This is not a rant, I’m just genuinely curious.
Ive been using LINE for over 8 years now and always wondered why it never really progressed (or maybe better to call it updated?) in terms of its functionality in comparison to other messenger apps.
A few examples:
1. Everything related to voice messages. Yes, there is an option to leave a voice message. BUT, you cannot play it at x2 speed. you cannot listen to it on the background, it will just turn off if you exit the app. And then it will start playing from the beginning AND you cannot adjust the place where to start listen.
2. It still has this weird bug where if you accidentally start a new line and send a message, it will send it with that empty new line.
3. You do not have the option to hide the “read” sign.
4. You do not have the option to delete your friends, only block. It’s quite inconvenient when it comes to some services that you use through LINE. For example, some clinics where you go once, and then they keep sending you texts. You can mute the chat, but the notification/the number of received messages will still pop up on your line icon.
5. You can’t pin messages in chat etc
I personally didn’t really feel the difference between using it now and 8 years ago. Meanwhile other messenger apps progressed quite a bit in this direction.
I’d think that LINE has lots of skilled people to make the app more user friendly, esp given how big the company is.
Why do you think that is?
32 comments
1. I don’t think a lot of people use voice message, hence it wasn’t as developed.
2. Isn’t that the feature? Required for some ascii art.
3. Personally I consider this a great feature.
4. You can hide it, I think, and it totally disappear.
5. There’s announcement.
I think you can pin messages in chat. Perhaps we are thinking of different things though.
I hope more people would use Telegram/Signal.
LINE is actually what I consider one of the more “modern” Japanese software products when you compare it to yahoo, Rakuten, etc.
There is a very, very strong adversity to change in Japan. This extends to software. Moreover, LINE probably has the most amount of elderly using it among all of the messaging apps, so changing around things at the pace others do, would frustrate a non-insignificant amount of customers.
Also, much of line’s functionality is left to whatever company who uses their api. I haven’t had the chance to play with it but given the subpar quality of code I’ve seen here it wouldn’t surprise me if 90%+ of companies using like have things hard-coded, thus changing the app requires not breaking customer’s code.
Biggest thing that bugs me is how there’s still no typing indicator.
The finally added reactions a couple years ago, although it doesn’t send a notification if you receive one.
You can skip ahead in voice messages, and you can definitely delete people/official accounts. It’s clunky because you have to go into the contacts list to do it.
Line is developed a lot, just not within the messaging function.
Because it’s not “just” a messenger app, and the parts that make money and get attention are not the messenger parts.
Interestingly, I don’t like line, but not for any of the reasons you mentioned.
I want my chart program to be:
1. Not linked to my phone number
2. Usable on multiple devices at the same time (i.e. my work phone and private phone can share the same account and get the same messages). And hopefully PC use is not an afterthought.
3. Just do chat, not payments, lottery, horse racing, games, pay day loans, etc.
4. Follow a standard and interoperable protocol so you can pick your provider and software – like email.
5. Not spy on me.
Google chat actually did #1-#3 well, and used to do #4 – but not anymore.
But sadly what I want didn’t really matter, because the best communication app in the world isn’t useful if the people you know don’t use it.
So… The reality is that I have to use line to contact 95% of the people I know, and WeChat (which absolutely spies and censors) to contact anyone in China.
And I have to deal with the fact that I have to carry both of my phones everywhere if I don’t want to miss a message to one of them.
For point 4, you can delete. From Home -> Friends -> long press the name and a sub-menu will pop up with the option to delete. If you want to delete official accounts like stores, there’s an “Official Accounts” tab at the top of the same page, just delete them the same way you would a friend.
Because Japanese web/app development is 5 years behind western standards.
LINE UI has always irked me. So much unintuitive about it.
But I gotta say that after I got Line for Business and realized how damned convenient it was for keeping in touch with all my customers since everyone and their grandmother has it…. Well I can’t poopoo it completely anymore =P
I only use Line when I really have to, I really don’t like it.
If you think line is bad, wait until you have to use whatsapp…
LINE was inspired by 3.11. The ‘read’ feature was made so that people could know if your loved ones had seen your message during a crisis, so that they’d know you’re at least alive, even if you can’t reply.
https://weathernews.jp/s/topics/202103/010195/
Japan is so iPhone centric that I am quite surprised that LINE is still such a widely used alternative. It gained mass use in the days of savings when companies charged per text message. Even though the data packages here in Japan are pretty lame with low GB plans. And if you want to have the best of coverage, you’re going to pay for the better of the cellular companies to go “unlimited”
That’s what happens when a company/service has no competition, it ceases to innovate.
My city has an entire announcement / interactive menus through line. You can look up helpful information, report damage to roads or blockages due to landslides, etc. It’s bizzare how much the do with it.
Let me add: calls do not get notified on Apple Watch.
Well, I’m Japanese and I can confirm that LINE is so undeveloped and I have a lot of problems with that app like:
– can’t sign in with 2 different phones simultaneously
– can’t migrate chat history between iOS and Android
– delete photos and videos after 2 weeks
However, while I understand there are so many better alternatives, I’m still using it because most of my friends use it as the primary communication tool. It’s indeed a handy tool for a lot of people since it’s free to use and phone calls are also free of charge. It’s probably the biggest reason why it remains as an undeveloped tool; because it doesn’t have a risk to lose their users.
It’s not like people are going to stop using it and leave for another platform. Also, whenever a new feature is released people complain about overcomplication
Why would they do any of the things you want?
What good thing happens for Line if they make it easier to delete friends, or hide read receipts? Will that make the difference in winning some new market? Will it get them more users or revenue in Japan or Taiwan?
They have network lock-in here; their competitors have network lock-in everywhere else.
The development incentives for a geographically bounded network like Line are not great. They need to monetize, and they get that from all the stuff people complain about. Making you slightly happier as a chat user gets them nothing.
In Japan, there is no competition to LINE. Everyone uses it. There is no need to spend money updating something that has zero competition, unless those updates will generate more money. So the parts of LINE that generate money get updated and everything else stays much the same.
Man when I got here from China where Wechat rules and had to get onto Line it actually hurt.
Back off man. I like it that way.
Tbh, LINE is one of the most functioning and user friendly apps in Japan.
But thats like saying “having the biggest c*ck among the Unsullied army”
LINE is one of the better Japanese apps, but it’s still a Japanese app. It’s gonna suck.
I assume it’s because LINE, like WhatsApp and KakaoTalk is primarily used for basic communication, it’s not aiming to be ‘fancy’. It’s purpose is just to get a message to someone.
LINE will randomly suspend people’s accounts who have done nothing wrong because their AI looking for wrongdoers erroneously flagged it. No one will look into it or help you because their customer support is absolute garbage.
It’s happened to me – 7 days of being unable to use the app, which I need for work, with no notice or explanation. I would absolutely trash that app and never use it again, but living in Japan, I have no other choice but to keep using it…it sucks being so dependent on one single company.
You can pin messages
I haven’t had any of the problems you mentioned, but also I usually just hate a lot of the features you talk about too lol.
1: Never use voice messages, really hate them actually. Can’t reference them later easily like text and searching, and if I wanna talk with someone i’ll just video call. Only one friend i talk to likes using voice messages.
2: Idk never seen this
3: I personally don’t like when apps do this but I think thats probably just me.
4: You can delete your friends, not just block them, I’ve done it multiple times. A few years ago it didn’t exist though.
5: You can do announcements, which are like pins, and you can also save stuff to notes or albums which are more organized and more permanent.
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EDIT: Also just a side note but I have no idea what apps you’re talking about for messaging that are any good? in my personal opinion, most messaging apps are absolute garbage. Messenger is trash, and even though theres a message button in facebook, I have to download the app separately to even use the messaging. It’s really dumb. Instagram is functional, but I really only use it because I use instagram. Whatsapp is definitely the worst messaging app in existence. Wechat was acceptable and i liked the custom stickers but its also tons of spying, so i wouldnt use it unless i need to (same with fb related apps tbh). Testing is fine and functional but costs money separately from the other things on your phone bill depending on your plan (i used to use it a lot in the US.), google duo is good but only for video calls. telegram is fine but no one i know uses it so not very useful.
Discord is definitely my favorite app for messaging but it’s only used mainly by gamers/for community servers. Limited general usage.
Line is decent, I like the stickers, and everyone here uses it, so I dont even have to figure out what app to ask for when I meet someone. It’s always LINE.
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Like what good app did i miss that is actually used by enough people to be useful?
I will die on this hill, but you only get good software by paying good salaries. The salaries for line are terrible, which then attracts talent that would work for that amount. They have amazing engineers though, I have a friend who is probably the best software developer I know and he is trying to make changes from the inside. In my opinion, line could fire half it’s workforce and it would actually make the product better.
Deleting people is the only one I kind of have an issue with, but since I don’t voice message people, don’t care about read, and don’t have a need to pin anything, it’s fine for me.