Learn Hardcore Russian: Я собираюсь обновить профиль в учебном приложении. - I am going to update my profile in the study app.

The core idea is intention / plan in the near or definite future.
It’s very close to English “I’m going to update…” in the sense of a decided plan.
Literally, the verb собираться means “to gather” (people, things) or “to get ready / prepare oneself,” and by extension “to be about to / intend to.”

So Я собираюсь обновить профиль… = “I’m going to (I intend to) update the profile…”

Where does собираюсь come from, and why does it end in -сь?

Собираюсь is the 1st person singular present tense of the reflexive verb собираться.

Infinitive: собираться (to get ready, to plan to do something)
Conjugation in the present:
- я собираюсь – I am going / planning to
- ты собираешься – you (sg, informal) are going / planning to
- он/она/оно собирается – he/she/it is going / planning to
- мы собираемся – we are going / planning to
- вы собираетесь – you (pl/formal) are going / planning to
- они собираются – they are going / planning to

The -сь / -ся ending marks it as reflexive. In this meaning (“to intend, to plan”), it doesn’t translate as a reflexive pronoun in English; it’s just part of the verb form.

Why does Russian use собираюсь обновить instead of a simple future form like обновлю?

Both are possible, but they give slightly different nuances:

Я собираюсь обновить профиль…
- Focus on intention / plan.
- Implies you’ve decided and are planning to do it (maybe soon, maybe later).
Я обновлю профиль…
- Simple perfective future.
- More direct promise or statement: “I will update the profile.”
- Often sounds a bit more firm, like a commitment, or like you’re answering “Who will update it?” – “Я обновлю профиль.”

Using собираюсь is closer to talking about your plans, similar to English “I’m going to…” instead of the plain “I will…”.

Why is it обновить, not обновлять? What’s the difference?

This is about verb aspect in Russian:

Обновить – perfective
- One completed action: “to (successfully) update once.”
- Suits situations where you plan to perform a single, complete update.
Обновлять – imperfective
- Process, repeated action, or habit: “to be updating,” “to update regularly.”
- Used when focusing on the ongoing process or repetition.

In Я собираюсь обновить профиль, you’re planning to do one update (go in, make changes, and be done).
If you said:

Я собираюсь обновлять профиль каждый день.
“I’m going to be updating the profile every day.”
– now it’s about repeated updates, so обновлять (imperfective) is appropriate.

Can собираюсь take both perfective and imperfective verbs after it?

Yes, собираться can be followed by either aspect, and the aspect of the infinitive still carries its usual meaning:

With perfective:
- Я собираюсь обновить профиль.
  “I’m going to (once) update the profile.”
With imperfective:
- Я собираюсь обновлять профиль чаще.
  “I’m going to update the profile more often / start updating it more often (regularly).”

So собираюсь expresses intention, and the aspect of the following verb shows whether the intended action is a single complete act (perfective) or a process / repeated action (imperfective).

Why is there no мой in обновить профиль? Shouldn’t it be “update my profile”?

Russian often omits possessive pronouns (мой, твой, его, etc.) when it’s obvious whose thing it is from context:

обновить профиль – “update (the) profile”
In an app, it’s naturally understood that you mean your own profile.

You can say:

обновить мой профиль – update my profile
обновить свой профиль – update one’s own profile (reflexive possessive)

…but in a neutral context this usually sounds unnecessarily explicit, or used for contrast:

Я обновлю свой профиль, а ты обнови свой.
“I’ll update my profile, and you update yours.”

In your original sentence, обновить профиль without мой/свой is the most natural.

What case is профиль in, and why does it look like the dictionary form?

In обновить профиль, the word профиль is in the accusative case as the direct object of the verb обновить (“update what?” – the profile).

For masculine inanimate nouns like профиль:

Nominative singular (dictionary form): профиль
Accusative singular: also профиль

So the form doesn’t change, but its role in the sentence does: here it’s the thing being updated (direct object).

What case is в учебном приложении, and how do учебном and приложении agree?

В учебном приложении is in the prepositional case:

Preposition: в = in
Noun: приложение (app, application)
- Prepositional singular: в приложении
Adjective: учебный (educational, study-related)
- Must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case:
- Neuter, singular, prepositional: в учебном приложении

So:

учебное приложение – nominative (an educational app)
в учебном приложении – prepositional (in an educational app)

Could it be в учебное приложение instead of в учебном приложении?

Yes, but it would mean something different:

в учебном приложении (prepositional) – where?
- “in the educational app” (location, inside the app)
в учебное приложение (accusative) – into where?
- “into the educational app” (motion/direction, going into it)

In your sentence, you are inside the app updating your profile, so в учебном приложении (location) is correct.

If you were talking about moving or uploading something into the app, you might use accusative:

Загрузить данные в учебное приложение.
“To upload data into the educational app.”

Can the word order change? For example, can I say Я собираюсь в учебном приложении обновить профиль?

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, and several versions are possible:

Я собираюсь обновить профиль в учебном приложении.
– Neutral, very natural: “I’m going to update the profile in the educational app.”
Я собираюсь в учебном приложении обновить профиль.
– Also grammatically correct. Slightly shifts the rhythm and can put a bit more emphasis on where you’ll update it.
В учебном приложении я собираюсь обновить профиль.
– Stronger emphasis on “In the educational app…” (as opposed to somewhere else).

All are understandable; the first is the most standard and neutral in everyday speech.

Can I drop я and just say Собираюсь обновить профиль в учебном приложении?

Yes. In Russian, subject pronouns (я, ты, он, etc.) are often dropped when the verb ending already shows the subject clearly.

Собираюсь обновить профиль в учебном приложении.
– Perfectly natural in context, especially in casual speech or writing.

You would typically keep я:

If you want to emphasize “I” (contrast with others).
At the start of a conversation or when it might otherwise be unclear who is acting.

But grammatically, omitting я here is fine.