Review Insights · App Store
Talkpal - AI Language Learning
TalkPal, Inc. · 2,795 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
2,795 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 34 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"subscription"
9 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "debit/credit card required for free trial. i couldn’t even use the app because i don’t have a debit/credit card, its not like duolingo where you can use the app freely and paying is optional, so i don’t know how am i gonna experience something before i pay so i need a debit card jus…" - SonnyBastian
2
"free"
8 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "debit/credit card required for free trial. i couldn’t even use the app because i don’t have a debit/credit card, its not like duolingo where you can use the app freely and paying is optional, so i don’t know how am i gonna experience something before i pay so i need a debit card jus…" - SonnyBastian
3
"language"
8 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worst App Ever. This is actually the worst language app I have ever used. I am an absolute beginner and it had me trying to read and write full paragraphs without teaching me anything and it didn’t even give me a translation or hints. Literally wtf" - Bfienrkrmehs
4
"trial"
7 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "debit/credit card required for free trial. i couldn’t even use the app because i don’t have a debit/credit card, its not like duolingo where you can use the app freely and paying is optional, so i don’t know how am i gonna experience something before i pay so i need a debit card jus…" - SonnyBastian
5
"money"
7 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "debit/credit card required for free trial. i couldn’t even use the app because i don’t have a debit/credit card, its not like duolingo where you can use the app freely and paying is optional, so i don’t know how am i gonna experience something before i pay so i need a debit card jus…" - SonnyBastian
6
"free trial"
6 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "debit/credit card required for free trial. i couldn’t even use the app because i don’t have a debit/credit card, its not like duolingo where you can use the app freely and paying is optional, so i don’t know how am i gonna experience something before i pay so i need a debit card jus…" - SonnyBastian
7
"cancel"
6 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Free trial did not cancel. After starting the free trial I immediately cancelled because it was not what I wanted. A week later I saw a hundred and something dollar charge on my card. I checked the status of my subscription and it was on the free plan so I reached ou…" - concernedskeptic1845
8
"beginner"
6 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worst App Ever. This is actually the worst language app I have ever used. I am an absolute beginner and it had me trying to read and write full paragraphs without teaching me anything and it didn’t even give me a translation or hints. Literally wtf" - Bfienrkrmehs
9
"doesn"
6 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Free trial did not cancel. After starting the free trial I immediately cancelled because it was not what I wanted. A week later I saw a hundred and something dollar charge on my card. I checked the status of my subscription and it was on the free plan so I reached ou…" - concernedskeptic1845
10
"premium"
5 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I’m not enjoying this app. Almost everything is premium and not everyone can afford this stuff." - _Koneko_
11
"trying"
5 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Words don’t match speech. Just trying it out and already in conversation mode the words spoken don’t match the words written!" - Wallyman.8
12
"actually"
5 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worst App Ever. This is actually the worst language app I have ever used. I am an absolute beginner and it had me trying to read and write full paragraphs without teaching me anything and it didn’t even give me a translation or hints. Literally wtf" - Bfienrkrmehs
📋 All 34 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Don’t bother
The application is severely disorganized and lacks any intuitive structure, making it difficult to navigate, inefficient to use, and ultimately not user-friendly, as even basic tasks require unnecessary effort and time due to poor design and unclear functionality.
debit/credit card required for free trial
i couldn’t even use the app because i don’t have a debit/credit card, its not like duolingo where you can use the app freely and paying is optional, so i don’t know how am i gonna experience something before i pay so i need a debit card just to use a program? allow the people use your product before asking their money im so tired that the first thing they always ask is a monthly/anual subscription seems like the only thing in business they never forget about but forget to even allow their product to be atleast tested in some way for free with limitations to satisfy the customer not even that is a good idea it seems
Free trial did not cancel
After starting the free trial I immediately cancelled because it was not what I wanted. A week later I saw a hundred and something dollar charge on my card. I checked the status of my subscription and it was on the free plan so I reached out to their support staff thinking it was done in error. 24 hours later they’re telling me my subscription is active and offering me a partial refund. Sure enough loving back in my subscription is now suddenly active…. Frustrating and Suspicious and that doesnt even get to why it wasn’t worth the money.
HT
HT
VPN compatibility
Ребяты, у кого такая же фигня с ВПН. Без ВПН не входит, виснет. Включаю ВПН и могу зайти, но дальше виснет так, что приходится выключать айпед!! Купила блин платную версию. Я не могу даже зайти. Каждый раз танцы с бубном: вкл/выкл ВПН вместо занятия
Free trial is not free and the app is horrible
They charge you upfront to try it. When you cancel within the free trial period there is no getting your money back. Reached customer support their only reply was it's handled through Apple.
Stick to duo, babbel or pimsler
Stick to duo, babbel or pimsler
BEWARE
Even though I cancelled my 1 year subscription way in advance of it renewing, and have email cancellation proof, I was still charged a 89.99 renewal fee. Shady business practice and will never resubscribe to this app.
Words don’t match speech
Just trying it out and already in conversation mode the words spoken don’t match the words written!
Worst App Ever
This is actually the worst language app I have ever used. I am an absolute beginner and it had me trying to read and write full paragraphs without teaching me anything and it didn’t even give me a translation or hints. Literally wtf
Cancel and still try to charge
They show monthly price, but I cancelled subscription and they still try charging me for two years. I get notifications about 4 days a week with payment denied as I deleted my card.
Not for beginners
The app starts with full conversation sentences in the foreign language. Impossible to understand. And yes, those sentences can be translated but there is no explanation of sentence structure or individual words. I think a beginner level app would start with teaching a few words then using them in simple sentences. This app doesn’t do that. Although I think the app would be great for intermediate and advanced
Useless Free Mode: No content
Supposedly, this is the go-to app if you want to improve on your language skills in a talking way. And, they even boast that there’s a “free plan”. So, I wanted to try the free plan and see what the limitations are. The bottom line: No limitations, because it just has nothing that is free. The app is completely useless unless you sign up for a paid plan first. It took me 30 minutes to get it to talk for the first time - and trying to talk with Siri is a more useful exercise. No feedback, no corrections, no intelligence. No “modes”, no courses, no dialogues or topics or scenarios: It’s the “No” app. If they had a way to hide all Premium content you probably just would get a blank screen. Forget about the promise of 10 minutes of free talking - you can do that with ChatGPT and voice-to-text. Only that ChatGPT will actually correct you (if you ask for it) and reply to what you’ve said. If this is the best you can get…??? I guess I have to try out a few others. This was wasted time.
Save Your Money
I made the mistake of purchasing the year long subscription and I’m very disappointed. The premium function is less useful for language learning than just downloading ChatGPT, since it doesn’t teach you or tutor you. It just chats in the target language, but only in the target language. Unless you are already at an intermediate level, this is probably not a good investment. Even then I’d still recommend just using ChatGPT.
Scam App… stay away
They put 14 days free trial… don’t do it… they actually charge you it is not free then hide under Apple refund policy which Apple will never refund you
Bottom line scam to take your money
Stay away!!!
Bottom line scam to take your money
Stay away!!!
Useless. Buggy and extremely slow
Takes 30 seconds to grade your pronunciation for a four word sentence and it takes three or four tries to even get it to recognize your submission
Let’s not learn Thai here
My spoken Thai is pretty good especially for the limited words I know. But, holy moly does the AI not pick up on what I am saying. I said I like to drive and it thought I said “thank you thank you thank you.” This obviously needs some work.
Not a Teaching Tool
Whoever made this app DOES NOT know how languages are taught. If you are a beginner, you will absolutely regret buying this app.
Can’t cancel my subscription
Canceled my subscription but they still try to deposit money from my card every day. Would not recommend to anyone 🤬 Support doesn’t reply, I’ve already sent 2 messages to their mail that they send in their replies here.
Won’t process my cancel request.
The 7 day free trial actually gave me three days and I tried to cancel subscription and clicking on “Cancel” does absolutely nothing. Clicking on “Pause” only tells me to go to Google Play to do that (I have an iPhone). Have sent two requests for support and heard nothing.
Trial subscription is impossible to cancel.
I regret trying this service as the app doesn’t work properly. It doesn’t allow me to cancel the trial subscription and the customer service is unresponsive.
Confusing & Does not teach foundational language skills
The app is confusing to navigate and does not teach foundational language skills even if you are a beginner. I found it frustrating and ended up cancelling my free trial after the first day and going with different language app.
pay!
st least make it obvious that speaking is paid in AD
Impossible
I go on to the app to learn Italian and instead of teaching it to me, it just starts writing in Italian and speaking in Italian, no English. How can i leave a language when the thing only uses Italian? That seems like a huge problem, I thought AI should be smart, this app needs some work
Not sufficiently adaptable
One advantage of using an AI teacher should be that it can adjust to your level, but this starts at too high level for me, and there is no way to further adjust it downwards below what it calls “beginner” which is actually quite advanced.
Can’t test w/o spending $$$
I wanted to test the Norwegian speaking/conversation parts of this app to see if I like it before I invest in it. This is impossible to do without paying for a Premium membership. I’m deleting the app because I don’t want to pay for something I can’t try. I’ll stick to Duolingo.
Great app
My one issue is there is no furigana for the Japanese option that would help prevent less mispronunciation. Once this is changed I’ll give 5 stars
Virus
The phone is swearing at the virus. Do not install
I’m not enjoying this app
Almost everything is premium and not everyone can afford this stuff.
Chat
Chat bot or whatever doesn’t allow any time to reply. Immediately posts assessment. Would be great if reply errors were identified and corrections provided. Smiley and frown face are not sufficient.
Errors
I downloaded this in hopes of pushing my Chinese to the next level. Although I really like what the app provides, there are several flaws within the translations themselves. For example with the bouncing tone, it changes to a rising tone when connected to another bouncing tone, which is not shown in this app. The voice also is generally inaccurate when it comes to the tones, and when it grades your speech the tones make no effect on your grade. Also, I wish the Pinyin had an easier access toggle button, rather than having to go to the settings every time I need to see the Pinyin. Because of my background knowledge in Chinese, I can be vaguely successful now, however I do fear for when I progress farther and end up learning mistakes.
Hangs and crashes
I subscribed to a year-long plan hoping for a productive learning experience, but the platform frequently hangs and crashes, making it unreliable and frustrating to use. It currently falls short as a learning tool. I hope the developers address these issues soon. For now, I’d caution against investing in it until the stability improves.
Great potential, but a few key issues need attention
Review Date: July 31, 2025 - This app has the potential to be an excellent language learning tool, but there are a few areas that need improvement: 1.Audio Volume: The audible sections are too quiet, even at maximum volume. This makes it hard to learn on the go or in noisy environments. 2.Text Size: The text remains very small even when the largest font size is selected. This is especially challenging for users with visual difficulties. 3.Button Layout: The main control buttons are placed too far apart (opposite sides of the screen), making it inconvenient to navigate the app. 4.Missing Repeat/Loop Feature: A repeat option is essential in any language app, especially for repeating and mastering new sentences without constantly tapping. I really enjoy the idea of this app and want to keep using it, but these issues make it hard to recommend right now. If these are addressed, I’d be happy to revise my rating. Thanks for considering user feedback!
Only premium
I just moved overseas to Germany as a military child, and I’m trying to learn German without having to pay a whole lot of money. I love the ai part for my Spanish because I know a lot of spanish, but I can do that for free on ChatGPT. Also, I am completely new to German, so I can’t use the AI feature much yet. The free part of the app is just a demo with the AI. There’s no demo for learning anything. Paying for this app is like a gamble with your money. You don’t know if it’s even gonna be worth it. We have already paid thousands and thousands of dollars just to get here overseas. I understand have premium features entirely, but it’s annoying how many apps nowadays try to act all “personalized” and cost so much, and usually aren’t even worth it. I bet most of the money usually goes to the animations and art of the app to make it feel fancy. Idk, I just think it’s weird that you only get 5 minutes to talk with an AI. Especially since most AI runs by tokens and not with time. I understand that not everything is gonna be free, but paying to learn public knowledge that is free in many other places, especially the AI, is just not worth me paying money to keep this app.
This may be a great app, but I didn’t know I had to pay for it to get more than just 5 minutes to talk with an AI that is perfectly fluent in another language as a total beginner. I can’t even form a coherent sentence yet because I don’t even know more than a few words yet
Again, I understand I’m just complaining about getting things for free, but I think you should find a way to make some of this free and accessible instead of so corporate and whatever lol
This may be a great app, but I didn’t know I had to pay for it to get more than just 5 minutes to talk with an AI that is perfectly fluent in another language as a total beginner. I can’t even form a coherent sentence yet because I don’t even know more than a few words yet
Again, I understand I’m just complaining about getting things for free, but I think you should find a way to make some of this free and accessible instead of so corporate and whatever lol
Customer Service
I have not been able to use product because the level is set too high. When I try to lower level it does not change content. Reached out to customer service with no response. So I have basically paid for a product I can’t use.
It is unfortunate!
The new version cannot be logged in IOS. I have a subscription but it doesn’t work.
Sentiment summary
93%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
4%
Negative (1-2★)