I’ve been using this app for many years. I wanted to learn Japanese around 2018 and I started using this app around 2019. There was a lot of words and phrases I was able to learn with the help of many Japanese people on this app while at the same time, teaching English to other users of the app. I’d say this is probably one of the best apps to use when learning another language & I highly recommend it! I’ll close this by saying to those who are wanting to learn other languages like me, good luck to all of you!

This app is genuinely helpful but im writing a 1 star review due to the ai slop they integrated as part of the “premium” subscription. Every time you ask a question you get a huge wall of AI garbage thats usually wrong, before any real person can reply. The other features are useful but you really think people wanna pay for something that only worsens the experience? I dont even remember being told that was part of the subscription when they added it. Absolutely delusional behavior.

The app literally won’t let you use their platform without signing for a “free” membership trial first; which is really just a way for them to get you to sign up for their subscription service hoping you forget about it before the free trial is finished so they can bill you. Sure you can “cancel anytime” as they advertise but I don’t see why I should be FORCED to sign up for their subscription plan in the first place. There should be a button that allows me to bypass signing up for their subscription service but, to my knowledge, no such button exists.

HiNative is a great way to learn about language and culture through our peers around the world. Even if you don't have any questions to ask others for an extended period of time, or you aren't even learning a language, this app can be a great way to learn about things you never would have know about otherwise. Not to mention you can meet interesting people through it as well.(I live in the U.S, and the other day I talked with someone in South Korea through HiNative which I thought that was pretty cool).There are two things I'm not crazy about with this app. One, is that you are unable to hear other people's vocal answers to questions that are not your own, unless you pay money for the app. (I mean, language is a spoken thing, c'mon). The second thing I don't necessarily like is that HiNative has an annoying habit of sending notifications at night while I'm trying to sleep. You can just turn off notifications for that, but then I don't get the occasional interesting question from the app. They just need a better idea of time zones for they're users I think.

I love this idea, and I think it's been very well thought out and implemented. I have a few suggestions for the developers though. I teach esl English - I have a passion for the language and for helping others. I actually found this app addictive, it felt really satisfying to help people express themselves well in English. But in the end I had to give it up, because with all my other duties, I couldn't justify the amount of time I was spending on it. Perhaps there could be some small monetary compensation for people who have proven themselves to be in the top, say, 0.1% of that particular language. That would improve the quality of the whole app, if people like that could be more motivated to spend time on it. Also, perhaps there could be a friendly "strike" system for those who are labeled "highly rated" , say, if they get 3 or 5 disagreements then an actual person could look through their answers and see if they still deserve that title.

So I haven’t actually asked anything on here yet, but I have tried to answer a few of the questions for English myself since on studying a few languages I do know a fair bit about grammar and how to point out and explain things. What I’ve noticed immediately is others who claim to be native level may not actually know what they’re talking about or give accurate solutions. Yes, English can be hard, but the amount of errors that can be spotted in “native” level solutions makes me hesitant to ever ask anything in another language on here.Yes, English is my native language and there are things that I second guess myself on constantly (it doesn’t help that I’m dyslexic) but giving somebody just starting out a solution not only riddled with errors but also with WRONG information as to why it’s done that way can set them back YEARS in learning (I know that can sound hyperbolic, but it’s true in many cases) I’ve seen SO much of this littered in this app. I really don’t trust it, and the fact that I see so many people suggest using it is just disheartening.