Line
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Data from Wikidata is available under Creative Commons CC-0.
lib.reviews is only a small part of a larger free culture movement. We are deeply grateful to all who contribute to this movement.
Reviews
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Low creepiness, but buggy
LINE is a messenging app popular in Japan. It runs on Android, iOS, Windows, and as a Chrome browser addon.
Unlike competing apps, it is not very social, which can be seen as a pro or con. Most users don’t post anything, so most walls are empty.
Pros:
- Since most people uses it, it is convenient to communicate.
- Does not disclose much information about you.
- Low creepiness: You can not see other people’s friends. It does not suggest to add other people’s friends.
- Chat history is locally stored. Good for privacy, but obviously losing your phone means losing your chat history. Taking backups can not be easily done without a rooted phone.
- Free.
- Original stamps.
Cons:
- Some features require age verification, which only works if you use one of the few big Japanese carriers. No luck for MVNOs.
- LINE steals your contacts and keeps this data on their servers.
- The Chrome browser add-on is unreliable, messages often do not show up.
- Migrating chat history from a phone to another is a huge pain, and group chats can not be migrated.
- Getting locked out of one’s account is a real risk, especially for non-technical persons. The rate of people losing their accounts is unseen in other apps.
- No way to mute a group conversation.