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LINE

Name: LINE
Rating: 4.0 (12000000 reviews)
Author: LY Corporation

4.0

CategoryCommunication

Download500M+

PriceFree

RatedEveryone

RequiresAndroid 8.0+

DeveloperLY Corporation

Screenshots

About this app

In Japan, LINE is less an app than a public utility. Born in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake, when phone networks failed and internet messaging proved its worth, it became the default channel for chatting, paying, reading news, and contacting businesses across Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand. Its cast of sticker characters, led by Brown the bear and Cony the rabbit, is a merchandising empire in its own right.

That success shaped the product into a sprawling super-app: messaging sits beside a payments wallet, a news feed, shopping, games, manga, and official brand accounts. Chats between LINE users are protected by Letter Sealing, the platform's end-to-end encryption, enabled by default for one-to-one messages. A 2021 controversy over data handling, including access by a contractor in China, forced real changes and remains the key episode in its privacy record.

Living or doing business in Japan, Taiwan, or Thailand

Everyday life in these markets runs through LINE: friends, landlords, restaurants, government notices, and workplace groups all expect it. Anyone moving there for work or study will need an account within days of arriving.

Keeping ties with contacts in East and Southeast Asia

For relatives or colleagues based in its home markets, LINE is the channel they check. Free voice and video calls between users make it the practical option for regular calls across time zones.

Following brands and official accounts

Companies, city governments, and celebrities operate official accounts that push coupons, alerts, and customer service through chat. In its core countries this substitutes for email newsletters and support hotlines surprisingly well.

Letter Sealing encryption

LINE's end-to-end encryption covers one-to-one text chats and calls by default between updated clients. Coverage is narrower than Signal's everything-encrypted model: certain content types and situations fall back to transport encryption only.

Stickers as a language

The sticker store is vast, with paid character packs, animated and sound-enabled sets, and creator-made options. In LINE's home markets stickers carry real conversational weight, and they remain a major revenue line.

A super-app under one icon

Wallet payments, news, shopping, games, manga, and a timeline-style feed called VOOM all live inside the messenger. Feature availability varies sharply by country; outside Asia much of it is absent or thin.

Free calls and Keep-style storage

Voice and video calls between users are free over data, with group calling supported. Notes and album features inside chats preserve shared photos and messages beyond ordinary chat history limits.

Privacy & Data Safety

LINE's record here is mixed and specific. Letter Sealing gives default end-to-end encryption for personal one-to-one chats, which is genuinely good. Against that sits the 2021 revelation that engineers at a Chinese contractor had been able to access some Japanese user data, and that certain data was stored in South Korea, contradicting public assurances. Japanese authorities intervened, and the company committed to relocating data to Japan. The super-app design also concentrates messaging, payment, and browsing data in one place.

The 2021 data-handling scandal led to government scrutiny in Japan, an end to the Chinese contractor's access, and a migration of user data storage to Japan.
Letter Sealing is on by default for one-to-one chats, but not every feature or content type is end-to-end encrypted, so assume weaker protection outside plain personal chats.
A phone number is required to register, and the app requests contacts access to populate your friend list, with an opt-out during setup.
Payments, shopping, news reading, and official-account interactions all feed data into one account, a wider profile than a pure messenger would hold.

Advantages

The indispensable network in Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand
Default end-to-end encryption for personal chats via Letter Sealing
Free, dependable voice and video calls between users
Official accounts make business and government contact genuinely useful

Updates

LY Corporation, formed from the merger of LINE and Yahoo Japan's parent, updates the Android app frequently, and much of the change lands server-side in the Wallet, VOOM, and news tabs rather than in chat itself. Security work continued visibly after the 2021 episode and a later 2023 breach disclosure involving systems shared with Naver, both of which pushed infrastructure separation up the priority list.

Infrastructure separation from Naver systems following data-security incidents
AI assistant and translation features arriving in core markets
Continued expansion of payment and mini-app services inside the messenger

Editor's Assessment

Our verdict

Whether you need LINE is mostly a question of geography. In its core markets it is unavoidable and, used for what it does best, very good: reliable messaging, free calls, and business contact through official accounts. The bundled wallet, feed, and shopping layers are take-it-or-leave-it, and the 2021 data episode is a fair reason to keep sensitive conversations elsewhere. Treat it as essential regional infrastructure with a super-app attached, and set expectations accordingly.

What works

The indispensable network in Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand
Default end-to-end encryption for personal chats via Letter Sealing
Free, dependable voice and video calls between users
Official accounts make business and government contact genuinely useful

What to know

Super-app sprawl buries messaging under payments, news, and shopping
2021 data-handling controversy damaged trust and forced restructuring
Encryption coverage has gaps compared with dedicated secure messengers
Chat history transfers between phones have historically been painful

FAQ

Are LINE messages end-to-end encrypted?

One-to-one text chats and calls use Letter Sealing, LINE's end-to-end encryption, enabled by default on current versions. Coverage is not universal across every feature and content type, so LINE offers weaker guarantees than Signal, where nothing falls outside encryption. For ordinary personal chats between updated apps, content is protected.

What was the 2021 LINE data controversy?

Reporting in Japan revealed that engineers at a contractor in China could access some Japanese user data, and that some data resided on servers in South Korea despite assurances it stayed in Japan. Regulators stepped in, the access was cut off, and the company pledged to move user data storage to Japan.

Can I use LINE outside Asia?

Yes, the messenger works worldwide and is the sensible way to reach contacts in Japan, Taiwan, or Thailand. Expect a reduced experience elsewhere: the payments wallet, many services, and much sticker and official-account content are limited to specific countries, so outside Asia it behaves like a plainer chat app.