LINE Group Voice Call
A couple of days ago, LINE Corporation announced that its new group calling feature is now on the latest LINE chat apps (version 5.11 on Android and iPhone, version 4.5 on Windows desktop). This enables users to participate in voice calls within group chats. LINE said that this feature is not yet available in Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand, but these regions will eventually receive this update soon. The Mac version of LINE is also said to only get group calling in the future.
Just like most chat apps, LINE’s group calling rides on either a WiFi, 3G, or 4G connection. LINE’s group calling supports up to a whopping 200 people and can be initiated from within a group chat, or by manually adding each participant.
In addition to the group calling feature, LINE version 5.11 on Android and iOS also has a redesigned ‘More’ section, where the layout of the icons in the UI has been tweaked for increased visibility and for a better user experience.
LINE was released way back in June 2011 as a messaging app that uses data and is available across multiple devices. Its fast-paced development is evident with the release of its voice call service in October of the same year; something that took WhatsApp more than three years later to roll out. LINE also enabled video calls in September 2013, a feature that only a few of its competitors like Facebook Messenger and Viber have.
LINE Creators Market for themes
Just last week on March 8th, LINE also announced an addition to its LINE Creators Market, that lets creators design and sell their own LINE themes for other users of the app. This feature is scheduled to be rolling on in late April 2016. LINE Creators Market has been selling approved creators’ stickers since May 2014. As of today, there are over 520,000 registered creators with more than 230,000 sticker sets created.
As the name suggests, themes will reskin the LINE app to look completely different from its default design. Creators can replace the background, icons, and menu buttons with their own graphic elements. For those who have created stickers before, they can also leverage their own characters into their themes. LINE said that this allows artists and entertainers to feature their characters and caricatures for their promotional and merchandising purposes.
Even before the launch, the company has already published the official “creation and review guidelines” for creators’ themes, which you can check out here: https://creator.line.me/en/. Theme creation requires up to 48 graphics, and submissions for review are expected to commence on April 15th 2016.
Anyone with a LINE account can create LINE themes to be sold to other users worldwide on the service’s in-app theme store and LINE STORE (https://store.line.me/home/en). Theme prices are set by the creator to either be at 150, 200, or 250 LINE Coins (approximately RM12.24, RM16.33, or RM20.42 respectively). After Apple and Google’s cut of 30%, LINE said that 50% of the remaining amount, or 35% of total sales, will be paid to the creator.
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