Language app Duolingo is teaming up with Angry Birds
Looks a hoot.
I'm almost at a 100-day streak on Duolingo, even though I feel bugged by the app's notifications into keeping going. I guess that's sort of the point? The game-ified language learning app makes things just fun enough - but it is still learning, and sometimes I'll need that nudge.
It'll get to 10pm and I know that I still need to finish a couple of lessons before midnight. I could skip a day, sure, though I'll use up valuable currency on a streak saver. And there's always the next achievement or leaderboard place to go chase.
Duolingo's constant nagging to keep going is theme of today's video - which sees the app's friendly owl mascot becoming ever more zealous and threatening as he interrupts a user's evening in the pub to make him play.
The point of all this is to advertise the app's new and frankly bizarre crossover with Angry Birds, which will see Duo's friendly encouragement between lessons replaced by Angry Birds-infused "humorous dialogue". Ads in Duolingo's free version will be replaced by Angry Birds trailers, while Duo himself will appear in Angry Birds 2 to be flung at your enemies.
Like most things to do with Angry Birds' brand crossovers, this is a very odd thing to see. It follows in the footsteps of previous very odd Angry Birds collaborations such as with Everton FC and the late Ayrton Senna.