LINE releases animated stickers for Singapore's National Day

LINE is launching a new animated sticker set titled Happy National Day, Singapore! in celebration of Singapore’s 51st birthday. The sticker set features LINE Friends characters Brown, Cony and Sally celebrating National Day in scenarios true to Singapore, such as playing soccer, standing alongside the Merlion, using Singlish phrases and of course, the National Day Parade.

Source: LINE. The animated stickers for Singapore's National Day are free.

Fans of LINE Friends can also follow the LINE Event Official Account (@LINEeventSG) on their LINE mobile app to catch a LINE Story every week. They can also vote on how the story should continue every week, and stand to win exclusive LINE merchandise at the end of each month.

Interested?

LINE users in Singapore can download the sticker set for free from July 26 to September 25, 2016. In celebration of Singapore's 51st birthday, the first 51 LINE users who use these stickers while chatting with friends from July 26 to September 25, 2016 will receive a pair of limited edition LINE Singapore EZ-Link cards.

LINE shows how LINE@ can raise customer engagement

LINE, the global lifestyle platform, is highlighting how LINE@, one of LINE’s Family apps, can help entrepreneurs reach out to a wider audience. The service lets users create official accounts to share both personal and professional content. A LINE@ account allows users to engage directly with customers and fans with functionality such as a Timeline to post content on, one-on-one chats with fans and customers for real-time business updates, as well as a polling function that allows users to gather feedback seamlessly:

Reach an audience of thousands
Send mass messages to customers and fans that have friended your account to promote your business and events, or gather feedback from followers.

Share updates easily
Post your updates via the Timeline and keep your followers updated on new products and services.

Stay connected anytime, anywhere
Add LINE@ account information to business cards so fans and customers have another way to reach you.

Survey customers for feedback
Set up polls with LINE@’s research page to gather feedback on products and services, or capture customer profile data such as age, gender. You can even use the statistics provided to monitor user behaviour.

Thank fans for their support
Give readers, fans and customers a treat with coupons with your LINE account. LINE’s new app feature, Coupon Book, allows LINE users to keep track of all the coupons they receive via LINE.

Interested?

Choose from two plan options – free or paid – to gain access to LINE@’s features. A free plan includes 1,000 sent messages a month. A paid plan starts from US$50 a month and includes 50,000 messages sent a month. Each message beyond that costs US$0.01 for paid plans; free plans are limited to 1,000 messages. Sign up

LINE introduces conference call support for up to 200 people

Source: LINE. Screenshots of the new voice call feature.

LINE has added a new group call feature to the latest version of the LINE messaging app (iPhone and Android v.5.11, Windows Desktop v.4.5) which enables users to participate in voice calls with up to 200 people at a time. The group chat or multi-person chat voice function will soon be available to users of the LINE Mac desktop client as well.

When activated, the feature will prompt users within a group chat or multi-person chat with a notification that allows them to select the number of people to participate in the call. An icon is displayed above the username of the person currently speaking for easier communication. The service is available for free to all LINE users who have updated their app to v 5.111, making it an easy way to connect with friends and family for a chat or with co-workers for a conference call.

LINE was first launched in June 2011 as a messaging service available across multiple devices and network carriers, enabling users around the world to easily keep in touch with friends, family, and coworkers. Its free voice call service was introduced in October of the same year, followed by video calls in September 2013 as part of an initiative to strengthen lines of communication between people.

*Networks supported: Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G. Calls made over 3G and 4G may incur additional data transmission charges.

LINE offers limited edition stickers for Chinese new year

LINE, the lifestyle platform, is ushering in a prosperous Lunar New Year by releasing its first-ever limited edition animated sticker set for Chinese New Year on February 2, 2016.

With 2016 being the Year of the Monkey, the festive stickers are inspired by the popular Chinese classic Journey to the West. The set comprises eight stickers, playing on the auspicious number that is widely known for its similarity to the Mandarin word fa (发), which means wealth or fortune.

The stickers feature popular LINE Friends characters, including Brown, Cony, Moon and James, decked out in clothing from the Journey to the West period, as well as local landmark the Singapore Flyer and popular well-wishes heard locally, such as “huat ah!” (may you prosper).

Interested?

The LINE app is available on the App Store and Google Play store. Do a search on the LINE app for “Chinese New Year” for the stickers to download them from February 2 to March 2 2016. The stickers can be used for 90 days from the date of download.  

Ooredoo rolls out tourist promotion for khareef season

Source: Ooredoo.

Ooredoo has launched a promotion to enable prepaid users visiting this year’s Salalah Tourism Festival to share more of their holiday with friends and family. The Ooredoo Visitor Line will provide residents and tourists to the Sultanate with cost efficient, convenient, and reliable services during the khareef season, the autumn monsoon season which ends in September. Prepaid users signing up to the new Visitor Line will also get the opportunity to take advantage of Ooredoo’s ‘More’ packages to give them great value during their stay.

The offer will give tourists in Oman everything they need to stay connected with 1GB of data, 60 minutes talk time, and 60 local and international SMSes. Customers can enjoy instant access to apps such as Snapchat, Whatsapp and Instagram. Tourists can also benefit from all other existing prepaid offers, including More Internet, More International and More Credit, to give them extra value on data, call minutes or credit.

Feras Al Shaikh, Director of Consumer Sales at Ooredoo said: “With more than 1.8 million visitors from all over the world expected to travel to Salalah this year, Ooredoo decided to take the initiative and introduce an offer tailored to meeting and satisfying their needs. Keeping the Sultanate’s guests in touch with loved ones was our aspiration, which was designed to provide users with maximum comfort and convenience during their stay. This is our way of welcoming them to khareef and Oman.”

“Providing our customers with the highest levels of connectivity is what our More products are all about; delivering a competitive package exceptional service with unrivalled performance and reliability. This promotion will inspire users to talk more, connect more, and share more with family and friends no matter where they are in the world” said Feras.

As the main sponsor of the Salalah Tourism Festival, Ooredoo has constructed a stand at the festival grounds that will enable it to service twice the amount of customers from last year. Ooredoo has also deployed additional 2G, 3G+ and 4G sites in preparation for khareef.

Interested?

Enquire at the 31 Ooredoo stores located across the Sultanate or check the website

Read the TechTrade Asia blog post on advances in the Ooredoo network in recent years.

LINE introduces private messaging with a time limit

LINE Corporation, owner and operator of the free call and messaging app LINE, has released a Hidden Chats feature for the Android and iPhone versions of the LINE app. The new feature lets users send messages with a time limit attached to them, perfect for private conversations.

Hidden Chats can be used in 1-to-1 chats between supported devices. A separate room exclusive to Hidden Chats is created and a filter attached to the messages makes it impossible to view the contents directly. Text, stickers, images, location info, and contact info can be sent, and viewing limits of 2 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 1 minute, 1 hour, 1 day, or 1 week can be attached to the messages.

The receiver of the message can tap the protected content to view it, at the same time starting the countdown timer for the message. After the predetermined amount of time passes, the contents of the message will be automatically deleted, making the feature perfect for sending sensitive information to be shared temporarily between colleagues or business partners.

In order to experience the new Hidden Chats feature, current LINE users must update to the latest version available via the notices section of the app. The Hidden Chats feature is not available in Japan or China, and does not offer support for BlackBerry, Windows Phone, or Nokia devices.

Worldwide downloads of LINE and LINE Family Apps reached 1 billion in June 2014, the company said.