Is it okay? Is it utterly useless?
#What is your opinion on duolingo?
fluid lily
oak fern
faq Duolingo in #botchannel
wild creek
Bad program, no grammar explained, try busuu or mondly.
oak fern
A better approach would be to get a book like Schritte or Aspekte (from Hueber) and use the app that comes with it. You're primarily working out of the book, but the app provides you with the additional video and audio content.
FWIW, if I'm not mistaken, something less than like .3% of people finish their Duolingo tree. I used it for multiple hours per day for a bit over a month and made some serious progress in the Duolingo tree, but shortly thereafter I found that it truly wasn't a meaningful and productive way to spend my time learning german, especially in light of my goal to reach C1 or higher.
I do personally know people who have been using Duolingo for years and have crazy streaks. However, their language skills are nowhere near where mine are in german (and I've been learning german for a significantly shorter period of time); Duolingo alone does not provide the capacity to actually master a language.
I think for some it's just a fun app/game to play (agnostic to the sentiment of actually mastering a target language) and that is quite alright; I would say simply say Duolingo is not for language learners who are more serious about their goals.