Is My Language Exchange free? Yes, with one real catch
My Language Exchange is free to join and to reply, but only Gold members can start a conversation. What free gets you, what Gold costs, and the alternatives.
Yes, My Language Exchange is free to join, and a free account is enough to use it, but there is one catch that matters. On a free account you can make a profile, say hi, receive messages and reply to them, and text chat with Gold members who contact you first. What you cannot do for free is start an email conversation with another member, or start a voice chat. That is what the paid Gold membership is for. So free works if people find you. If you want to be the one reaching out, you will probably end up paying.
Below is exactly what free and Gold get you, what Gold costs, and where else you can practise a language by talking to people.
What the free account does
I read through the site's own members FAQ before writing this, because the details are the whole question. According to that FAQ, a free member can:
- create a profile
- say hi to other members
- receive messages and reply to them
- reply to Gold members who contact you first
- text chat, without a limit, with Gold members who start the chat
And a free member cannot:
- start an email conversation with another member
- start a voice chat
That shape matters more than it looks. The site is built around finding a partner: someone who speaks the language you are learning and wants to learn yours. On a free account, you are waiting to be found. If you are learning a language a lot of people want, say English or Spanish, people may well find you. If your native language is less in demand, you could wait a while.
What Gold costs
At the time of writing, the FAQ lists three Gold plans:
- one month for US$5.99
- three months for US$11.99
- twelve months for US$23.99
Those are the site's own numbers. Prices change, so check the members FAQ before you pay. The site also says it gives short free Gold memberships to people who are among the first to report a real bug, ten days for a written report and a month if you back it up with screenshots or a video. It is a nice touch, but it is not a plan you can count on.
My opinion: if you are serious about finding one steady partner, a few months of Gold is cheap compared to a class. If you just want to try the idea, stay on free for a week, fill in your profile properly, and see who writes to you.
Is it worth it at all
My Language Exchange has been around for a long time, and it feels like it. The design is old. For some people that is a feature: it is plain, it is about finding a partner and writing to them, and it does not try to turn learning into a game.
What it does well is the partner model. One person who speaks your target language, one person who wants yours, and you take turns. That is still one of the best ways to actually speak a language instead of studying it.
What it does less well is anything live and casual. It is built for arranged pairs, not for dropping into a room where people are already talking.
Other ways to practise by talking
Language exchange is not one site. It is a habit, and there are a few places it can happen.
Other partner apps
There are several newer language exchange apps that do the same partner-matching idea on your phone. Each has its own rules on what is free, and those rules change, so I am not going to list prices I have not checked. Read their free-versus-paid page before you invest time in a profile.
Rooms around a language
The thing I kept wanting when I was practising my own languages was simply a room full of people talking in them. No partner to arrange, no schedule. You listen for a while, then you say something, badly, and somebody answers.
That is part of why I built Hashti. It has public rooms with names and topics, so a room can be about a language, a country, a city, a TV show, anything. You can listen in, type, or talk in a voice room, then move into a private chat, a call or a walkie-talkie with someone you get along with. All of that is free.
I am Armenian-Iranian and I live in Los Angeles. I grew up switching between Armenian, Farsi and English, sometimes in one sentence. The rooms I remember learning the most in were never lessons. They were just people.
Live translation, for the moments you are stuck
Hashti Plus adds live translation across 29 languages. It is $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year, and it is the only paid part of Hashti. Everything else is free.
I want to be honest about what translation is and is not for, because it can work against you if you are learning. If you run every message through a translator, you are not practising. Where it helps is the gap between languages: you are talking to someone whose language you barely know, you get stuck, and instead of the conversation dying, it keeps going. I use it that way. It is a safety net, not a substitute.
Who is on the other side
Language exchange is talking to strangers, and the same basic care applies. Use a first name at the start. Do not move to your personal number too quickly. Never send money or codes to someone you met online.
On Hashti, identity is checked once against a government document. The photo is deleted after the check and a fingerprint stays, so the same document cannot open a second account. Accounts that are not verified cannot host rooms, speak in voice rooms or message strangers, and twelve verified reports closes an account for good. You can read how Hashti's safety rules work. Hashti is 18+, and it is a place for conversation, not dating.
Hashti's limits, plainly
Hashti is not a language school. There are no lessons, no streaks, no grammar drills. If you want structure, a course or a partner site is the better choice.
It is also early. The app is out now on the App Store. Android is in its closed test, so Android users cannot join yet. And the app's own interface is in English today. A Farsi version is being built.
So, should you use My Language Exchange
If you want one steady partner and you do not mind an old-fashioned site, yes. Start free, fill in your profile well, and see who finds you. If you want to start conversations yourself, Gold is the price of that, and it is not expensive.
If what you really want is to be around a language, to hear it and fumble in it with other adults who are doing the same thing, try a room. Many people end up doing both: a partner for the slow, careful practice, and a room for the part where you just have to talk.
Hashti is free, and it is 18+. Hashti Plus — live translation, writing help and catch-ups — is $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year, and nothing else costs anything. How rooms work is on the rooms page, and how reports and the ID check work is on the safety page.