Duolingo doesn't work.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by A Former User

Okay, since some very active moderator didn't like another post with descriptive headline and deleted my new post, we're continuing under one that doesn't really describe anything. So here it is what does not work:

I seem to be unable to do speaking exercises. Starting voice recognition on Duolingo by clicking on microphone symbol on speaking exercise does nothing.

My Opera version info:
Version: 55.0.2994.37 - Opera is up to date
Update stream: Stable
System: Windows 10 64-bit

And here's a collection of another reports regarding this issue, one dating back two years:
https://forums.opera.com/topic/15200/duolingo-microphone-input-not-working (2 years ago)
https://forums.opera.com/topic/27849/el-micrófono-de-duolingo-no-funciona (in Spanish)
https://forums.opera.com/topic/26917/micro-non-fonctionnel-sous-opera (in French)

[acidinmyfridge]

acidinmyfridge @Guest last edited by acidinmyfridge

@sullemulle hm. For me that works just fine.

Have you checked in opera settings your default microphone settings and allowed sites to access your microphone?

I am also using this opera addon to allow websites to play videos/allow mic access and such.

You think you know, but you have no idea.

[A Former User]

A Former User @acidinmyfridge last edited by

@acidinmyfridge Yes, none of these made any difference.

[acidinmyfridge]

acidinmyfridge @Guest last edited by

@sullemulle i can't reproduce that issue.
I am on latest stable version on Opera. I am using side bar settings and have no issues playing videos on FB and using the mic on websites such as duolingo.
Sorry for you, i can relate that stuff like this is somewhat frustrating.

If i may recommend another browser to try instead? I am using Vivaldi Browser for the past year now and i am very much pleased with it and use it alongside Opera. It is extremly customizable, has loads of implented features (tab stacking, web panel, split window for example), extensions are downloaded directly from ChromeStore.
Back then when Opera was sold, half of Opera Staff quit and left and they started building Vivaldi Browser.
They are constantly updating it. If you try it, i'd like to recommend a few extensions to use it with:
Bookmark Sidebar is a must, since the bookmarks are not perfected yet chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bookmark-sidebar/jdbnofccmhefkmjbkkdkfiicjkgofkdh/reviews

No implemented VPN, this one is free, unlimited and fast:
chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/free-vpnpro-free-unlimite/aikkpomhgnaciipbediihdakbbbmdfil/reviews?hl=en-US

No implemented AdBlock (Ublock is what i use)

No implemented mining block (CryptoStop is what i use)

https://vivaldi.com/blog/how-to-switch-to-vivaldi/

I have no other solution to offer for this.

You think you know, but you have no idea.

[A Former User]

A Former User @acidinmyfridge last edited by A Former User

@acidinmyfridge Thank you for your suggestion. I actually tried Vivaldi already, and neither with it does Duolingo's speaking exercises work. Duolingo web page's settings, those on the page itself, don't even show possibility to turn microphone on or off when using Vivaldi, even though I've explicitly allowed it for Duolingo in Vivaldi settings. This is true even when running in incognito mode with no extensions at all.

In fact, with Vivaldi Duolingo does not even give speaking exercises, since the browser apparently can't even see or understand my audio input devices, and thus the website thinks I have none. So no luck there.

I've already switched back to using mainly Chrome, since everything works smoothly there. It's a horrible memory hog though.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by burnout426

Anyone have a direct link to a duolingo exercise page that wants you to speak with with your mic?

[A Former User]

A Former User @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 Unfortunately, Duolingo exercises cannot be linked individually, as they don't have unique URLs in their web app. It should be fairly easy to play it a bit to get to one, should that be an issue.

May I ask, why do you need one? Would you be interested in technical side of this phenomenon?

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @Guest last edited by

@sullemulle said in Duolingo doesn't work.:

May I ask, why do you need one? Would you be interested in technical side of this phenomenon?

Yes. Was going to test it to see if I can reproduce the issue and see if I can workaround it.

[A Former User]

A Former User @burnout426 last edited by A Former User

@burnout426 said in Duolingo doesn't work.:

@sullemulle said in Duolingo doesn't work.:

May I ask, why do you need one? Would you be interested in technical side of this phenomenon?

Yes. Was going to test it to see if I can reproduce the issue and see if I can workaround it.

That would be super. Sadly it's not within the realm of my possibilities to provide you a direct link to a suitable exercise.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Since the latest update, the app doesn't work. When I try to access lesson, whether in Spanish or Welsh, a message comes up saying it can't connect and to try to reconnect later. What is going on? I'm ready to quit.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by burnout426

In Opera (55.0.2994.44 x64 on Win 10 Pro x64 1803 17134.228) and Chrome (stable), if I start with fresh cookies, pick "get started", pick Spanish, pick casual, click "set goal", click "not now", click "start at the basics", complete the first intro and go through intro 2 https://www.duolingo.com/skill/es/Intro/2, I get a page asking me to use the mic.

Clicking the mic icon on the page in Opera does nothing. No errors in console or anything. Masking as Chrome doesn't help. Microphone is availabe in settings (3 different choices for the same microphone, tried them all with a restart). But, nothing helps.

Tried in Chrome with the same setup. Clicking the mic icon on the page pops up the notifcation asking if I want to allow access to the microphone. Allowing completes (as in, successfully adds the site as an exception), but I get a message from the site saying there's a problem accessing the microphone and it might be due to a Chrome bug. I fixed that by enabling the microphone in "start -> settings -> privacy -> microphone". That setting is only supposed to affect apps, but it was needed for Chrome. It didn't help with Opera as the button on the page still does nothing.

Tried in Firefox and completed a zillion exercises multiple times and I never got a page asking me to speak something. So, I couldn't test there. Same with Edge. But, for both of those, that was before I enabled the microphone in the Windows app settings. It was already enabled in the sound control panel. I'll have to try again later with the app setting enabled too. Edit. Still never get a microphone page in Firefox and Edge.

For Opera, I also manually added:

"https://www.duolingo.com:443,*" : {
   "last_modified" : "13180163291935854",
   "setting" : 1
}

to profile/content_settings/exceptions/media_stream_mic in the Preferences file so that the site shows up as an exception in Opera. But, that didn't help. Clicking the mic button on the page still does nothing.

Saving the page with the mic option as webpage complete or an mhtml file doesn't produce a working page to test with.

I'll try more things later. At least I got it to work in Chrome.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 Tested Opera Developer too. Same issue with the button.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by This post is deleted!

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by A Former User

Well well, go figure... Duolingo itself states that speaking exercises work only on Google Chrome.

Don't know why, seems like a strange business decision. This must be technology-related imperative.

See: https://support.duolingo.com/hc/en-us/articles/204642264?input_string=duoling+speaking+exercises+aren't+working+on+manh+browsers+on+windows

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @Guest last edited by

@sullemulle I saw that but was hoping by "Chrome" they meant Chrome and other Chromium browsers (like Opera and Vivaldi). But, it's definitely possible that Opera doesn't implement some API that Chrome does. If that's the case, it's something Opera should implement. I'm not really sure if it's something extra that Chrome implements that's not in base Chromium.

Hoping Opera already implements what's needed and it's just a simple bug Opera's implementation.

So, there's still a chance.

[A Former User]

A Former User @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 Curiously Duolingo works perfectly with Chromium on Debian.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @Guest last edited by

@sullemulle Does Opera on Linux behave any differently compared to Windows?

[A Former User]

A Former User @Guest last edited by

@sullemulle Thanks, this is answer for all my questions. It is sad that duolingo only works good in Chrome

[A Former User]

A Former User @Guest last edited by

@xillegas said in Duolingo doesn't work.:

@sullemulle Thanks, this is answer for all my questions. It is sad that duolingo only works good in Chrome

No prob, I'm glad this discussion is helpful to you.

@burnout426 said in Duolingo doesn't work.:

@sullemulle Does Opera on Linux behave any differently compared to Windows?

I'll check it out and get back to you when it's done.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

This issue has been analyzed by Opera. Duolingo uses the Web Speech API to handle microphone input. The speech-to-text engine in the Chromium source code for the Web Speech API uses a specific service on Google's servers. However, API access to the service is limited to official Chrome builds. Other builds of Chromium aren't allowed to have the access keys to use the service, which is why it breaks in Opera. To make this work, Opera would have to write their own engine that uses a different speech-to-text service (that they write and provide themselves, or one from another company that they pay to use). Or, Duolingo would have to use a different method to analyze the speech to convert it to text.