HelloTalk - Language Learning

What people write about

Direction describes a theme in aggregate. An individual review may differ — select a theme to inspect its star profile and every text.

loading the rest of the reviews

1. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   啥都要vip. 基本不能用

2. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Cannot restore purchases. The app doesn’t allow you to restore purchases at all.

3. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   Greedy!. The app is practically useless unless you’re willing to pay for a membership. The audacity to charge just to edit my own profile!? And apparently you only get a certain amount of translations before you need to have a subscription? The app has potential but the creators are too money hungry.

4. ★★★★★account bans or deletion without explanation

   Can’t sign in. The app says I can’t sign in because I supposedly violated their policy. I use the app to learn languages and practice with people I know who I met there. Occasionally, I join other rooms or host my own. One day, I came across someone who appeared to be targeting underage girls, so I reported him. Later, there was a man and a woman discussing politics and saying some pretty extreme things. I reminded them that political discussions aren’t allowed on the app and suggested they follow the rules. Instead, they started insulting me and became even more political. I told them, “I’m sorry, but I’m going to report you,” reported the conversation, and left. About 30 minutes later, I could no longer sign in to my account. After contacting HelloTalk several times, I was told that my device had been banned for talking about politics. I was extremely confused because I never participated in any political discussion. I even provided screenshots of the conversation, and the only things I said were that politics weren’t allowed on the app and that I would report the behavior if it continued. It’s frustrating that people who appear to break the rules, including those engaging in inappropriate behavior, seem to remain on the platform, while users who are genuinely there to learn languages and help enforce the community guidelines can end up being banned. Based on my experience, the moderation and appeal process needs significant improvement.

5. ★★★★★ads disrupt the experience

   Full of predators. I’m 21 and 90% of my messages consist of people double my age (or more) trying to use this as an inappropriate dating app. No matter how much I report it the customer support does NOTHING. “Watch ads to spin for free VIP pass” also doesn’t work. I watched 10+ ads and received ZERO

6. ★★★★★account bans or deletion without explanation

   Enables creepy behavior!. I used this app strictly for educational purpose. However a certain user kept asking very intrusive, uncomfortable questions which is why I blocked their account. Unfortunately, this user abnormally has a high number of several accounts which they frequently used to message me, in order to bypass the previous block. I sent HelloTalk screenshots and their support could not help, despite me providing the evidence. Instead, support asked me to report the user through the chat or visiting their profile—both suggestions would have amplified the problem because this user could have easily spot me on their profile visitors and the fact that I read their chat! I ended up deleting my account because support literally told me they cannot help me further if I don’t do what they stated earlier. Disgusting customer support and service!

7. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Gangs of keyboard Jihadists have highjacked this app. This app is the worst. it’s full of disgusting racists who exist on their purely to leave hate comments and curses everywhere they go—directed at the minority groups they hate. And instead of doing anything about it, the brainless people running this app automatically ding and block your account because these keyboard racists mass report you. Oh, and the UI is goddamn chaos, and it’s choke full of bugs. And on top of all that, it’s way overpriced. If you value your mental health at all, stay far away.

8. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   i picked bulgarian. it wanted to teach me chinese. … exactly what im saying! the interface is confusing, and when i tried fo learn words (bread, muesum) it showed mandarin. i just want to learn Bulgarian- and there’s literally nothing here.

9. ★★★★★aI-generated content produces nonsense and wrong phrases

   Censorship AI Slop. Recieved a message from tandem saying quote: “Prohibited Behaviors during Livestream: • Discussing politics, religion, violence, drugs, racial discrimination, history, or COVID-19” That pretty much sums up the values of the people running this company if those are the topics off limits. Meanwhile the moments/explore page is filled with AI slop and rage bait. Also near impossible to find an actual language partner, this is a glorified international dating app.

10. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Lots of censorship, authoritarian garbage. I am a lifetime VIP member. They treat even their paying members are worthless. The issues go deeper tho. Bad app experience, buggy, constantly breaking, features are taken away. But more importantly censored garbage The Moments app is now broken (again). It selects a photo in an album and then scrolls back to the top of album, TRASH

11. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Speech Control and Shadowbanning. This app is actively blocking LGBTQ+ content without prior notice. My friend’s self intro was deleted by the platform just because it contained the word “lesbian”. And my post about IDAHOBIT (International Day Against LGBTQ+ Hate) got completely blocked while it says “visible to everyone” on my end but no one else could see it. Not a good choice for anyone who doesn’t want their identity to be silently erased.

12. ★★★★★support does not respond or resolve the issue

    If you register too many times, the device will be locked.. If you register too many times, the device will be locked. It will take two days to change the language. The algorithm of this APP has been written. If you don‘t pay, you can only meet VIP users in the end. Update: I contacted the customer service, and she was willing to give me a chance to register. Before, I wrote a message to the customer service in Chinese, but he ignored me.

13. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Greedy Pricing. Translation feature is locked behind a paywall after 10 translations. How does this make sense for an application for language learning ? $13 a month they charge and they can’t even moderate the platform properly. Constant creeps on the platform looking for romance rather than language acquisition. You charge more than Crunchyroll and other streaming services. This app could be brilliant for language learners but greed gets in the way of that for this app. $6 a month would fair for what you get, but nowhere near $13.

14. ★★★★★slow performance and long loading times

    Bugs. Very slow and terrible support system when help is needed as well as extreme bugs that seem unfixable.

15. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    👌🏻. تطبيق خايس زباله

16. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Subscription. I am trying to cancel my subscription. I thought I had cancelled it last year. But I just saw a charge. Please cancel my subscription.

17. ★★★★★no native language support means entire markets are cut off

    Flagged for Being an Asian American Native English Speaker. HelloTalk flagged me with a “Violation Reminder” saying my nationality or native language may be incorrect, even though I was born in America, spent almost my entire life in America, and English is my native language. So what is the issue? Because I have an Asian face, my native language can’t be English? Nationality, ethnicity, and native language are not the same thing. A person’s face, name, ethnicity, or current location should not be used to decide what language they speak or where they are from. People can travel. People can live abroad. People do not choose where they are born. Families who survive difficult journeys should not have their children treated like their identity is suspicious. If HelloTalk is going to question someone’s nationality or native language, they should provide a clear reason and a real appeal process. Instead, this felt accusatory, invasive, and discriminatory.

18. ★★★★★data, history or progress disappears

    Not private can’t delete account. This is exposing to much of your personal information and you can’t delete the account once you create it. DO NOT USE IT!

19. ★★★★★trial charges and refunds

    Horrible. So my mom installed this and got a subscription which was a free trial, but when she cancelled it, it kept telling her to pay everytime she wanted to download something in the App Store and her phone is connected to mine because of her apple account so it also doesn’t let me download stuff and it’s annoying how it forced you to pay, pls fix this problem. :(

20. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Terrible. This app is way too greedy for money. It’s hard to find people you can connect to now. I have to pay just to match with people? Seriously, wow.

21. ★★★★★data, history or progress disappears

    Poor Service. Best to just avoid this app. They’ll delete your account without warning and refuse to give you any warning.

22. ★★★★★data, history or progress disappears

    doesn’t even let me log in or make an account. i used to use this app like years ago and then deleted it after i got harrassed by a weird man.. i redownloaded last month to try again and give this app another try and it kept giving me “network error” whenever id try to log in or sign up with each button. i deleted it and then redownloaded it again today and it still doesn’t work this app doesn’t work at all..

23. ★★★★★account bans or deletion without explanation

    Banned. Got banned for no reason!

24. ★★★★★account bans or deletion without explanation

    I GOT BANNED WITHOUT ANY OFFICIAL RESPONSE OR REASON. I had used this app since 2016!!! 2016!!! so yeah I kinda consider myself an og on the app however last year I was banned from the livetalk and streaming features because I posted a screenshot of comments from the Chinese dating app "tantan" it seems it offended someone so much that they decided to report me. I have no idea why what ever I posted can warrant a lifetime ban from streaming and participating in live activities on the platform. I can say 1star is a harsh review since I owe most of my Chinese language ability to this app but the ban was very unfair and kinda arbitrary.

25. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Scam - beware. Upon making my profile was offered VIP membership free for three days, was automaticity charged a full year subscription. BEWARE

26. ★★★★★data, history or progress disappears

    VIP Account Deleted. After spending more than I’d like to admit on the app my account was removed and I have no clue why. I tried contacting support and nothing. Save your time and money with a different learning resource

27. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    App will post your location!. Beware app will post location and no way to remove it !!

28. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Fix your bugs. Every time I tap on the profile icon my whole screen turns gray & I can’t go back, like what the h***!!

29. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    this app sucks. people claim they wanna talk and be friends but the. they ghost u or theyre a weirdo. theres also SO MUCH AI it's unbearable. i havent learned anything from this app either...

30. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    差评.一直没有回复.我在这里能够学习什么？?. 差评.一直没有回复.我在这里能够学习什么？?