Duolingo Used iPhone's Dynamic Island to Display Ads, Violating Apple Design Guidelines

Language learning app Duolingo has apparently been using the iPhone's Live Activity feature to display ads on the Lock Screen and the Dynamic Island, which violates Apple's design guidelines.

duolingo ad live activity
According to multiple reports on Reddit, the Duolingo app has been displaying an ad for a "Super offer," which is Duolingo's paid subscription option.

Apple's guidelines for Live Activity state that the feature cannot be used to display ads or promotions. From Apple's developer website:

Don't use a Live Activity to display ads or promotions. Live Activities help people stay informed about ongoing events and tasks, so it's important to display only information that's related to those events and tasks.

Apps that violate Apple's interface guidelines can be pulled from the App Store.

We were not able to replicate the Live Activity ad, so it's possible that Duolingo stopped displaying it after user complaints.

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Top Rated Comments

macduke Avatar
6 weeks ago
Duolingo is literally the worst. Uninstalled a long time ago.
Score: 61 Votes (Like | Disagree)
6 weeks ago
Let me guess what happens next, a company is going to sue Apple for not letting them display ads via the Dynamic Island in 2026 and the courts will rule in their favor. Seems to be the way things are going lately...
Score: 56 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mitthrawnuruodo Avatar
6 weeks ago
Makes me all the more convinced I did the right thing when I quit Duolingo back in June...
Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)
6 weeks ago
In protest, I am gonna stick to speaking one language real good.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tomtad Avatar
6 weeks ago
Pretty simple. You remove the app from availability.

Period

Would hopefully highlight how terrible this app is as well
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
richard4339 Avatar
6 weeks ago
My dream is that Apple will change the notification API to require a category for every notification, and our notification options become more granular per app per category. I can only dream though, I can’t imagine them wanting to protect us in that manner anymore.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)