Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Learn a new language (or 14) with Babbel app for desktop, iOS, Android

babbel language app screen shot 2017 01 14 at 1 29 44 pm
The path to polyglotism may just be an app away. Babbel is a language app that promises to help users expand their linguistic horizons by learning up to 14 different languages. Available on the web, iOS, and Android, the app provides digestible lessons that you can fit into even the busiest of schedules.

With more than a million paying subscribers to the app, Babbel seeks to empower users to start speaking in new tongues. Lessons are divided into real-world topics — you’ll learn how to introduce yourself, order food, and make travel arrangements, so that each word and phrase you use can serve a logistical purpose. This, Babbel says, is to ensure that students can start having real, meaningful conversations as soon as possible.

Recommended Videos

While learning a language may seem like a serious time investment, Babbel promises to develop your vocabulary with just a few minutes every day. More than 100 linguists and education experts developed a methodical approach to language, building upon what students already know within their own language in order to teach them a new one. That, the company behind the app claim, allows for engaging ways of teaching grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Babbel also features a voice recognition tool so that new speakers aren’t mispronouncing words.

In a survey of its users, Babbel found that 73 percent of customers said they’d feel comfortable holding a short conversation within five hours of using the app. But most of Babbel’s customers remain subscribers to the app for more than a year, as it continues to “motivate and empower” them to succeed in their linguistic endeavors.

So whether you’ve planned a vacation in a foreign country, are looking to impress your significant other’s parents, or are just hoping to brush up on your old high school Spanish skills, Babbel may just be the app for you.

Download for iOS Download for Android

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Our 5 favorite iPhone and Android apps by Black developers
An iPhone with apps from Black developers downloaded on it.

As we wrap up the celebration of 2023's Black History Month, it remains important to recognize and appreciate the contributions that Black people have made in various fields, including technology and the smartphone apps we use every day. From social media platforms to productivity tools, Black developers and other people of color have worked hard to create innovative, useful, and just plain fun apps.

Here, we're focusing on five helpful apps developed by Black people that you should check out. These iPhone and Android apps range from ones that help you discover and support Black-owned businesses to ones that provide legal assistance in case of an emergency to ones that curate and highlight sources of news and entertainment by Black creators.
We Read Too

Read more
Apple’s iOS 16.4 beta brings new emoji, web app notifications, and more
Sample of new emoji coming in iOS 16.4

Apple has just released the iOS 16.4 beta for developers and anyone else who wants a really early look at the new software. This is the first beta for iOS 16.4, following numerous releases for iOS 16.3.

The first highlighted items for iOS 16.4 are the new Unicode 15 emoji. These are the first new emoji in over a year. Some of these new emoji include a shaking face, pink heart, light blue heart, goose, donkey, angel wing, jellyfish, pea pod, ginger, folding hand fan, maracas, flute, and more. These new emoji additions were originally proposed in July 2022, and they were added to the Unicode standard in September 2022. It has taken a few months for these to get added to iOS because designers at Apple needed to create the icons with the information provided by the Unicode Consortium.

Read more
Using an Android phone showed me just how bad iOS notifications really are
iPhone 14 Pro with iOS 16 notifications compared to Google Pixel 7 with Android 13 notifications

I’ve been using an iPhone for over a decade. I received the original iPhone as a birthday present in 2008, and after just four months of use (without a case, of course), I dropped and cracked the screen. With the iPhone 3G about to launch, I decided to upgrade to that, and I’ve pretty much bought a new iPhone every year since — including the iPhone 14 Pro.

Before Apple added Notification Center in iOS 5, notifications were just alerts that would interrupt whatever it is you were doing, until you took action on it or dismissed it. And once you dismissed it, that was it — it vanished, never to be seen again, so you may have missed something important if you didn’t remember what it was.

Read more