The Android app no longer uses 1-minute timed exercises as the only option for general practice. Evidently it was a test (some people never had it at all) and it seems to have failed the test. It was universally hated on the forums, to the point where people went back to earlier version of the app and installed it from unofficial sources rather than deal with the hassle. Hopefully they have disabled it for all users by now.
So this means I now get the standard 10-point exercise and have all the time in the world to finish it. The experiment came at a particularly bad time for me, since Japanese is more time-consuming than any of the other languages I have tried except possibly Hebrew. Like Hebrew, Japanese has its own script (except Japanese actually mixes 3 different scripts in normal text) so you first need to decode the writing system. Since you keep learning new kanji throughout the course, there will never be a time when you can just look at the text and know how to pronounce it, the way you mostly can with French after a few days.
Anyway, the app is better now, long may it last!
Also, I bought a subscription. It is as expensive as a full-fledged online game, so it’s not remotely worth it. But if I as a Norwegian doesn’t pay for it, who will? People in Guatemala or Vietnam? Since Duolingo in practice is nonprofit, at least with the current owners, the more subscribers the less they need to show ads and the more they can invest in expanding the services.