I only used the app in the beginning of my language learning with English, so 6 years ago, but the learning was artificial, making you feel good about making no progress, and I was doing the hardest mode they had with 30 experience or something daily. I switched onto real methods of learning such as immersion and Anki later on, which is when I really learned a number of languages. The gamification is fine, but it should be combined with real progress. As an alternative point, Duolingo is fine to start with as in following the paradigm of "starting small", however has to be abandoned shortly after.