Penpal, Sylvi

I don’t have the talent to know whether the app is 100% correct in its teaching, but the AI here is well designed. The “teaching” happens as chat bots continuously ask you questions. It almost feels like a therapy session at times, which isn’t a bad thing but sometimes feels less casual and conversational as a result. There are two learning modes. There is a straight-up tutorial bot that coaches based on your questions or generates prompts to practice with. The other bots engage in discussion topics randomly generated based on loose profiles like “casual” or “flirty.” I haven’t tried flirty, as you need gems to unlock that over time, but the casual bot feels like a polite person you could be acquaintances with IRL. Overall, I think it’s a good supplement to users of Duolingo and other independent learning methods. Sylvi isn’t really a gamified app (yet) despite the presence of leaderboards, and I’m hoping it doesn’t adopt too much of that mentality. Duolingo has been key to my learning a lot of words and conjugations, but it lacks the contextualized learning people acquire from conversations; that’s where Sylvi excels. As an Intermediate learner, it’s nice to converse at my own pace in order to generate complicated sentences. As far as improvements, a Dark Mode would be nice.

App was the only free source of learning spanish now its charging a subscription , It is not worth it. It literally free for the past 4 or more months and I assume it was since it was created. if you are paying the subscription the app and all its features were completely free before. It was so helpful and I was learning and now I have to pay for the subscription. Completely disappointed. Never change the reason you started something. Deleting app. hopefully you reverse this subscription. Such a great app ruined by a subscription feature. App Should return & remain free.

I have never written a review for an app before but after discovering Sylvi I feel like I need to write a review! This app is a game changer for those who are actually trying to learn a language and become fluent! This app implements most of the things you need to learn a language like verbs, pronunciation, spelling, grammar, and even basic lessons that are a great foundation! Sylvi implements all these aspect and puts them into real conversation through texting! My Spanish improved so so much just after a couple of weeks! it’s insane how fast you can pick up a language when the methods of learning are immersive and realistic instead of just the memorisation of random words! This app is such an amazing first step to speaking a language fluently with locals and understanding the fundamentals of the language! Highly recommend, best thing I ever did for my Spanish!

When looking for a recommended language learning app by TikTok polyglot influencers that I follow, Sylvi was 1 of the top 5 that was recommended. I love how this learning path is uniquely different from other language learning apps that I’ve used in the past. For those not ready to speak to a native yet, the AI feature has become my favorite. The developers are quick to action the feedback given as well. I’m loving my experience so far.

Let me start by saying I never have written an app review and I am a real 22 year old girl from Texas trying to learn Spanish. I have spent years trying to find an app where I can practice actual communication and conversations, not just learning vocabulary and building up sentence structures. Sylvi has given me the chance to practice exactly how I speak to my in laws and gives me feedback on how to correct it and provides an explanation to WHY the changes were made. I am so happy to have found this app.

They started charging for everything!! There isn’t even a free option. I’m so disappointed. Like that other review said, it really was the only free app to help learning a language and I really enjoyed it. The quick help feature was nice when I was in pinches at my roofing job. The other conversing was quite repetitive. I had to ask to move onto something else cause we’d repeat lessons. Kinda meh. Really I just loved the quick help with Sylvi cause nobody can rely on google translate- but now I gotta pay for one feature that’s worth it?? No way. Ugh. Glad I’m not the only one who thinks this is disappointing. I’m deleting.

I loved this app because it was basically the only semi free app to use for speaking and listening practice and now you have to pay to do anything. Really disappointed that just because the app started to get popular they decided to try and make a bunch of money off of it.

If you’re learning a new language this app is absolutely for you. It’s amazing!! I was always nervous with texting people I don’t know or talking to people to be able to practice the language, but with this app, I can do it without feeling judged! Of course, I have built confidence overtime, but this app will greatly help people who are struggling with exactly that. There’s so many features it’s just amazing if you’re thinking about it, go for it! You will not regret it

i’m genuinely in awe by how amazing this is. the AI responds so quickly, the AI also saying what it writes out loud is incredibly helpful. this app deserves to blow up, i think it will dramatically help people learn new languages.

Convenient app that leverages AI to learn new languages. The talk to text function is great for improving conversational skills!