The core product sounds
Duolingo · InteractiveThe sounds that 50M+ million learners hear every day.
Sound design & musicMost-heard
App opener
The sound that plays every time the app opens.
The most heard sound in the app
The ones a committed learner hears constantly. Both built off of the iconic correct answer sound
WaBing
Duo’s voice. The five-in-a-row celebration.
Heard by 100M+ learners, in 40 languages
Lightning combos ⚡️
The lightning sounds are a single family designed to escalate: a clean hit for a 5x combo, building to 10x combos and a peak at a “perfect lesson”. One musical and sonic idea, three levels of reward.
Combo x5
Combo x10
Perfect Lesson
As the app grew, so did the system. A consistent sonic language extended to every major mechanic, old and new.
Across the app
Buff Duo WaBing
Streak · Milestone
Buff Duo appears on any ten-in-a-row: common, so it can never wear out. A milestone streak lands a few times a year. It’s rare, so it has to feel enormous. Same system, opposite tasks.
Other hero momentsStreak · Classic
Streak · Perfect
Streak · Thaw
Flashcard Frenzy
Session End Stats
Leaderboard
Not everything survives the product. Spree shipped at the end of 2025 and got pulled. Rewards Cards shipped in early 2026 and got pulled. The learning-path music went out to a test batch of devices and stopped there — the first time music ever ran on the main learning path, heard by a few thousand people and then nobody.
RIP
The sounds that shipped and didn’t stick around
Music on Learning Path
The most fun experiment of the bunch. Duolingo wanted to add music to the main Learning Path for the first time in the app’s history so they reached out to me to create something memorable, ownable, delightful and a little bit absurd.
Here are some of the unreleased music tracks
Exploration A
Exploration C
Rewards Cards
A new experimental mechanic for awarding XP boosts and extra earned XP. It was tried and tested for a short time. Here are some of the fun sounds made in the process.
Reveal A
Reveal B
Reveal C
Daily Spree
An exploration of a shortlived mechanic that rewarded learners who completed 3 or more lessons in a single day. Meant to feel friendly, organic and not overshadow the full lesson end flow. Escalating from L1, L2 to L3 / complete.
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Across the Duolingo family
The work extends beyond the main app.
Music App Ramp-up for perfect combos. Four levels of ramp up and one perfect lesson ending