will never choose to add more of that into my life on an app where I’m simply trying to learn.

If these changes happened I would happily give Tandem another try.

by Enelson76

Tandem has the right idea, and has worked in helping me find good people to practice Chinese with. But here are the the main issues with Tandem. First, you NEED a better iPad version! It doesn’t rotate into landscape mode so I can use it with my keyboard. That’s a show stopper for me! Second, I love the in-place translation services to facilitate communication when you don’t now how to say something, but many times I’m told that the translations aren’t great. Third, and this isn’t the fault of the developer, but most people on this site are more interested in just chatting in their own language, than learning/teaching. It seems more like a hangout place than a learning app. So you’ll have to sift through many people to find ones that are truly interested in helping you learn. But overall, this is a great concept and I hope Tandem continues to refine and become a learning tool.

by Theclarest

I only downloaded Tandem just today, so maybe that's not long enough to judge it, but I'm thinking of these things now. I really love having live conversations with people all over the world! I am mostly talking to people from the Spanish speaking world, but I can't figure out how to also search for and start a conversation with someone who speaks a different language (because I also want to improve my Korean). I have enjoyed my short text conversations, but I haven't used the video calls yet because of my schedule. Another problem I have with Tandem is that it has limited translation abilities, which I guess can be a good thing so you don't rely too heavily on built in translation, but sometimes it helps to move a conversation along faster if you can look up a word rather than ask "Cómo se dice "..." en inglés?" each time you don't know something. Tandem also has an option to play a language game with someone who is also active on the site at the moment, but it always says "connection failed" when I try to play a game, even over a strong wifi signal.

If these small things are fixed, I'll definitely change my rating!

by Tetrachordfetuses

This is a fantastic way to connect with people around the world and learn new languages. The idea is great but the execution is lagging. The biggest problem is that messages aren’t always delivered or received in a timely fashion. It makes it incredibly hard to have a conversation with someone when they don’t receive your messages or you don’t receive theirs until hours or days later. Despite you and someone else being active on Tandem , often your messages just sit in this ether of “sent” but not “delivered” for a long time. A lot of people I talk to also notice this and have told me they don’t often receive notifications from some conversations. It seems arbitrary when this kind of thing happens. It would also be beneficial to be able to search within conversations.

I hope this gets fixed, especially because I paid for the pro membership. If it did I’d be inclined to give it five stars.

by Jskxnxdi Kckkdkc

I have really been enjoying Tandem . I’ve been practicing the language I want to improve in and making cool connections. However, I wish Tandem had some additional settings in the profile to describe what you are looking for in connections. For example, something like “just learning, friendship, something more.” I had my profile up for only a few minutes before my inbox was blown up by men harassing me. I had to add in my profile that I am not interested in romantic connections right now and we shouldn’t treat this like tinder, but I still have people in my DMs not wanting to practice language… I think it’s great if people want to make romantic connections this way, but Tandem should sort this out so that the people not interested in connecting this way can avoid this. It can be difficult to be a woman in co-op online spaces like this and I would like to see this taken into consideration.

by Jacey.love.hate.you

I really want to leave more than three stars because Tandem is so fantastic in theory. The problem is that a lot of the time your messages are in accessible because you have to scroll up and then down and then up and then down and repeat about four or five times to actually get your messages to load. When I first downloaded Tandem I had gotten over 200 messages the first day and it made it really rough to talk to people and figure out who would be a good teacher and mentor and that I could help in the same way because with so many messages coming in and not being able to load more than the first 10 to 15 messages made it extremely difficult.

Right now I have my free 30 day trial for pro and so far the pro options are really great. I would give Tandem five stars in a heartbeat if and only if we could get a little bit smoother interface and a better flow when trying to load Messages.

Tandem has so much potential and you can really learn a lot there are many very helpful people I still highly recommend that you download Tandem and try to get to know people and talk with them about the languages you’re interested in because it’s still a very valuable app. I really haven’t had any issues with spammers or bots or Advertisements or anything like that which is great!

by L0v3b1t3s

Honestly looking back at what I’ve written I’d move it down to 3.5 stars.
I’ve had this app for roughly 2 weeks. It’s a simple and fairly easy to use app. I’ve talked to multiple people online and have even tried out some of the tutors. Price wise it’s a bit expensive. If you want multiple tutors and keep Tandem monthly it adds up QUICK. On a smaller note I think there should be a better way that Tandem deals with tutors. It’s understandable that sometimes you’ll have to reschedule, but it’d be nice if there was some way to rebook or move a lesson around for both tutors and students. I’ve had to do that recently and I think my tutor is good for it, but that doesn’t mean I won’t have anxiety that I’ve just lost about $17 because my tutor just wanted my money. It’s also a bit annoying that you have to pay the full amount for just an introduction to your tutor. I get we are taking their time away from things and they do deserve to be compensated, but could their be some kind of mandatory 10min conversation either through their chat or something where you guys get a feel for each other before spending any money?

by Djdkdkkddk

Does have all the normal problems of language exchange sites, namely that it doesn't give enough prompting to start interesting conversations and you have to do all the work if you want to actually find practice buddies. I would love it if there were better search options, like self-assignable tags that allow you to search for people with similar interests.

The existing search options also shouldn't be so limiting. I personally prefer to talk to non-natives learning the same languages as me because it's less intimidating. Also the "only show natives" and "only show perfect match" buttons shouldn't be mutually inclusive.

I think the thing I dislike the most is the topic prompts. Almost everybody uses the dumb autogenerated topics like "I can teach you German grammar" or "Let's talk about what it means to be human", even if they have no interest in talking about that. It's a nice idea in concept but I think it at least needs more interesting, relatable prompts, and if possible just more incentivizing to customize your profile in general might go a long way towards more interesting conversations.

by Foupourfrancais

C’est super! Tandem does almost everything i want it too. I like the text functionality that allows you to correct & translate messages people send you. I also like that you can just send voice messages instead of calling each other.

It’s much less pressure.

Overall you get such a bang for your buck with Tandem and you get what you put into it. So far I’ve met many people who are serious about language learning. Very patient and willing to help you if you help them... the fact that you can skip the line and get a 7 day free trial for this app pro (without entering any card information) is so nice. After only 2 days using pro I can say paying for a subscription is absolutely worth it.

One functionality I’d like added is the ability to turn voice messages into text... at times if someone I’m chatting with doesn’t understand what I said in a voice message I write out everything I said. It would be nice if a speech to text feature was available for voice messages.

Also at times I want to speak but I don’t know what words I want to say. The quick action translate button is handy for texting but not for speaking. This means if i toggle from a text translation to a voice message I lose what I just translated... and unless I have a great memory I forget what I wanted to say.

If there was a way for the translation to still be seen on the screen where you record a voice message that would fix everything.

by Warlord88777

Tandem truly is absolutely incredible.
I seriously cannot say enough good things about Tandem, and while I could focus on how much I love specific features; what really sets this platform apart is that as a whole; is it perfectly streamlines an already profound concept: Language Learning by Language Exchange.

It really is a completely different experience like no other that has become an essential part of my life that I cannot live without. Once you are immersed into the this app community, with the accessibility of easily meeting & making friends across nearly anywhere and everywhere in the entire world; working together with the common goal of cooperatively teaching each other's desired/for already-understood, language; that said other has a desire or need to learn; as Tandem's name suggests; "in this app", or together; simultaneously.

I feel it won't take much convincing that, this skill, has agreeably; widely useful & applicable applications; of which I personally believe provide new depth, meaning, and understanding about; who, what, where, when, why, and how language is the way it is; and further, how both, we as people, and them as languages, have evolved over time throughout history, and across geographies.

Tandem...this app
is a portal....into that dimension...

by Leeabarreto

I really love Tandem. I’ve had it for a few months now. At first, I was trying to improve with the languages I’ve been learning. Now, I can do that while saying that I’ve made a lot of sweet friends. It’s a great place to learn/practice languages with other people while also bonding.

The only problem I have is that there are too many great people! I just can’t keep up sometimes. I’m wondering if this app can make an option to stop people from messaging you. Like new people. I know that’s an option for another app I had a few years back. To stop accepting new people so you don’t feel overwhelmed with all the messages. That would be so helpful.

by Summer.Verano

Tandem has literally been a life changer for me. I’ve used this app on-again-off-again since 2016! It truly was the main factor that helped me to become bilingual!! Tandem also helped me to overcome my fear of speaking a second language. Apart from this, it also has helped me meet many new people from all over. this app has given me more perspective on the culture’s of the world and I never would have been able to connect with people like this otherwise. I even took a trip to South America just to meet my this app BFF!! I am forever grateful for Tandem, and will continue to use it in all of my language learning endeavors. I recommend it to ANYONE wanting to become FLUENT in a language. Speaking to natives is truly the best way to learn!! I love love love Tandem and you will too! 🌎🌍🌏

by Molamolafromlisboa

I always tell myself I should start getting comfy speaking a language, and really force myself to speak it without a translator. this app, thank you! Tandem is forcing me to practice my Portuguese, but this review will be in English. 😉

this app has an easy to use GUI, but I didn't know of all the features until I saw people I was talking to use them. There are built-in ways to comment and correct a message someone previously said that is very easy for them to read. For example, the corrections and edits are explicitly colored. It may be a simple feature, but I definitely wouldn't take it for granted.

I wish there would be a way to correct on someone's "comment." Currently, my workaround is to copy the portion of the comment I want to correct as a new message, and correct it myself without the nice coloring.

by The_Khwarezmian_Shah

I have tried many language apps, some rather expensive, and while they are good for reviewing vocab, they aren't very fun and they aren't very effective. However, with Tandem, you can have conversations with real native speakers who are trying to learn your own language! I have been conversing with several Russians over the last few days and I have learned more about the language and culture than I had in many weeks through less effective means. Not to mention I have made many friends who I can talk with every day! I just can't think of any negatives with this program: the ads are not annoying, it is rightfully simple and straightforword, and you have a nearly endless list of people who want to learn your language and teach you theirs! I must recommend this to anyone who is interesting in learning a language. It is an essential.

by Screenwriter882

Really God bless this app from saving from overall loneliness. I’m not close to family so Tandem has been a great help distracting me from what’s really missing from my life. It gave me some much needed purpose. Finally I can use my college English literature credits to use by helping others learn English in exchange for friendship and getting a good linguistic education. Of course there have been a few bad apples who think this is Tinder or WeChat and I had no problem reporting them and keeping everyone else safe on Tandem . Those that run it don’t play if you decide to break the rules. I haven’t met anyone close by worth seeing in person but those from another country : good people to talk to for the most part

by Phenstyle

this app randomly displayed this message for everything I try to do and Tandem just completely broke. I assume that I got banned which doesn’t make any sense, I’m a paid member and super serious language learner!!!! So ridiculous. If I got banned just because somebody reported me because they were jealous of my language ability or something, I almost want to sue for harassment. Or did your app completely break? I’m giving it 1 star because I paid money and now can’t use it, also tried contacting you guys but you said it might take a few days to reply to me. Language learning can’t wait. I study everyday!! I use your app super seriously, this is so ridiculous. this app was my life ,so I’m contemplating suicide. I have no way of contacting my language partners now, do you know how many once in a lifetime language exchange friendships you shattered? ;( and I doubt anyone really cares about this message either, that’s the problem with language exchange apps, they don’t care enough about the users and just ban them without even talking to them or warning them first.

by Paperpoppet

When signing up for Tandem there are several warnings that this is “NOT A DATING APP” and threats of lifetime bans should this or other rules be violated. With such strong warnings I foolishly thought there was no need to toggle the “my gender only” switch on when setting my account up. How very Pollyanna of me. Needless to say, my chat inbox immediately became so flooded with pathetic horndogs wanting to know where I live and if I have a boyfriend that I had to delete the account. Like, seriously. In less than two hours. “Safe” is apparently a relative concept. So, women, do yourself a favor and hit that “my gender only” switch as fast as you can. Or not. I actually improved my Spanish considerably in the two hours I spent finding creative ways to tell perverts to kick rocks. Tandem’s developers need to pull their heads out of the sand and include better filtering and blocking options.

by Mast3r Click3r

I have 2 ideas that would improve the experience.
Have a range of 1-5 when people sign up to show how much they desire to learn the language. Or how much time they will give daily/ weekly.
Then people can be paired with others who are willingly to spend a similar amount of time with each other.
This has been a problem because some people don’t want to give that much time. Or too much time.

Also, have an option to pair people with their same level of language, which would require a range of 5 options for language level, not 3.
Being paired with somebody at the same level has worked out the best for me.
This would result in people using Tandem more and relationships lasting longer.
Maybe some people would like to be paired with others who have the opposite skill level too.
Both of these ideas could be a filter for when searching for learners to chat with.

Give sample structures and ideas on how to go about learning.
Ex.
One person translates their language sentence into the other using google etc. They read it in the new language and the other listens and corrects. And they can switch.

by Kpop_music💜❤️

I seriously love Tandem so much. So far it’s been my favorite language exchange app. But one thing kind of bothers me. I really want to see the people who visited my profile yet you need a buy a pro version? I understand it makes it easier to find people or whatever you said but it just doesn’t seem fair to me. Like it’s my profile so why do I need to pay to see it? That’s my only complaint but so far I really love Tandem. If you can change it so I don’t have to pay to see my own profile then I would be really happy but if you can’t I understand. You do what you have to do. Thank you!

by Wu Yirou

I love Tandem so far and I’ve met so many people through it for every language that I’ve tried to learn. All of the functions work well, and I especially like the “transliteration” one for Chinese. I know that there’s a bit of an issue for people hitting on you for Tandem (pretty much all guys), but I’ve pretty much just stuck to talking with girls on Tandem and it hasn’t been a problem. Also, reading the reviews for each person helps you weed out anyone you think you might not like. Customer service has been great toot! They’ve answered all of my problems almost immediately.

by Qman_15

I love Tandem. It is so easy to meet fun, interesting people and practice your language skills at the same time. I also appreciate how hard the Devs are working on it, too, with updates like the recent World Cup feature. One recommendation I have is to add the ability to send gifs or pictures from the text chat like you can in GroupMe. This would change the game because emojis can only take you so far. One bug I noticed is that no matter how many times I approve/grant this app access to my Facebook likes, I can never get them to show on my profile, and I can’t see others’ Facebook likes either. Still, overall, great, quality app.

by Adrian Beaker

I was looking for an app that would allow me to see more details about potential language partners and set parameters when I’m searching for them, so I can find the best possible match of languages, interest, etc. Tandem does pretty well.
The only real downside that I can see is that come when you click on a message from a language partner, you don’t have quite as many options as you do in Hello Talk (Translate, Comment, Correct, etc. are there but in Hello Talk there are more and they’re laid out better). But this really isn’t a big deal.