Short and frequent lessons for up to five minutes a day can make learning a new language not only enjoyable but easier, according to the app developers of Drops, a visual language learning app.

The app is designed in a game scheme using quick swipes to keep the user in rhythm. Focusing on vocabulary, words pop up with images along with a voice narration pronouncing the words. In a 5-minute countdown, the session covers a theme such as food, numbers, transportation, colors, and emotions, among others, totaling to up to 1700 words.

The lesson requires focus where the fast pace of the game keeps the user challenged in reacting quickly when recalling the words.

“Daily 5 minutes is a great way to beat the barrier of starting a new language and perfect for creating a long-lasting learning habit,” says Daniel Farkas, co-founder of Drops that currently features 14 languages. “It’s enough for casual learners who travel to a new country and want to understand and speak basic expressions. For more serious learners 5 minutes may be too slow and can seek the app’s premium options.”

The methods used to design the app are based on memory techniques. “I’ve been researching effective memorization techniques for more than 10 years and wanted to create a tool that includes extremely powerful memorization tricks, but at the same time looks and feels really simple and easy,” Farkas told Saudi Gazette.

Tricks mainly include visual association, spaced repetition, adaptive learning, and quick pace learning.

The app leaves the users every day with a cliffhanger, stopping them in the heat of playing keep them wanting more. The daily challenges bring back learners with regular tiny rewards and staying on the top of the score table

“Limiting the time our users can spend with Drops may sound counterintuitive at first, but research shows that this hack actually brings them back to the app more often,” he says. “The five minutes you spend learning by playing triggers your brain to release endorphins and the sudden interruption makes you craving for more.”

Drops aims to instill motivation in beginners to learn common words in a language. Breaking down the experience into bite-sized chunks of five minute learning sprints can make a complex learning process accessible and easy to digest.

Grammar and speech are not covered, however. Words are repeated throughout the brief lesson to memorize core vocabulary.

English, Spanish and Korean are the most commonly requested languages to learn in the app that has been downloaded more than a million times. It recently launched in Arabic to serve Arabic-speaking countries.