After the announcement made by Naver on November 17, users will be able to remove messages on both the sender’s and recipient’s screens, provided the original message is deleted within 24 hours of its creation. (Image: Naver Line)
SEOUL, Nov. 17 (Korea Bizwire) –Naver Line has jumped ahead of its fellow South Korean instant messaging service KakaoTalk by upgrading its text delete capabilities.
Previously, deleting a wrongly sent text would only make the mistake disappear on the sender’s screen, but the message would remain on the recipient’s device. After the announcement made by Naver on November 17, users will be able to remove messages on both the sender’s and recipient’s screens, provided the original message is deleted within 24 hours of its creation.
The change was made after 83 percent of Line users reported through a company survey that they had been put in an uncomfortable situation from a misplaced text.
Besides competing for users, both companies have faced off in the burgeoning AI-integrated speaker market. KakaoTalk’s “Kakao Mini” and Naver Line’s “Friends” have enjoyed explosive popularity, selling hundreds to thousands of devices in a matter of minutes after their release. (Image: Yonhap)
With 70 million monthly active users, Naver Line is the most popular texting service in Japan. It was launched in 2011, after a communications blackout caused by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami spurred on staff members at NHN Japan to develop an alternative means of communication. Including Japan, Line is used by over 200 million users worldwide.
Meanwhile, domestic market leader KakaoTalk has so far shown no sign that it will introduce the same delete capabilities in its own service.
Besides competing for users, both companies have faced off in the burgeoning AI-integrated speaker market. KakaoTalk’s “Kakao Mini” and Naver Line’s “Friends” have enjoyed explosive popularity, selling hundreds to thousands of devices in a matter of minutes after their release.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
