LINE App is a messaging and calling service for Android, iPhone and iPad, with companion clients for Windows, macOS and Chrome. It combines individual and group conversations with shared notes and photo albums, so a chat can hold both ongoing messages and material that participants want to find again.
What a chat can hold
A LINE conversation can contain text, photos, videos, recorded voice messages and locations. When choosing photos or videos, users can review the selection and change its order before sending. Location sharing accepts a place selected in the location view or found by searching its name or address.
Stickers send an illustration as a response, while emoji can accompany text. LINE also provides reactions attached to individual messages; a reaction can be added within seven days of the message being sent. Replies target a particular message, keeping an answer connected to the part of a conversation it addresses.
Shared notes
Notes give a LINE chat its own message board. Participants can post text with photos, stickers or a location, then return to those posts separately from the message stream. A message already containing text, a link, a photo or a location can also be saved into a note instead of being entered again.
Users can edit or delete their own posts, and notes can be searched by text or hashtag. This makes the board suitable for material such as a group’s meeting details or a shared list of places. Older multi-person chats must be converted to groups to use Notes.
Photo albums
Albums organize pictures within one-to-one and group chats. LINE’s All albums view brings together albums from different conversations, allowing someone to browse shared collections without opening each chat separately. A chat can contain up to 100 albums, with up to 1,000 items in each album.
Standard-quality photo uploads are available without a premium membership. Uploading original-quality photos or videos to albums requires LYP Premium in Japan or LINE Premium in Taiwan and Thailand. Other chat members can view the uploaded content without holding that membership themselves. These album restrictions are separate from sending a photo or video directly in a message.
Voice and video calls
LINE supports free individual and group voice or video calls over an internet connection; mobile data charges can still apply. Calls can begin from a friend’s entry or an existing chat, keeping the conversation with the same contacts.
Before joining a group call, participants can choose whether to enable their microphone and camera and adjust camera effects, backgrounds or filters. A group call can include up to 500 people. On a mobile screen, up to six participants appear at once, with swiping used to view others. The Chrome client does not support voice or video calls.
LINE App on main and secondary devices
LINE distinguishes the main device that manages an account from secondary devices signed into it. Windows and macOS clients act as secondary devices, while Android devices and iPads can serve either role. An iPhone can serve only as the main device.
Account information changes, account transfers, chat-history backups and purchases of items such as stickers remain main-device functions.
