My mother has also complained about Duolingo's changes (she's trying to learn German, too, btw). Although I don't know if they match between your versions (she's on the desktop). She says that you can't now just enter any text, but have to select between suggested words. Which is pretty drastic, if I understood it correctly... I mean, :facepalm: I can just open it and check... Okay, not exactly. I mean, I got to type in text only once, at the end of the lesson, but still...

No, yeah, something from the Duolingo experience of my youth () is missing. And changes are bad, as we all know.