There are hundreds of language learning apps out there, but if you look for recommendations online, you'll see a lot of people bashing language learning apps as whole. That's because they all suffer from the same problems.

They are ineffective. Apps like Duolingo, Babbel, and Rosetta stone have a very low proficiency ceiling. They focus so much on making content that is applicable and achievable to everyone, they end up teaching content useful to no one. You can spend years on these apps and never progress passed beginner.

They are exhausting. Apps like Anki, Memrise, and Quizlet do work but require you to contort yourself and your language to their whim. You have to do all your own research, learning, lookups, design, explanation, structuring, and management. You end up creating tens of thousands of small, atomic cards resulting in flashcard overwhelm or the dreaded 'Anki slog'. They're not enjoyable to use; in fact they're downright user hostile at times.

They are demanding. Apps like LingQ and LingoPie offer ways to 'learn via native content'. I've always found these to be inherently draining to use, as they attempt to turn passive activities (like reading and watching TV) into active study. They require you to want to both sit down and study, and sit back and enjoy, at the same time. I'd much prefer an app for active study that requires no mental commitment to use, that will then enable me to do passive activities separately in my leisure time.

They are ugly. Learning a language takes hundreds, if not thousands of hours, over the course of years. Any app you use, you're going to have to look at for hundreds or thousands of hours. Each one of those hours, dozens of apps are competing for your attention. Why settle for anything less than visually stunning?

They aren't multilingual. Most apps only offer the same major languages. Those that do offer multiple languages separate them entirely, doubling the amount of work you have to do to study multiple languages. A truly multilingual app should function the same whether I'm learning one language, or learning and maintaining several.

None of these have to be the case. Phrasing was designed from day one to be multilingual, beautiful, simple to pickup, stress-free to use, and capable of taking you to fluency — and beyond.