What Messaging App Do You Use?

TALK

Talk is a main feature of LINE. You can send text messages to someone, like Messenger.
There are two types of talk. One is a one on one chat, and the other is a group chat.
You can easily imagine a one on one talk, but can you imagine a group chat?
Group chat  is a private chat room for multiple people. For example, the group for your friends or coworkers, for one-time projects or events. Many Japanese have a lot of  LINE groups.There are even large group chats with others for moms.
I’d like to explain how to add a new friend to your LINE app. With apps like Messenger, you usually have to ask for someone’s phone number if you want to connect, which can feel a bit too personal. However, in the LINE app, we can add a friend by using a QR code. Just scan their QR code or just tell your user name, and you can instantly add each other as friends on LINE.  It’s a really convenient feature!!

• Aunty-style (uncle-style) Messages オバサンorオジサン構文

But you have to be careful not to use emojis too much in LINE Talk. Currently, there are said to be オバサン or オジサン構文. It means common features of “auntie or uncle-style” messages.

Here is an example.

Too many emojis, long sentences, sometimes kind of like a mother.
Too much katakana, and tends to use（笑）,which means lol.
Obasan (aunty) is polite, but ojisan (uncle) is a little overfriendly.

• Even a period can scare the Younger generation😳

Can you believe that some young people in Japan feel intimidated by the Japanese period mark “。”?
We are taught at school to put a period at the end of every sentence. However, younger generations mostly use messaging apps to communicate with others, and on these apps, short and casual messages are normal. Because of this, they are not very used to formal, fully punctuated sentences. So when a boss sends a message like “わかりました。” with a period at the end, it can feel unusually serious or cold. As a result, some young people may feel a little intimidated.

A Variety of Stickers (LINE スタンプ）

There are a variety of stickers in the LINE app. You can choose your favorite one from free stickers, paid stickers or a subscription. If you want to get free stickers, you have to add yourself to the company’s official LINE account as a friend. In exchange, they send you free sticker sets for a limited time.

・Why do Japanese people use so many stickers? 

Many Japanese tend to read a room and avoid saying things directly. Stickers help us to express our feelings indirectly. So we prefer to use stickers instead of words.

We can sometimes communicate just by using stickers.

You can also customize the background of the chat room to your favorite one.

・Hidden Fun Feature

LINE sometimes adds special seasonal chat effects. During events like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, or summer festivals, certain keywords can trigger cute animations or illustrations that pop up on the screen.

Scheduling Tool 調整さん

This is a feature for organizing group members’ schedules. In this scheduling tool, we share our availability and use that information to decide on a date or a plan for our events. The most popular date is highlighted in color. So it’s really easy to arrange plans.

In Conclusion

I hope this article helps you enjoy LINE more and communicate with people!
I believe that if people around the world use this fun and convenient messaging app, it can make the world feel a little smaller.