Two controls, two different jobs
If your goal is simply less social pressure while you keep learning, you are not choosing between “social” and “private.” Duolingo exposes two separate controls that affect different parts of the experience.
- In-app Preferences control friend-driven features: Friends Quests and Friend Streaks can be turned off there.
- Web Privacy settings control profile visibility: turning off Make my profile public makes your profile invisible to other users and removes it from Leaderboards.
Duolingo lets learners turn off Friends Quests and Friend Streaks in app Preferences. Source
On the web, turning off Make my profile public under Privacy settings makes the profile invisible to other users and removes it from Leaderboards. Source
The wording matters. The app control is about specific features; the web control is about how your profile appears to others. They are not interchangeable, and neither is described as a general “hide everything” switch.
Decide by the feature you want to keep
Start from what you want to retain, not from what you want to hide. The table below maps a desired outcome to the control that matches it and the trade-off you accept. It reflects the reviewed platform claims only; it is not a record of a test we ran.
| What you want | Control to use | Where it lives | Trade-off to accept |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stop friend quest and streak pressure but stay competitive on Leaderboards | Turn off Friends Quests and Friend Streaks | App Preferences | You keep a public-facing profile and Leaderboard presence |
| Keep friend features but stop other users from viewing your profile | Turn off Make my profile public | Web Privacy settings | Your profile is removed from Leaderboards |
| Reduce social exposure as much as these two controls allow | Turn off both, if you want neither friend features nor a visible profile | App Preferences and web Privacy settings | You lose both friend-driven features and Leaderboard participation |
| Keep everything as it is | Change nothing | — | Full current social experience |
A few honest limits sit around this table:
- “Private” here means profile visibility on Duolingo, not invisibility everywhere. The reviewed claim covers other users on the platform and Leaderboards. It does not establish what happens on linked services, search engines or any other site.
- These controls are not data deletion. Turning off a feature or hiding a profile is not described as deleting stored learning data, and you should not treat it as an erasure request.
- The two controls live in different places. One is in the app, the other on the web. If you only look in one place, you may conclude a control does not exist.
- Exact menu paths beyond the named settings are not established here. The reviewed facts name Preferences, Privacy settings and the Make my profile public toggle. If your version of the app or site labels things differently, treat the label difference as unverified rather than assuming a new setting.
A checklist you can run yourself
This is a proposed reader checklist, not a test we performed. It is ordered so that you decide before you change anything.
- Write down the features you want to keep. For example: Leaderboards, Friends Quests, Friend Streaks, or none of them.
- If you want to keep Leaderboards but drop friend pressure, open the app’s Preferences and turn off Friends Quests and Friend Streaks.
- If you want other users not to see your profile, sign in on the web, open Privacy settings, and turn off Make my profile public. Expect to leave Leaderboards as a result.
- If you want both changes, make them in their respective places and then check each one separately, because one control does not imply the other.
- Re-check after any app or site update. Settings can move or be relabelled; confirm the toggle state rather than assuming it stuck.
Failure paths to expect
- You turned off friend features but people can still see your profile. That is consistent with the claims: the Preferences control covers Friends Quests and Friend Streaks, not profile visibility.
- You hid your profile and lost Leaderboards. That is the stated trade-off, not a bug you need to reverse.
- You cannot find a setting. The reviewed facts do not document every menu path or every platform version. Note what you see and avoid guessing at controls that are not named here.
- You want your data gone. These controls are not described as deletion tools. Use the platform’s own account and data processes rather than assuming a privacy toggle covers it.
Where TraceSeek fits, and where it does not
TraceSeek is a separate public-username lookup app. It searches publicly accessible profile candidates across 3,000+ platforms using a supplied username, with a documented free first scan and a stated 20–30 second scan time. It cannot change your Duolingo settings, recover a private account, or verify anyone’s identity. A public username match is a lead, not proof of ownership.
If your reason for adjusting Duolingo visibility is that you are reviewing your wider public footprint, that is a different task from changing in-app settings. You can review the related account task to see how a username-based review is framed, then return here for the Duolingo-specific controls.
The short version
Choose the in-app Preferences route when the problem is friend-driven features and you want to stay on Leaderboards. Choose the web Privacy settings route when the problem is profile visibility and you accept leaving Leaderboards. Use both only if you genuinely want neither. Neither route is a data-deletion request, and neither is established as making you invisible outside Duolingo.