The story of LINE is famously linked to the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami which struck on March 11, 2011. In the aftermath of that tragic event, people struggled to find reliable ways of contacting their loved ones using existing communications services. Three months later, the LINE Messaging app was launched, with the aim of becoming a dependable communication tool people could use for their everyday lives. 

For this 10th anniversary a set of updates were launched in Japan designed to help protect people in the event of another earthquake like the one in 2011. In an emergency situation even small things can make a big difference. Keep reading to learn about eight ways LINE can help you when a natural disaster like an earthquake strikes.

Life would be less stressful if we knew exactly when disaster might strike. While current science and technology only enables us to “guesstimate” earthquakes, being prepared is always prudent. And LINE’s Note feature can help, letting you store valuable information like emergency contacts, a to-do list, and evacuation sites in a place you can access fast and easily. 




The days and weeks after a disaster are notorious for creating confusion and misinformation, making access to up-to-date, legitimate information so vital. To ensure their information is accurate and correct, users in Japan can add the LINE Smart Notification Official Account to receive live updates after an earthquake (available only in Japanese). 



LINE’s OpenChat is a way for people to come together, share information and get to know each other any time, even when there is nothing serious happening. However, in the event of a disaster, the feature can gain extra functionality, as the communities you are part of can become important sources of information and staying in touch. Join or create your own OpenChat in advance to share and receive relevant information with your community.

We are excited to introduce you to a new feature called “LINE Meeting.” 

LINE Meeting is an important step forward for group video calls, enabling you to access them through a URL, both via smartphone and desktop, in groups of up to 500 people. You can create meetings from a LINE chat room and then invite attendees to join, whether through a chat room or by sending them a URL. 

How to use LINE Meeting 

1) First, tap the camcorder icon in the upper right of a LINE chat room. Then tap “Create meeting” to start a meeting room. 

2) LINE offers an array of practical and unique backgrounds, filters and face effects for LINE Group Call, so feel free to fine tune your look before join a meeting.


  
  



3) You may invite more people to join by tapping the first icon in the bottom left. 

4) While you are using LINE Meeting call, do not hesitate to convert the meeting screen to Picture-In-Picture (PIP). This allows you to keep the meeting on in a floating window while you keep an eye on your LINE chat rooms. 

  

LINE is dedicated to providing a safe user experience throughout our ecosystem of products and services, and LINE Meeting is no exception. To protect you, LINE Meeting URLs are complex and 32 characters long, ensuring that the only people who can join your conversations are those who know the URL and are supposed to be there. In addition, if an uninvited guest does manage to join, there is a feature called “kick out,” which enables you to get rid of them — just tap “Remove” to easily protect your chat. 

Like many other LINE features, LINE Meeting is free! And it’s the ideal choice for both personal and business purposes. 

LINE Meeting is available for LINE, on smartphone versions 10.13.0 or later and LINE desktop versions 6.2.0 or later. So update your LINE to enjoy the new feature! 

One of the most popular features for the LINE chat is our seasonal background animations, appearing several times a year to usher in people’s favorite seasons — and regularly becoming the talk of social media in the process.

And, now, you can create your own animations for your chats, with Effect Stickers. Recently released, Effect Stickers let you put all kinds of animated content into your chat backgrounds, making your chats livelier and more fun.



<Sticker preview>



<Sticker sent in chatroom>



You may also watch GIF video here.


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Why don’t you send one and see your backgrounds come alive? These animations are vibrant, but without getting in the way, so your message always shines through. They’re a great way to help you express yourself better than ever.  

Check out our first wave of Effect Stickers here!

LINE Timeline is getting an exciting new feature called “Explore.”

With Explore, you not only can see your friends’ Timeline posts, but also other related content that you may like. And it also makes it easier to keep track of the content you like on Timeline with a new “Follow” feature.

Explore’s curated content is customized for each user based on your viewing history, letting you see publicly posted materials that fit your style and interests. That means the more you view, the more accurate the curation can be. 

First, tap the planet icon in the upper right of Timeline, or you can also scroll down Timeline until you see the Explore section. 

Because the contents Explore shows you are based on what you’ve already indicated you like, there’s a good chance you’ll find it quite addicting. Plus, you can check out as much content as you like. Just scroll away!

In addition to Explore, we are also rolling out another new feature, Follow. Follow also works on Timeline and it lets you follow the accounts you discover using Explore without necessarily adding them as your friends on LINE. It’s a great way to subscribe to the content you most like. 

1. Upload the content you want public on Timeline.

2. Change the setting to “ON” for the follow function. 

(Go to Setting > Timeline > Public post setting > Allow follow)

3. Manage your followers by displaying the number of followers/following.

With this coming change, LINE would like to emphasize the importance of properly registering your personal information for your account. This is particularly important for account migration, like when moving to a new phone. Because you can no longer sign up using Facebook, you’ll need to use your personal data when migrating devices, so it is essential that you fully enter this information.

1. Install the LINE app and open the app on your new device.

2. Choose your preferred log-in method 

3. Always keep your personal information updated  


 
 



 
 



Apple ID login now available for iOS users! 

LINE has added a most new feature that’s incredibly useful, especially for anyone who does much traveling – it’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR), letting you scan signs and other texts from within a LINE chat, and then translate it or share the text with others.  

Since the OCR feature allows you to easily translate any recognized text, it can be quite handy in a wide range of situations, especially when traveling overseas, letting you understand the text on a billboard or sign, or the items on a restaurant menu. 

In order to convert an image in a LINE chat room, tap image that contains the text and then press the OCR icon on the top right of the screen. 

 

To convert the text in an image saved on your smartphone, tap the image icon, select an image and tap the OCR icon on the top right of the screen. 

 

If you see a text in the real world that you would like to capture and convert, turn on the camera from within the LINE app and select “OCR” to take a picture.

  

Right-click on the image shared in a LINE chat room, and select “convert to text.” 

 

Select a language on the top right of the screen to translate the text to the target language. Click the button at the bottom of the screen to copy or send the translated text. 

 

Languages that can be recognized by OCR: 

Japanese, English, Chinese (traditional), Chinese (simplified), Thai, Indonesian and Korean. 

Languages that can be translated: 

Japanese (JA), Chinese (Traditional) (TW), Chinese (Simplified) (ZH). Thai (TH), Indonesian (ID), Korean (KO), Spanish (ES), Portuguese (PT), German (DE), Russian (RU), Malay (MY), Vietnamese (VI), Arabic (AR), Farsi (FA), and Hindi (IH).

This feature can be used with LINE 9.6.0 and later. 

We're excited to introduce a new feature you can use with LINE video calls, the camera, and Chat Live: Character Effects.