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Luis Von Ahn

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
See mentions of this person in podcasts
1443 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

Yeah, it's a good point. I mean, well, first of all, math and music are about to be available on Android, or by the time this airs, they will be available on Android. So we are about a year behind on Android. The reality is this has been true on Duolingo almost since the beginning. Android has been... six months to a year behind iOS.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

There's a number of reasons for that, but probably the biggest one is actually it has been harder to find really good Android developers when compared to iOS developers. There's just more really good iOS developers. So we have more of them at Duolingo. So the way we work is... Most new features, we experiment them on iOS. Because a new feature is usually not that great off the bat.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

There's a number of reasons for that, but probably the biggest one is actually it has been harder to find really good Android developers when compared to iOS developers. There's just more really good iOS developers. So we have more of them at Duolingo. So the way we work is... Most new features, we experiment them on iOS. Because a new feature is usually not that great off the bat.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

There's a number of reasons for that, but probably the biggest one is actually it has been harder to find really good Android developers when compared to iOS developers. There's just more really good iOS developers. So we have more of them at Duolingo. So the way we work is... Most new features, we experiment them on iOS. Because a new feature is usually not that great off the bat.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

You usually kind of have to do trial and error and stuff and try to make it better. By the time it's good, we port it to Android. That's kind of how we operate. So we understand the importance of Android. You are right. There's more people with Android phones than iPhones. But we feel like it's OK that we're six months behind. Generally, all features are going to make it to Android.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

You usually kind of have to do trial and error and stuff and try to make it better. By the time it's good, we port it to Android. That's kind of how we operate. So we understand the importance of Android. You are right. There's more people with Android phones than iPhones. But we feel like it's OK that we're six months behind. Generally, all features are going to make it to Android.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

You usually kind of have to do trial and error and stuff and try to make it better. By the time it's good, we port it to Android. That's kind of how we operate. So we understand the importance of Android. You are right. There's more people with Android phones than iPhones. But we feel like it's OK that we're six months behind. Generally, all features are going to make it to Android.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

It's just six months behind. And we feel OK about that. It turns out to be easier to develop on iOS for a number of reasons, not just that there's more developers. So that's it. We're just ahead. In retrospect, given the technology that there is today, maybe we would be doing something that is cross-platform, where we develop on both platforms at the same time.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

It's just six months behind. And we feel OK about that. It turns out to be easier to develop on iOS for a number of reasons, not just that there's more developers. So that's it. We're just ahead. In retrospect, given the technology that there is today, maybe we would be doing something that is cross-platform, where we develop on both platforms at the same time.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

It's just six months behind. And we feel OK about that. It turns out to be easier to develop on iOS for a number of reasons, not just that there's more developers. So that's it. We're just ahead. In retrospect, given the technology that there is today, maybe we would be doing something that is cross-platform, where we develop on both platforms at the same time.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

But we're locked into being native on both. And so our apps are native. We have a native app for iPhones, and we have a native app for Android phones. And that was the best thing we could do, you know, whatever, 10 years ago. And we're locked into that.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

But we're locked into being native on both. And so our apps are native. We have a native app for iPhones, and we have a native app for Android phones. And that was the best thing we could do, you know, whatever, 10 years ago. And we're locked into that.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

But we're locked into being native on both. And so our apps are native. We have a native app for iPhones, and we have a native app for Android phones. And that was the best thing we could do, you know, whatever, 10 years ago. And we're locked into that.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

It is, and we don't have one huge project where we're going to stop all development and be like, you know what, we're going to now be single platform kind of thing. But we are slowly getting there. I don't know how long it'll take. The hard part with this is, you are right, if we were to start from scratch right now, the decision would be clear. But you also have to keep the plane going.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

It is, and we don't have one huge project where we're going to stop all development and be like, you know what, we're going to now be single platform kind of thing. But we are slowly getting there. I don't know how long it'll take. The hard part with this is, you are right, if we were to start from scratch right now, the decision would be clear. But you also have to keep the plane going.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

It is, and we don't have one huge project where we're going to stop all development and be like, you know what, we're going to now be single platform kind of thing. But we are slowly getting there. I don't know how long it'll take. The hard part with this is, you are right, if we were to start from scratch right now, the decision would be clear. But you also have to keep the plane going.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

And it is such a big investment to do this that we will probably have to stop all development for, I don't know, a year and a half or something. I don't even know the timeline because it's just so big. So far, we have decided to do this piecemeal rather than all at once.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

And it is such a big investment to do this that we will probably have to stop all development for, I don't know, a year and a half or something. I don't even know the timeline because it's just so big. So far, we have decided to do this piecemeal rather than all at once.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

And it is such a big investment to do this that we will probably have to stop all development for, I don't know, a year and a half or something. I don't even know the timeline because it's just so big. So far, we have decided to do this piecemeal rather than all at once.

Decoder with Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

Literally, like, you know, in the last few days.