Today I got a Duolingo app update. The first thing I noticed when I launched the app was the notification that to get a new app icon I need to do a lesson. I dismissed it, because I'm using the custom Streak Society icon. But to my surprise, when I did the lesson, I got the new app icon indeed. OK, I went to the Streak section of the app to restore the icon and there was a silent fuck you in my face. They simply removed the Streak Society icon. And to earn that you had to keep your streak for some time. And there's no way for you to change the app icon. For example, if you don't want to use their icons that they consider very fucking funny. So not only did they remove the motivator they put there in the first place, but they also prevent people from just disabling these scheduled icon changes. I then tried to leave feedback. They use their website for this, so not an in-app form. And on their website I saw a notification that I'm using an incompatible browser. And my browser, Safari, was listed as compatible on their list. I thought maybe that was because of the VPN. I turned it off and it didn't fix anything. So my second guess was my ad blocker. But there's no way I'm disabling it to adapt to this lazy ass product management.

When going after profits removes care for customers, the product becomes shit.