Remove ads from Duolingo?

I'm on android and I'm wondering if there's any way to skip the ads without getting premium? I don't need the premium features necessarily but I hate the ads interrupting my practice. Anyone have any reliable leads? Thank you.

81 comments

Revanced has a premium patch for duolingo: https://revanced.app/patches?s=duolingo
- What the heck, I had no idea that Revanced had the ability to patch apps other than Youtube! Thank you for saying so.
- Oh wow, thank you. Do I need to download an older version of the app? It's telling me Duolingo is not installed.
  Edit: tried downloading from apkmirror
  Do I need to be rooted or can I find another download source?
  
  It appears you're attempting to patch the installed app. Download the APK and patch that file. Then install the modded APK.
  You can download APK here: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/duolingo/duolingo-duolingo/duolingo-duolingo-5-120-3-release/
  
  You need to grab the Duolingo APK from a source like APKpure or APKMirror and patch this file.
  This is because the installed Duolingo app consists of multiple (split-)APKs.
- Is yours working? Just tried it and apparently the patch prevents you from logging in. If it does, which version are you using?
  
  no version i tried worked so far, it seems the patch is broken for every version.
  Hopefully someone will update the patch in the future
- Thanks for this. Not sure how to save posts so I'm commenting instead.
  
  What app are you using?
  
  Hit the three dots, then the star icon to save a post.

You can create a Duolingo class which you can then join yourself. This gets you unlimited hearts and no further ads on the mobile version (at least from my experience). Creating a class has no prerequisites so just try it out. If you still want to be able to view the public leaderboard there's a setting for that in the classroom settings, but it's disabled by default.
Edit: I'm not sure if there are any other ads besides the premium and family ones, I'm running PiHole so your mileage may vary. I'm only talking about those 2 which PiHole cannot block.
- Oh, this is an actual option? I thought the other commenter was joking.
  
  yeah, I can confirm it works. I set it up around 2 years ago and I still don't have ads and have unlimited hearts

Using a DNS that blocks ad domains works for blocking third party apps. The duolingo video ad still shows up though.
DNS is a OS setting.
Closing an reopening the app works too as a workaround. Progress is saved on completion, before the ad.

Pihole
- Someday, but I need a device to run that on.
  
  Might as well use nextdns then
  
  You can run it on literally anything including a virtual machine, android tv box, old laptop from the trash..

You might try a modded apk, but those can be sketchy at times
- Talking about modded apks, this one works for me:
  aHR0cHM6Ly9tb2R5b2xvLmNvbS9kb3dubG9hZC9kdW9saW5nby0yMTM3
  VirusTotal scan results
  
  #piped bot had too much to drink below
  Just keep scrolling
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  VirusTotal scan results
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

Seconding the DNS suggestion. Specifically I set my DNS to dns.adguard-dns.com and that does the trick for mobile games and such.
- Duolingo stull shows an ad for the premium if no external ad is available iirc
  
  Ohh, got it. Yeah, I don't know of a way to get rid of that. I'd guess Revanced, but I haven't used it myself.

You can try a private DNS, easy to set up in Android and blocks ads in most apps and browsers
Libredns
Mullvaddns
- Are there downsides to using these?
  
  None that I can think.
  They're no slower from what I see on daily use and both are privacy focused.