Duolingo recently announced a new feature currently in testing with a small batch of users that replaces the long standing ‘Hearts’ feature with a new system called ‘Energy’.

Up until now, when Duolingo users make a mistake they are punished with losing one heart. Every user has a maximum of three hearts, so just a few simple mistakes leaves users hanging until they re-generate.

Duolingo users have long reported feeling punished too harshly by this feature, preventing them from learning when in fact they felt making mistakes was a natural part of the learning process.

To combat this, Duolingo is testing a new ‘Energy’ system with a small cohort of users. If successful it’s likely to be rolled out to general availability.

How Duolingo’s new ‘Energy’ feature works

Duolingo users that are part of the test cohort now use up energy as they complete lessons. Getting questions wrong has no effect on energy, it simply burns down the more time is spent learning on the app.

Importantly, users can gain energy for getting questions right, switching Duolingo’s focus from penalizing mistakes to rewarding success. Duolingo will also help users by rewarding them with more energy if they get multiple answers correct in a row.

Even if users use up all their energy quickly, Duolingo states that energy will take “about a day” to fully recharge, meaning users can make sure they are able to keep their learning streak.

Duolingo is also working on additional ways for users to earn extra energy including completing perfect lessons, adding friends and reward chests.

Why is Duolingo’s switch from ‘Hearts’ to ‘Energy’ important for app developers?

By switching from losing hearts to gaining energy, Duolingo has shifted the focus of its gamification system from penalizing mistakes to rewarding success.

This reflects the difference between negative and positive reinforcement learning and will likely lead to a healthier app culture and help Duolingo build a more positive relationship with its users.

As one of the most popular consumer-facing apps on the app stores, app developers should pay close attention to the changes Duolingo makes to its user experience.

App developers should consider whether their user experience could be shifted towards a more positive success-driven experience, and think about any unhelpful blockers to user success that their gamification features may be unintentionally creating.

Duolingo’s change stands as a useful moment for app developers to take stock and reflect on if shifting towards a success-driven feature like energy is warranted for their own apps.

How to build a Duolingo-style ‘Energy’ feature in your app

Any web or mobile app that encourages users to form regular usage habits could benefit from a Duolino-style ‘Energy’ feature.

However whilst these features may seem simple on the surface, there can be significant hidden complexity in implementation and user experience management that is often overlooked.

Energy needs to be evenly distributed across users, and the correct balancing applied to ensure users don’t earn energy too fast (rendering it worthless) or too slow (preventing use).

Here we’ll take a look at the high-level systems required to support an energy-style feature and how to use Trophy to build and operate it at scale.

Overview of an energy-style feature

A Duolingo-style energy feature would require:

• Scalable user interaction tracking infrastructure.
• Logic to ‘burn down’ energy based on specific user interactions.
• Additional logic to grant different amounts of new energy based on specific user interactions.
• Logic to slowly regenerate energy for users over time so they never run out.
• APIs to display energy to users within applications.

To effectively manage an energy feature at scale app developers would also need:

• Analytics dashboards that monitor current energy levels across the user base and highlight areas of over- and under-allocation.
• Tools to act on those insights and re-balance energy levels by speeding up or slowing down energy regeneration rates.
• Tools to promote user activity including running time-limited energy boost events, e.g. a “2X energy weekend”.

How to build a Duolingo-style energy feature using Trophy

Trophy supports building a wide range of points-based systems through its dedicated Points feature. One use case of this is building energy-style features.

App developers can create points systems and market them as ‘Energy’ in their applications. Teams can configure triggers within their energy system to award energy to users based on key user interactions modelled through Metrics.

For example, in a study application teams could configure triggers to award energy to learners based on the following:

• “Award 3 energy for every flashcard viewed”
• “Award 5 energy for every lesson completed”

Similarly, teams can configure triggers to use up energy based on other user interactions. For example “Use 1 energy for each question answered”.

This flexibility allows app developers to build highly customizable energy systems for their applications.

Additionally, Trophy has built-in analytics to monitor energy distribution across the user base and identify areas of imbalance.

Additionally Trophy has purpose-built APIs for displaying energy to users within applications.

What’s more, Trophy has lots of upcoming enhancements that further support app developers in building and operating energy features including:

• Tools to run energy boost events e.g. a “2X energy weekend” event.
• Tools to set up gradual regeneration of energy over time.

Conclusion

Duolingo’s shift to a reward-driven energy feature represents an opportunity for app developers to adjust their user experience to follow suit.

Try Trophy for free up to 100 monthly active users and build energy-style features for your application.