Introducing the First Augmented Reality Language App with Speech Recognition

Today, we are thrilled to announce the arrival of the AR module in Mondly – the first Augmented Reality experience in the world that uses speech recognition to help you learn languages.

The innovative learning app introduces you to a virtual character that will guide you through a new world where interactive objects with spectacular appearances make learning happen naturally. Powered by chatbot technology, the virtual teacher takes learning a step further by engaging you in conversations, giving instant feedback on pronunciation.

To create the experience, we worked in close collaboration with Google for the past 6 months.

Here’s a video showcasing Mondly AR:

We take learning out of the books and bring it to life into your living room using augmented reality

The new experience we created helps you develop a strong sense of the language you want to learn through highly realistic visual lessons and purposeful conversations. This approach is aiming to stimulate you to learn languages not because you have to, but because it’s genuinely fun.

Mondly, the lifelike language learning assistant uses augmented reality to bring language lessons to life. She has the ability to make planets, animals and musical instruments magically appear into your own environment, creating a scenery where you can walk up and around these virtual creations and even interact with them. This spatial interaction creates a truly immersive experience which was made possible using the latest augmented reality technologies such as ARCore from Google.

Just as futuristic, the chatbot experience from Mondly aims to be the closest thing to a real interaction. Mondly understands spoken language, replies with a human voice, changes her outfit to match the topic of discussion and uses gestures and facial expressions to create dynamic dialogues.

Alex Iliescu, our CEO, spoke about the launch:

We started working on Mondly AR in August 2017 and by the time Blade Runner 2049 was released, we already had a working demo. Watching Blade Runner 2049 made me realize that we were beginning to build the future. To me, Joi (the holographic companion of officer K) looked like a super advanced version of Mondly – the character we were creating. They can both understand speech, reply with a human voice and change outfits. Of course, Mondly is not as smart and realistic as Joi. Yet. But she can teach you 7 languages. And this is just the beginning.

Here’s what you should know about Mondly AR:

• Is available on Google Play
• Offers 10 lessons and 3 chatbots
• Uses Google ARCore
• Teaches 7 languages: American English, British English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), German
• By the next update, it aims to teach up to 30 languages in augmented reality
• The free version offers 2 lessons and 1 chatbot
• The full Mondly experience (AR module and main app) is available for $9.99 per month or $47.99 per year

Facts and figures about Mondly:

• 30 million downloads, in over 190 countries
• Teaches 33 languages
• 4.7/5 star rating in the App Store and Google Play from more than 700,000 customer reviews
• Was chosen as “Editors’ Choice” by Google Play in late 2017
• Won Facebook’s FbStart “App of the Year” in EMEA
• Mondly Kids is also “Editors’ Choice” and was named “Best of 2017” on Google Play
• Launched the first voice-enabled chatbot with speech recognition for language learning in the world in August 2016
• Launched Mondly VR, the first Virtual Reality language app with speech recognition in the world in February 2017
• Available on iPhone, iPad, Android and Web
• Mondly Press Kit

Media mentions about Mondly:

• INC.com – “The New Way to Learn Languages”
• Bloomberg.com – “The closest thing to Classroom Education”
• Forbes.com – “A practical approach to language learning likely to be widely adopted.”
• Digital Trends – “The Mondly experience leverages the immersive quality of VR”
• TheNextWeb.com – “The Closest Thing to Actual Immersion”
• Huffington Post – “Virtual reality the new and sexier way to learn languages”
• VentureBeat – “A lot more fun and easy than just reading flashcards”

Press release originally published on PR Newswire on March 19, 2018.