My wishlist for KakaoTalk: eight exciting concepts I'd love to see implemented
My wishlist for KakaoTalk: eight exciting concepts I'd love to see implemented
KakaoTalk is already South Korea’s top messaging app and a must-have. As a long-time user, I’ve come up with eight concepts that could make it even better.
Of the 51.6 million residents of South Korea there are 45 million users of KakaoTalk 카카오톡, a messaging and communication app available on all major smartphone, smartwatch, and computer operating systems.1 In the ensuing years since KakaoTalk’s 2010 debut, the broader Kakao 카카오 ecosystem has expanded considerably–hail a cab with KakaoTaxi 카카오택시, send money with KakaoPay 카카오페이, or rent a bike with Kakao T Bike 카카오T 바이크–but the core of KakaoTalk has largely remained the same: communication.2
Having used KakaoTalk and many of its subsidiaries since 2011, I have grown to appreciate the main functionality of the app – but I also see room for improvement. In this design case study, I will outline eight concepts that could take KakaoTalk to the next level.
1. View photo slideshows on smart TVs
In late spring, my brother-in-law and his wife welcomed their first child–my nephew–into the world. Although they are in Seoul 서울 and my wife and I live in New York City, we were able to keep up-to-date with the dozens and dozens of photos and videos sent to us daily via KakaoTalk. But rather than crowding around a smartphone or tablet, what if users could stream a slideshow of images or videos from KakaoTalk directly to smart TVs?
There are a lot of potential use cases for slideshow functionality: house parties, work meetings, or family gatherings. Furthermore, a larger emphasis on the long-term storage of photos and videos could also push more users to consider Kakao’s paid Talk Drive Plus 톡서럽 플러스 service.
2. Send photos and videos in Secret Mode
Around the holidays, I often share gift ideas with my family members. To prevent the family member who will eventually receive the gift from accidentally seeing the idea, I use Invisible Ink, a Text Effect on Apple iMessage, which hides the content of the message from the recipient until they choose to reveal it. Providing users with an added level of visual privacy would be excellent addition for KakaoTalk.
Our electronic devices often present themselves as more private than they are. People in crowded subway cars, open-floor workspaces, and even family members living together can glean a lot of information from even a quick glance at one’s screen. The concept featured here focuses on how media could be discreetly received and shared between users.
3. Optionally exclude OpenChat messages from unread counter
Regardless of the day or time, the red circular badge for KakaoTalk on my wife’s iPhone constantly displays that she has 999 unread messages.3 (The actual number is much higher, but the counter stops at nine hundred and ninety nine.) However, literally over 99% of these unread items are not personal messages, but rather unread messages in OpenChat 오픈체팅 group chats.
OpenChat is a public chat room service that allows any KakaoTalk user to join and converse. Those who are the first to create an OpenChat are able to set guidelines, delete rule-breaking messages, curate users, and possess other moderator powers. However, large, active, or large and active OpenChat rooms can accumulate a lot of messages over a short period of time. As a result, many users often mute notifications from their OpenChat rooms.
However, even if a user has muted notifications, unread messages still show up in the badge on top of the app’s icon – rendering the badge utterly useless in many cases. KakaoTalk should enable users to prevent unread OpenChat messages from contributing to the app’s icon badge.
4. Combine the iPhone app and Mac app into one universal app
When developers create programs for Apple platforms, they are able to take steps to make these into Universal Apps – namely, one listing on the App Store for an app that can be downloaded to multiple Apple devices. For example, the wonderful recipe-organizing app Crouton is a Universal App; its single listing on the App Store can be used to download the app to Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Vision, or Apple Watch.4
Confusingly, KakaoTalk has two App Store listings: one listing for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, and one for Mac. This odd choice to have two separate listings means that notifications sometimes lag between devices, Screen Time data is inaccurate, Parental Controls are more difficult to implement, and iPhone Mirroring duplicates to name a few issues. Furthermore, users who sync app downloads between devices will have to take additional steps to download the app!
Sometimes developers will release an iOS app through the App Store–because they have to do so5–and then a Mac app through their own website to have slightly more freedom than what the App Store allows. But that is not the case here, as the macOS version of KakaoTalk is available on the App Store! It just makes more sense to reduce fiction for users: KakaoTalk should have a single unified App Store listing.
5. Enable end-to-end encryption by default
End-to-end encryption is a system of private communication that uses cryptographic keys to prevent unauthorized users from viewing or contributing to conversations. Apple iMessage and FaceTime, Signal, WhatsApp, Viber, and Skype all use end-to-end encryption; Meta has committed to end-to-end encryption on Facebook Messenger and Instagram Messages.
KakaoTalk has Secret Chat, a complicated way to create an encrypted chatroom. First, it is an opt-in feature. Second, Secret Chats are device-specific and do not sync with other devices. Third, encryption is unavailable for group chats, OpenChat rooms, audio calls, or video calls. In other words, KakaoTalk has done the bare minimum to implement an incredibly inconvenient and inconsistent way to securely communicate.
But my philosophical disagreement with Secret Chat cuts deeper than inconvenience: encryption should be the norm, not just reserved for “secret” conversations. If only those who need encryption–investigative journalists, whistleblowers, activists–use it, then it stigmatizes encrypted communication as only for people with something to hide. Furthermore, users deserve to know that their conversations–whether lighthearted or deathly serious–are secure from prying eyes. Encryption should be the standard for all communication in KakaoTalk.6
6. Embed rich media in conversation threads
An unspoken rule of app design is to minimize the amount of times a user has to leave the app. At best, it’s inconvenient; at worst, the user might not return to the app! This is why chatting apps, such as Apple iMessage, Discord, and (kind of) WhatsApp embed many links with videos or social media posts to prevent users from having to leave the conversation thread and open a link in the browser. KakaoTalk should do similarly.
My concept here focuses on both links sent containing videos on YouTube and also posts on Twitter, currently known as X. In both instances, users are able to gain more information without leaving the conversation thread - all while taking up less space than the current implantation. More visually appealing, more time spent in the app, and quicker access to relevant information – it’s a win-win-win.
7. Ensure that KakaoTalk translations are properly formatted
KakaoTalk is currently available in 15 languages.7 While this level of multilingual support is a plus for accessibility, it also brings complexity to user interface (UI) setups. On the whole, KakaoTalk is well-translated from Korean to English, but every now and then you find the poor implementations (see above image) or unusual translations.
The overwhelming majority of KakaoTalk users will be Korean for the foreseeable future. But a little attention to proper cross-language implementation for users who speak other languages can go a long way.
8. Add support for Focus Mode
In 2021, Apple debuted Focus Modes with iOS 15 and other of their operating system updates.8 This allows users to view certain information, hear from specific contacts, or receive notifications from pre-selected apps while a given Focus Mode is enabled.9 For example, when my Focus Mode called Work is on, notifications from most apps are muted, all calendars but my work calendar are hidden in the Calendar app, and only my professional contacts can communicate with me.
Given that many people use KakaoTalk for personal, professional, academic, and extracurricular purposes, enabling users to segment the app according to Focus Mode would be incredibly helpful. For example, a user could mute notifications from work-related contacts while their Focus Mode called Personal is enabled, or filter out group chats with friends while Work is turned on.
Hereafter, “South Korea” will be referred interchangeably with “Korea” unless specified otherwise.
Neither I nor my wife are quite sure why she put KakaoTalk, the mobile ticketing app for Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road, and nothing else in a folder labeled “NYC.” Comment below with your theories!
I whole-heartedly endorse Crouton. I am hoping one day that its awesome developer Devin Davies will create an iMessage app and Apple TV app to truly make it work across all Apple devices!
Except within the European Union.
I felt that it would be irresponsible to discuss end-to-end encryption without mentioning communication app Telegram, arguably most-famous in South Korea and elsewhere due to its reputation for providing encrypted messaging. However, Telegram is not an encryption-first application.
For context: in August, center-left newspaper The Hankyoreh 한겨레 uncovered a gigantic community on the Telegram app with over 220,000 members devoted to selling deepfake pornography of users’ acquaintances without the acquaintances’ consent. The discovery of this trove of illegally-created images–approximately one out of every three of which depicted minors–reignited criticism that apps employing encryption can be used to facilitate illegal behavior. To be clear, those who create, profligate, or consume unconsensual explicit deepfake media in this misogynistic manner should swiftly be brought to justice.
However, as Gizmodo explains, “Does Telegram provide an encrypted chat option? Yes, but it’s not on by default and turning it on isn’t easy.” In the view of privacy advocates, Telegram’s encryption-centric reputation is overstated and the result of creative marketing, particularly from Telegram CEO Pavel Durov – who was arrested in France under suspicion of knowingly allowing drug trafficking, child pornography, and fraudulent financial transactions to flourish on the app.
There are valid philosophical questions to be asked concerning where an individual’s right to privacy ends and society’s right to be free from criminal behavior begins. Telegram, however, is not the secure app it has portrayed itself to be and should not be used as an argument against encryption as a whole.
The supported languages are Korean, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, and Vietnamese.
My concept focuses on how this could be implemented on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS. I am aware that there is also Focus Mode on many Android devices, although it seems operate somewhat differently.
Shout out to Tae Young Woo for checking over the text in my Korean mockups. Writing in the style of a professionally-developed application does not necessarily come naturally to me for my second language.