Babbel - Language Learning

Description of App

Speak a new language with real-life conversations. Babbel is the award-winning language learning app with courses tailored to your native language, built by 200+ language experts and trusted by millions worldwide.

Because lessons are built for speakers of your language, an English speaker learning Spanish gets different lessons than a French speaker does. You learn to speak, listen, and understand grammar in context, then practice real conversations with Babbel Speak (Beta)*, an AI conversation partner that gives you personalized feedback.

Learn a new language faster with bite-sized lessons designed to fit your everyday life. With Babbel’s proven method, you could start having real conversations in as little as 3 weeks. Your language learning adventure starts with a lesson.

WHY BABBEL WORKS
• Tailored to your native language: Courses are created by language experts and tailored to your native language, so you learn naturally and efficiently.
• Real-life conversations: Learn the language people actually speak, for travel, work, and everyday life.
• Speak with confidence: Practice out loud with speech recognition and Babbel Speak, an AI conversation partner to improve your pronunciation.
• Research-proven results: Efficacy backed by researchers at Yale University: 100% improved their oral proficiency in 3 months.**

TRUSTED BY MILLIONS
• 25 million subscriptions sold
• 1.6 million 5-star ratings across platforms (based on App Store ratings)
• After 10 hours with Babbel, 96% of learners saw better test scores on grammar and vocabulary***

BUILT FOR REAL LIFE
• Short, effective lessons: Learn in as little as 10 minutes a day
• Lessons for every motivation: Learn for travel, work, or fun
• Listen, speak, write: Options for every learning style
• Stress-free conversation practice: Build confidence with Guided Conversations, then practice freely with Babbel Speak (Beta)
• Smart review system: Boosts learning and retention
• Grammar in context: Clear explanations exactly when you need them
• Offline mode: Download lessons and learn anywhere, anytime
• 5,000+ courses: Over 60,000 lessons across all languages

LEARN 14 LANGUAGES
Spanish (Latin American or Spain), French, Italian, German, Portuguese, English (American or British), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, and Indonesian.

TRY BABBEL TODAY
Download Babbel now and take a free lesson.

SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS
A subscription is required to access full courses. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Payment will be charged to your Apple account.

Available plans:
• 3 months
• 6 months
• 12 months
• Lifetime

LEARN MORE
Read Babbel Magazine for tips and insights: https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine

*Babbel Speak is in beta: functionality, quality, and availability may change or be withdrawn at any time. Babbel reserves the right to charge for this feature in the future.
**Based on a study conducted with Babbel users learning Spanish. Available at http://bit.ly/BabbelYale.
***Based on a study conducted with Babbel users learning Spanish. Available: http://bit.ly/BabbelMSU.

Version

20.17.0

Free or Paid

Free With In-App Purchase

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

12.2

Accessibility Comments

The majority of buttons and the menus are clearly labelled, it only seems to be the back buttons that aren't labelled. The problem which makes this app unuseable on iOS is that the keyboard to type in your answers isn't accessible. All the letters just announced "dimmed" and you can't double tap or move your finger around using split touch to activate them.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads most page elements.

Button Labeling

Most buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

Some parts of the app are accessible with VoiceOver, but not enough to make it usable.

Other Comments

This system is a great way to learn a language. For most languages it seems, you can get up to B1of the CEFR. It works great on Windows, with Google Chrome and NVDA, it's just a shame it's not useable on iOS. The first lesson for every language is free, and then you have to pay. It provides realistic dialogues with lots of vocabulary, translation and filling in the blanks exercises, and flashcards. There is also the ability to speak into the microphone to test your pronunciation, this works on iOS and on Windows. I like the fact you have to complete exercises as you're going through each lesson, I think it helps to reenforce things better than listening to a podcast and reading notes. I love Pod101 but Babbel definitely has its place too.

App Store Link

https://apps.apple.com/app/id829587759

Developer's Website

http://www.babbel.com/

Options

Comments

Keyboard Issue and Accessibility Update?

I was wondering if using a bluetooth keyboard with this app would make that part usable.

Also, how is this app doing as far as accessibility nowadays?

January 20201

I looked at Babbel maybe 3 months ago. At that point, it was so inaccessible it was not even possible to login without some serious hacks. The website is more usable, while I tested the website with Windows, I don't see any reason the experience wouldn't be about the same with Safari. It isn't ideal, but more usable than the iOS app with the biggest issue a lot of complete the blank sentences where the field is not labelled so you have to spend a lot of time reading the sentence, determining where the blank is supposed to be, so you can then figure out the language you're trying to learn.

Why I I Have To Ask

I have to ask what I think is a relevant question. Why is this app even listed here if it isn’t very accessible? This website is here for the blind community to find accessible apps to use.

Reasons for knowing about inaccessible apps

It's nearly as important to know what app's aren't accessible, as this can save wasted time and money. It can help with drawing developers attention to accessibility issues, and also provide a means of tracking an app's level of accessibility over time.