Are you looking for ways to get unlimited hearts on Duolingo?
Hearts are definitely one of the most controversial features on Duolingo, so it’s hardly surprising that many users are looking for ways to get around them!
Fortunately, there are ways of doing this, and each one has its own pros and cons.
In this article, I’ll show the 3 best ways of getting unlimited hearts on Duolingo.
Let’s get into it!
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What are hearts on Duolingo?
If you’re a mobile user, then you’ll probably be familiar with the heart system as it’s been around for a number of years.
A heart on Duolingo is basically a life. You start with a maximum of 5, and for every question you get wrong, you lose a heart. Once you run out of all of your hearts, you are no longer able to complete any lessons.
When this happens, you have one of the following options:
- Complete a practice to unlock a heart
- Refill your hearts within a lesson for 450 gems
- Refill your hearts outside of a lesson for 350 gems
- Wait for your hearts to refill (you will gain one heart every 4 hours)
According to Duolingo, hearts are used as a way of “pacing lessons to balance practice and new material.“
Basically, they believe it’s better for learning. They don’t want you advancing too quickly, otherwise, you might not retain what you’ve learned (so their logic goes).
Why you might want unlimited hearts
Long-term readers will know that I’ve never been a fan of the heart system, as it punishes learners for making mistakes — which is actually one of the most important things when it comes to learning a language.
For me, this is the biggest reason anyone would want unlimited hearts. Removing the heart system allows users to make as many mistakes as they want, without the risk of losing their ability to learn.
Of course, there are several ways to replenish your hearts when you lose them. But if doing this interferes with what you want to be doing — i.e. doing a practice session instead of moving forward along your path — then this isn’t exactly helpful.
And now that Duolingo has baked personalized practice and spaced repetition into the path, I see even less reason why the heart system still needs to exist!
Follow me on Duolingo!
Up for some friendly competition? Then be sure to follow me on Duolingo!
My username is DCiiieee 🙂
(If the link doesn’t work then just type my username into the ‘Search for friends’ bar on the app)
How to get unlimited hearts
The good news is that there are several ways of getting unlimited hearts on Duolingo.
Each one has its pros and cons.
Super Duolingo
For me, this is probably the best way of getting unlimited hearts, although I can understand that it won’t be to everyone’s liking!
Super Duolingo is Duolingo’s premium subscription. It comes with a bunch of additional perks and features, one of which is unlimited hearts. This means that with Super Duolingo, you can complete as many lessons as you want, regardless of how many mistakes you make.
Of course, the biggest downside to Super Duolingo is the cost. In the US it’s currently $83.99 USD per year — which is obviously a lot more than a free plan!
However, if you use Duolingo every day (like me!), then the daily cost is roughly $0.23. For the convenience of not having to put up with the hearts, as well as all the other features and perks that come with it, I’m more than happy to pay it.
But again, everyone’s different, so it’ll just depend on your personal circumstances.
You’ll also get unlimited hearts with Duolingo Max, which is Duolingo’s latest subscription tier. However, this is currently only available to select users and costs significantly more than Super.
Desktop
If a premium subscription is a no-go, then another great option is to use the desktop version of Duolingo.
For some reason, Duolingo never brought the heart system to desktop — and they’ve confirmed they have no plans to in the future either.
And while there were reports in May 2023 that hearts had been seen on desktop, there is currently nothing to suggest that this was anything more than A/B testing or a bug.
As far as I’m concerned, this is a massive win!
I just can’t understand why the logic that hearts are better for learning only extends to mobile users that don’t have Super…
But anyway. The even better news is that you can run the desktop version of Duolingo on your phone as well.
Simply head to Duolingo in your web browser and log in as normal. You may find it tries to open up the Duolingo app. If it does, just cancel it and try again. Eventually, it should open up in your web browser…
One of the first things you’ll notice (aside from the weird mishmash between desktop and mobile) is that there are no hearts in your lessons…
Even if you have Super, there’s no option to turn on unlimited hearts as they don’t exist!
This means you can dive into your lessons and power through them at your leisure.
That said, there are some downsides to this approach.
For me, the main one is that it doesn’t have the same functionality of the app. It’s missing features like challenges and quests, the path has a more dated format, and the lessons just don’t feel as polished as they do in the app.
However, if you can stomach these differences, then desktop/web browser approach might be the way to go.
Duolingo for Schools
The other main way of getting unlimited hearts is through Duolingo for Schools.
This one’s definitely a loophole and so it’s my least favorite of the 3. However, for as long as it works, it might be worth looking into if you’re not a fan of the other two ways!
Duolingo for Schools is a feature designed for school teachers and their students. It basically gives teachers a way of assigning tasks to their students on Duolingo — through what is known as a classroom — as well as allowing them to track their progress.
One of the interesting things about this is that, if you’re part of a Duolingo classroom, you automatically get unlimited hearts!
It’s actually really easy to set up as well.
To do so, simply visit schools.duolingo.com…
Then, follow the instructions to create a classroom. You can just use your normal Duolingo account to do this…
Once you’ve got it all set up (it should only take a couple of minutes) head back to your Duolingo app. Take a look at the top right of your screen — you should now have unlimited hearts…
It’s worth keeping in mind that using Duolingo through the Schools feature comes with some drawbacks, the main one being that the courses are often outdated. It’s not uncommon for users in classrooms to not get the latest updates and features at the same time as everyone else.
And, as I mentioned, this is definitely one of those loophole ways of getting unlimited hearts, meaning it might not be around forever. So keep that in mind!
For more chat about Duolingo hearts, as well as other Duolingo features, feel free to follow me on Twitter.
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I agree that the desktop version isn’t as good as the app. It just feels outdated to me.
I also don’t have problems with the heart system as I am a Super Duolingo member as of Christmas 2021.
I have a question Matt, I have unlimited hearts but I don’t have super Duolingo and I use the app on tablet
Have you created a classroom?
That can turn off hearts for free.
Do you have the app installed? or are you using the browser on the tablet? Like Matt mentions, the website doesn’t have hearts at all.
“Some of the other features, like challenges and quests are missing as well.”
Well, good news; they added Daily Quests to the desktop after about a year. But the Friends Quest and Monthly Challenge are still missing.
As of today, Duo has added the ridiculous hearts to the web version.
Right! I’m so upset regarding that. It’s been a few months already, they don’t seem like they’re taking it off.