Daydream now has an available language app that users can check with ModlyVR, a virtual reality version of the Android app that launched earlier this year, but this time built specifically for Google’s VR platforms. While the experience might be better on Daydream it’s also compatible with Cardboard viewers, so if you don’t own a Daydream View headset and a compatible phone not to worry, as you can pick up a Cardboard viewer for next to nothing and it’ll work with the smartphone you already have, which makes this pretty accessible to just about anyone with a smartphone that wants to check the app out in virtual reality as opposed to trying the traditional app.
What sets Mondly’s VR version apart from traditional language apps is a mixture of things. For one, you can have conversations with others. Not other live users, but virtual representations of other people designed for the app, and because everything is in virtual reality there’s the immersion factor to consider which may actually end up helping people learn at a faster rate, or simply improve their learning capability. This wouldn’t be the first app to offer up speaking with other people in another language, but the immersion of VR is likely to make it feel more like you’re actually talking in a different language to another person standing in front of you as opposed to exchanging responses back and forth through messages. Of course it’s also worth considering that you aren’t having conversations with real people, whereas a scenario like that would afford the conversation to go any direction.
MondlyVR has a robust set of features available, such as more than 30 different languages to learn including Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, German, Spanish, French, Russian and more, and you can do things like order food at restaurants, or even meet someone on a train and strike up a conversation with them. Mondly boasts that it reduces the time for learning a new language “dramatically from months to minutes,” and while that may not be an entirely accurate representation as you won’t literally learn how to fluently speak a new language in just minutes, it will likely help you learn basic words and basic conversational points in a lot shorter of a time than other options. The app is already available on the Play Store and it currently costs $4.99, though it’s worth noting that this is an introductory price and won’t be available forever. Once October 1st rolls around, the cost will increase from $4.99 to $7.99, so those who are interested in checking this out will want to consider buying it before October.
