Not much to say, really. I like it. It took me about 15 minutes to get used most to the changes. There’s minor issues that aren’t a major obstacle to me getting my learning done that I’m sure the team will attend to (the elsewhere already mentioned 110 minimum coins for some languages, 50 for others and LingQ picking/creation a little cumbersome).
I’ve already been a bit familiar with some changes on iOS, which also took me about 15 minutes to get used to there.
I particularly like the daily goals changing to coins instead of new LingQs and the new dark mode.
For me it represents a significant step forward and with some polishing, even if it doesn’t take LingQ to a new level I’m sure I’ll feel comfortable enough to continue using on a daily basis together with Clozemaster.
IMO if you’re having trouble, from what I can see around the forum, make sure you update your bookmarks to pages that aren’t broken, consider zoom levels (with Ctrl+ and Ctrl-), I used to zoom out a bit, but now 100% is a-OK and try dark mode instead of light mode or vice versa.
Thanks for the new LingQ and I think it’ll be at least a somewhat more effective tool than the previous version for me at least.
I started on the Beta (web and android) just a few weeks before the full launch and that really helped me get used to the various changes in layout and how to work with the new functionalities. I did struggle a bit at first.
I agree with some feedback on threads that there are a few things yet to iron out or fine tune, but overall I am very pleased with the innovative step forward and feel it is a good foundation to build on going forward.
There was bound to be some heat on the actual full release / changeover to v5.0, but I liken this to previous updates on other major platforms where one can lose favourite or familiar ways to work, but these are often forgotten when one gets used to a new system.
I like the new version a lot. However, I liked straight away the iOS version, even more in the iPad Pro but it took me a little bit more time to get used to the Web version. (unfortunately I use Firefox for language studies and apparently is the buggiest).
I’ve decided to use the beta version before and step by step learnt to use only the beta because I knew the change was imminent.
I’m sure than in 1 week time most of people will get used to it.
The reading was easier on the 4.0, probably depending on the monitor resolution but it was more difficult to find the right font. I had to search and change for a while because there wasn’t the same than in the 4.0. Some of the sidebars are still tiny but I’m sure step by step they’ll get fixed. Maybe this is harder for people that have glasses, I don’t know, but as few people have mentioned this there has to be something about it.
There are a few things to fix yet but what we should do is just to open posts for 1 problem at a time instead of saying 10 different things together. It would be easier for the developers to understand different problems and to fix them.
Anyway, this is a major improvement and amongst the things I like the most there are:
vocabulary preview of the entire lesson, possibility to ignore words before reading,
playlist organization in different folders,
cleaner interface,
coins daily targets instead of LingQs,
library with different topics to choose from.
overall feeling on studying, searching things and learn.
Really enjoying it so far. It eliminates almost all of my complaints with LingQ (the cartoonish feel, the old color scheme, etc.) It is now sleek, modern, and much more pleasurable to stare at all day.
Is there a place to report bugs though? Two I have encountered: About 25% of the time it it will not let me click to the next page of my reading and I have to hit refresh before it will let me go forward. Once I even got an error and the page didn’t load but I forgot to write it down.
Also when importing a YouTube video if you use “sentence view” the video will show, but if you use the page reader the video is absent. Not a huge deal but when browsing new content I like to pull up the video on a separate screen and watch it while using the page view. So in order to do this now I have to hit sentence view, click the YouTube link, then go back to page view. There could be a cleaner way to go about it.
I struggled in the beginning, and there are some bugs and things that could be better. But honestly the reader is a big step forward compared to the old one.
I love the new interface! So happy it was updated. I find myself wanting to spend more time here. It especially works much better than it used to on mobile and on my tablet.
To be honest, whenever it comes to updates or new versions of products, you cannot please everyone. Change never goes down well at first and it always takes people time to accustom. It definitely took me time to adapt to the new version of Lingq and was quite awkward to get accustomed to at first. I came to realise part of the problem was that the new version doesn’t work well on Firefox, but seems to work a lot better on Chrome. As I get used to it, it will become easier to navigate.
Amusingly, an unintended side effect of the new changes is that is has made the community forum more active than I have ever seen it!
You can always make a new post in the support forum if you have something you would like to report. Thanks for mentioning the next page bug, we are aware and working on fixing it.
I’ll mention what you said about the video showing in the lesson.
I love 5.0. My only complaint is the fractional reading and listening counts (e.g. one an article and immediately it says read 0.2x, or listen twice and it says listened 2.4x, etc.) but I know this is being addressed. That being said, having a function for counting partial reading and listening could be helpul (for example, if you listen to only 5 of 10 minutes, it should count as 0.5x). Everything else is much better. I especially love the daily streak/goal being based on coins, including reading counts and listening time. As a somewhat advanced learner, it was getting tedious focusing on creating new LingQs.
First off, I do like the new cleaner look.
But, the real winner in this update is the new library system. Now that I’ve figured out (with the help of Zoran and Sahra from LingQ) how to place shared lessons / courses on the relevant shelves, I can see how this will make finding content in the library so much easier. Previously a lot of good content was buried in the depths of the library. I hope that other people, who have graciously shared content, will adapt their tags to facilitate this new functionality. Also the search functionality seems to have improved, finding lessons by tags works beautifully.
Yesterday It was a disaster but with a little bit tweaking with interface setting today I felt overall better and infact I ended up reading more without tiring my eyes out. There should be a tutorial to derive more value out of reader settings and how to search for courses and other little issues of language learners.Hopoefully, there will be a youtube video on LingQ channel.
I had a lot of issues finding things earlier in the beta (web), but things evolved and I hope that they’re easier to find now; it’s hard to tell now that I’m used to it, things seem obvious after you know them. Anyway, I found how to find and use what I need and now am quite comfortable using the new web interface. I hope that everyone can get oriented and on their way without too much trouble. The Android app is a big improvement IMO.
Edit: I also meant to mention that, as I understand it, much work was done on the back end in order to lay the groundword for future improvements and new features. So hopefully there are good things to look forward to in the future, too.
Just wanted to voice my support for LingQ 5.0 as well. I saw the “negative” post first which kind of threw me for a loop as I mostly have had a very positive experience with the web app (and the android and iOS apps as well). I started in the beta on all of them and there were definitely some growing pains during that time, but most of the issues that I had personally were resolved and the apps all got much better over time and I think definitely are an improvement over the old…and I was skeptical at first after first impressions in beta.
Hopefully for those who are having issues, their needs can be met, but also as someone pointed out, you can’t please everyone. I think once many of them spend a little bit of time with the new apps they’ll get into a new groove and realize they are an improvement in many ways.
No doubt there are still things to be addressed. I think I have a couple of things still on my list to be resolved. I do have ways around them so these may just need to follow a new “flow” as well. During beta, the team was very responsive and made tons of improvements and hopefully that will continue.
Whilst I posted on the ‘hate thread’ yesterday, lol…it was almost a knee-jerk reaction after logging in yesterday evening to be met with the new version for the 1st time
I’m a bit of a technophobe, and it took me all of 5-6 weeks to get used to LingQ v4 - I know terrible right!?
I’m 100% not a ‘hater’ if anything I’m a ‘LingQ-fanatic’…so much to that I commissioned one of my employees in Kenya to complete the Swahili Mini Stories (21-60) that I’ll be handing over to Zoran tomorrow!
I guess I’ll just have to get used to v5 over the coming week or 2…no doubt I’ll love it when I get used to it.
Just one thing…an intro video showing how to carry out the the basic functions in the new version…importing, using the new library + reader - would have been most welcome for ‘Philistines’ like myself!
Arrow navigation works for me. I use the keyboard almost exclusively. What browser are you using? I recommend you contact support to figure out what is going wrong. Hope they can fix it because using LingQ with a mouse is a pain!
I love the dark mode, and just noticed that closing the side bar makes the LingQs have a pop up window which is super cool. I even like the daily goals switch from LingQs to coins.
My issues last night were the bugs that made this site unusable (the text to speech / keyboard shortcuts / lag / page turning issue). I’m addicted to this site, and I’ve been using it daily for hours so when it was broken, I was in withdrawal lol.
(The bugs have gotten fixed / are getting fixed. I’m just at a really good part of my book that is not translated in English, so there is no way for me to know what’s going to happen without using this website.)
I’m just loving the iPad/iPhone versions, especially the news feed and ability to autogenerate TTS–a major upgrade for languages that don’t have a lot of content.
I’ve been using LingQ for around 6 years or so. This version from first glance looks to be the most elegant and clean. I remember v3.0 or v4.0 it was clunky, buggy, and too flashy for what it was attempting to do.
If it’s intuitive to use, cleaner than the original version, organized, and allows you to find new content easily, I’m all for it.
