NHN Japan Corporation has announced that it will release new 'Home' and 'Timeline' features within the very near future for its free-calling and free-messaging app 'LINE' (http://line.naver.jp/). The announcement took place at the first ever 'Hello, Friends in Tokyo' conference held at the new Shibuya Hikarie Hall on July 3.

These new 'Home' and 'Timeline' features allow friends who are connected to one another on the LINE service to share their recent developments in their lives, in real time. NHN Japan believes that in addition to the existing 'Free Calling' and 'Free Messaging' functions, these new social networking features will lead to further promoting and energizing as well as enhancing communication between users.

The first new addition is 'Home'; "a personal space, created by LINE for you."

Users now have their own page where they can share and update their recent developments with the use of photos, videos and location information as well as normal text. It also allows users to express their own personalities by customizing their own page with the use of cover photos.

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"It's never been so fun to 'Like' your friend's posts!" Of course, normal commenting functions are available. However, users can now respond with a single tap, using popular LINE stickers which show an array of instant emotions. Your friend's posts can be shown by tapping the profile photo upon entering the friend's 'Home' screen, and this provides users with a new way of communication and expression.

The second new feature is the 'Timeline' which allows users to share their recent developments in a timeline format amongst their LINE friends. As with the 'Home' feature, users can use stickers to express their feelings towards the posts as well as commenting on them directly. 'Timeline' and 'Home' functions are linked, which means that user activities at 'Home' will also be reflected on the 'Timeline'.

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As always with the developers of LINE, privacy is at the top of the list, which means that posts will only be shown between users who have added one another as friends. Furthermore, in regards to other users' posts, the user can select whether these posts are shown or hidden from view.

The third new feature, 'LINE Channel', functions as a platform service for integrated apps/services within LINE. Users can keep up-to-date with their friend's activity history within these integrated apps as they will be posted automatically to the Home and Timeline screens, as shown below.

How the new features work within LINE's existing framework

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NHN Japan will continue to improve existing features as well as pursuing the expansion of its integrated services to provide an ideal platform for communication.

About NHN Japan Corporation

NHN Japan is the local affiliate of Korea's premier Internet company, NHN Corporation.

NHN Japan is headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo, with Akira Morikawa as CEO.