Rant and Rave: LINE

Guess who’s missing? Massively adorable LINE characters are no small help to the rising appeal of the East Asian instant messaging app making its debut on Philippine shores.

Technology is indeed fast changing. With the embrace of instant messaging apps that allow people to send and receive messages within seconds, the demand for this kind of technology is definitely on the rise. But is it enough to just call and text? What if I want to take pictures with those cute stamps or play mindless games to pass the time? This is where LINE_TM comes in.

LINE is an instant messaging app that allows free calls and text messaging to its users. The app, which is available in iOS, Android, Blackberry and PC, goes beyond other communication apps available in the market. Unlike its competitors, LINE provides different services such as the LINE camera, a camera app that has ready to use filters and stickers and the Line tools, a comprehensive app that contains just about every handy thing you need; from a unit converter to a spaghetti noodle scale, these services can be directly downloaded from the App Store and the Android Market.

LINE, as an instant messaging app, has its own strong points.  For starters, it comes with a plethora of free stickers featuring an emotional bear, angry moon and a snazzy blonde man just to name a few. Being that there are already tons of free stickers, users are given the option to purchase even more of them from the sticker store. You know what they say, the more the merrier.

Aside from the wide array of stickers, another plus for LINE is their take on the timeline. Yes, just like Facebook, LINE has adapted to the growing need for social networking. With the timeline, users can now receive live updates from their friends making LINE more than just any instant messaging app.

On a more technical note, sending messages through LINE takes literally just two seconds. There is hardly any lag when exchanging messages and the response time is quite fluid. Adding friends has also been made simple with LINE because users are allowed to sync their Facebook friends directly to the app. LINE also features the use of QR codes and Shake It! as other means of adding friends.

Despite all of LINE’s positive points, let’s face it – there is no app out there that is perfect. To start off on some of LINE’s weaknesses is its inconsistency across platforms. Line may have all of these cool features on Android or iOS but some of them have not yet been made available on other platforms. For instance, LINE for Blackberry and PC does not support free calls. This inconsistency can definitely be an issue for users from platforms that cannot enjoy all of these features.

There is also the case of notification problems. After using LINE for some time, notifications stopped coming in. Opening the app again will show the messages received but multitasking made it difficult to keep up with instant messaging. Though it is a minor problem, it defeated the purpose of allowing push notifications. This may just be a bug that will be fixed in future updates so for now, it is not much of a red flag.

Overall, LINE provides service beyond expectations. With its unique features that leave other instant messaging apps behind, Line will surely keep users wanting for more. Best of all, LINE is free to download on all platforms. So go ahead, download LINE because you surely won’t be disappointed. Except maybe for the terrible singing from the LINE commercial, but hey, nobody’s perfect.

Rating: 3.0