Photo credit: LINE.
This is the first article in a three-part series exploring LINE’s technology and the trends it reveals about chat applications. This week, we explore the insights shared by developers attending LINE Developer Day 2016.
The stickers.
That’s the first reply I’ve received when I ask LINE users why they use the app. Characters like Brown and Sally soared in popularity when they were introduced in 2011. The stickers that made LINE famous are a physical representation of LINE’s quirkiness and human appeal.
But LINE is proving that they are more than just stickers. They’re shedding their skin as a chat app company and taking on the mantle of a technology company. And it’s working — over a thousand developers showed up at LINE Developer Day 2016, an annual event showcasing the company’s newest work. More significantly, they are inviting developers to understand and use LINE’s creation. A series of APIs were released throughout the day, and LINE teased that there are more to follow.
You get a sticker, you get a sticker, everyone gets a sticker!
While a conference on chat app technology would seem odd in 2011, the era we live in shows the potential of the platform.
According to advisory firm Activate, about 2.5 billion people are registered to use at least one messaging app in 2016. By 2018, that number will grow to 3.6 billion or 90 percent of the world’s Internet-enabled population. Chat apps have taken center stage in 2016, and many are looking to the medium for growth opportunities.
The growth of chat may be the reason why it is the new favorite testbed for new tech. Chat apps like LINE are dedicating some serious engineering and research resources to artificial intelligence, augmented reality, beacons, and big data analytics in their product offerings.
Boop beep beep boop
A LINE developer showcases their app updates. Photo Credit: LINE.
The biggest announcement came in the form of the LINE Bot, the company’s new chat bot technology made open to the public. To encourage developers to use the public API, the company is also holding the LINE Bot Awards, giving developers a chance to win up to US$96,000 (10 million yen) in cash.
To christen the event, LINE developer Ken Kaizu even took to the stage to hold a live coding session for the LINE Bot, giving a live demonstration on how to get the bot to perform simple actions. According to senior software engineer at Tech in Asia, Chee Aun, It was helpful to see some real-world code examples (for the bot), which makes it easy to start creating a bot.
LINE also introduced Rinna, a chat AI modelled after a high school girl. Currently, Rinna’s technology is employed by Japanese retail company Lawson in the creation of their AI account.
Standing on the shoulders of giants
LINE’s history of service outages, as shown at the Developer Day conference.
Above all though, the event showcased a series of interesting talks covering all aspects of its business. A particular favorite of participants was a talk by LINE developer Toshimasa Nasu, on “difficult challenges that LINE has overcome.” During the presentation, LINE shared their history of service outages and explained their next steps to the audience.
Winston Teo, founder of Jolly Good Code, told Tech in Asia that being open with their problem-solving helps the work of engineers like himself. For example, LINE’s several server failures showed him companies of that magnitude improve their architecture and redundancy.
“Obviously, my work doesn’t deal with chat apps,” said Winston. “But technologically these are the things I could learn from and apply to learn from these giants — we stand on the shoulders of these giants — and learn from what they have done before and try not to repeat the same sort of mistakes.”
Winston is also the architecture and process team lead in Singapore Power.
The future of LINE
LINE introduces a plethora of new features within their app. Photo credit: LINE
The company also took the opportunity to showcase their beacon technology. Attendees to the event had a chance to gain access to an exclusive sticker set if they visited three areas containing a physical beacon. The device makes use of bluetooth signals to register a LINE user’s presence, which then transmits promotional information to users.
The company’s series of developer days has made the company’s trajectory very clear — to join the race of chat apps towards where the future may be. Hot on the heels of fellow competitors Telegram and WeChat, LINE is showing their hand.
If they get their way, their community of developers will soon show us how good that hand is.
This post LINE Developer Day explores the future of chat appeared first on Tech in Asia.
from Tech in Asia https://www.techinasia.com/line-dev-day
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