LINE’s Silent Messages Become Paid in Japan, Raising Fears Taiwan Could Follow

LINE users in Taiwan can still send silent messages for free, but Japan’s decision to make the feature a Premium benefit has raised concerns that Taiwan could follow.

Silent messages help users send LINE messages without disturbing recipients, especially late at night. In Taiwan, the feature remains available through LINE Labs. Users on iOS and Android can activate it manually in LINE’s settings, then long-press the send button beside the chat box to choose silent messaging.

Japan shifted the feature to Premium-only access at the end of August. Taiwan LINE has not made the same change, but LINE Labs carries no guarantee that its functions will remain free or become permanent. LINE describes the section as an early-access area for test features and says functions may be withdrawn without notice.

The article points to message editing as an example of a LINE Labs feature that began as a free trial and has already been confirmed as a future paid function. That has left users watching to see whether silent messages will receive the same treatment.

Taiwan users can currently test three LINE Labs functions on both Android and iOS: message editing, silent messages and chat categorization. iOS users also have access to opening links in the default browser and built-in media search within chats, bringing the total to five test features.