It was just a few days ago that Naver Japan’s mobile messenger and voice application Line surpassed the 20 million downloads mark. Now the service is getting the tablet and desktop apps that were promised a few months back.
But don’t get too excited just yet, as this is a somewhat limited step onto the Desktop so far. Only the chat function is available right now, and free calling is “not yet available.” It should also be noted that these desktop apps can only be used by existing Line smartphone users [1], as Line accounts can only be created on mobile devices.
For those who would like to try it, you can download the Mac and PC apps over at line.naver.jp/en [2]. I can the Mac version a quick spin just now, and you can see the screenshot of how the app looks below. There’s a handy menu-bar item, so you can access it easily. Unfortunately, I still don’t have any friends on line besides this translation bot. Although I suppose translations is kind of neato. I guess [3].
I have yet to try to tablet app, but as far as I can tell, it would be a similarly restricted experience. I asked a Naver Japan representative about this, and was told that the intent for now is to add value for existing smartphone users. But they also noted that they’re expecting Line could be used for business, or casual internal communication at companies.
Speaking as someone who lives primarily on a desktop computer, I had higher hopes for the desktop app. But for the 20 million people who have downloaded the smartphone app, this should help enhance what is already a wildly popular service.
The company has previously stated that video calls would be coming to the smartphone app in 2012, and while there isn’t any date decided yet, I’m told this evening that they are hoping for the first half of this year.