You might have seen a certain green owl on your social media feeds in recent years. The Duolingo mascot is known for many things: being in love with Dua Lipa, having an unspoken “beef” with the app Life 360, and most recently, dying and coming back to life. These publicity stunts have all been trying to get more people to download the language-learnng app and build their streaks.

Once you download the app, the green owl keeps you learning through many means. One of the ways is making you turn
on notifications for the app. After this, Duolingo notifies you to do your daily lesson using sassy statements and different characters, such as the purple-haired girl named Lily. Along with the notifications, Duolingo is notorious for also having many
challenges. One of these is a monthly challenge to complete a certain amount of daily quests and a weekly challenge you complete with a friend.

People have different opinions on how Duolingo chooses to market its app. Aaryn Chong, ‘26, who currently has a streak of 68, thinks that “Duolingo has the best Instagram page ever.” Her favorite part of their Instagram is when the Duolingo bird was dead and then revived. However, Farida Eldahshoury, ‘26, thinks that “it was stupid, you can’t just die and come back to life.” Eldahshoury’s highest streak ended up being 89 days after she got fed up and quit. However, there is one thing that they both agree on: they hate the notifications. Eldahshory compared the notifications to “a boyfriend who will not stop texting [her].” Chong would agree, but she has gotten so annoyed that she has turned off the notifications altogether. They both say that the notifications are too frequent and oftentimes say that it influences them to not do a lesson because of how much it annoys them.

Duolingo is known for having some exciting and out-of-the-box ideas to help promote their company. Most people like Chong believe that these decisions help boost Duolingo and think they should do more publicity stunts like the death of Duo. Others like Eldahshory believe that the app has proven to be the most annoying thing on her phone and would rather learn a language in a different way.