Kakao announced on January 28th that it had revamped the existing reply feature in open chats to a comment format with the KakaoTalk 26.1.0 update. This shift allows conversations to be hierarchically organized under a single original message, and is considered an example of applying the threaded communication style familiar from Slack and Discord to a popular messaging app.
The focus of the redesign is maintaining context. While replies made it easy to pull up past messages, the more replies there were, the more difficult it was to keep track of the connections. The comment structure allows conversations to be grouped around specific messages, reducing the problem of topics becoming mixed up in large chat rooms. This feature was first implemented in the open chat community in September of last year and has now been expanded to general open chat.
The range of expressions in comments has also been expanded. While previous replies were limited to text and emoticons, new comments allow attachments of photos, videos, files, maps, voice messages, contact information, and even screenshots. We've also provided a setting to display comments in the main chatroom, allowing users who prefer the traditional workflow to enjoy the same experience. However, the reply method for one-on-one chats and general group chats remains the same.
This change coincides with the expansion of the service's operational scale. Kakao announced that it has increased the number of participants in open chats from 3,000 to 4,000 and added features to enhance topic-based communication. However, some criticize this as a so-called "submarine patch," citing the extensive changes not explicitly stated in the patch notes. Kakao stated that it will continue to monitor user feedback and usability.
Convenience features have also been added along with the Open Chat revamp. A feature utilizing AI-powered Canana to share voice talk summaries with other chat rooms has been added, and a new feature allows users to preview files within chat rooms by swiping left and right on the preview screen. A template feature for creating short videos from images has also been added, strengthening the trend of creating and sharing content within KakaoTalk.
