The beloved duolingo mascot has passed away. The famous green owl is no more.
Who would have thought? The friendly green duolingo owl mascot that represented the popular language-learning app is gone forever.
The American company behind the app, which became very popular during the COVID-19 lockdowns, has made a surprising announcement that their friendly cartoon owl has died.
Just like Twitter's blue bird, which disappeared in 2023 when Elon Musk bought the platform and renamed it X, the duolingo mascot costume wearing character seems to have met its end due to company changes.
On Tuesday, Duolingo posted on X: "We are very sad to tell you that Duo, who you knew as the Duolingo Owl, is dead."
"Officials are looking into how he died, and we are helping them. To be honest, he probably died waiting for you to complete your language lesson, but we're not sure."
Started in 2011, the Pittsburgh company offers more than 100 courses in over 40 languages through short lessons. It grew very popular during the pandemic when people had extra time and wanted to learn new languages.
Duolingo's message about Duo added: "We know many people didn't like him, but please don't write why you hated him in the comments. If you want to share something, please include your credit card details so we can sign you up for Duolingo Max (their premium service) to remember him."
Making things even more interesting, they ended by saying: "Please respect Dua Lipa's privacy during this time."
This refers to the duolingo owl mascot's love for the famous singer. Last July, Duolingo wrote on their website that the owl really liked Dua Lipa and used her song lyrics to teach English grammar.
The Tuesday announcement became very popular online, with more than 47 million people seeing it by Wednesday morning.
One person commented: “Bro spent his last days begging me to learn French… and I ignored him… I will never recover from this.”
Another person asked: “Do they suspect foul play?” (Was it murder?)
Later, Duolingo posted: "Instead of sending flowers, please do a Duolingo lesson."
The company changed its profile picture on X to show the owl with X's over its eyes and its tongue sticking out. Above their first post was what looks like a new logo showing a cowboy hat.
The app's icon now shows the dead-looking owl, but when you open the app, the owl still appears alive and well.
Duolingo told CNN in an email that they would share more information on social media Wednesday about the "surprising (and maybe silly) truth about how he died."
-----
Source: CNN/ February 12, 2025 / https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/12/tech/duolingo-owl-mascot-dead-scli-intl/index.html
0 Comments