[Courtesy of KT]
The three major South Korean mobile carriers released a joint statement on Tuesday and said that they have interlocked their messaging platforms to launch "Chatting+", the next-generation messaging service.
"We will further upgrade Chatting+ and add useful features which customers want such as money transfer and sending gift coupons," KT 5G business division head Park Hyun-jin was quoted as saying.
The mobile carriers said that "Chatting+" service is available free just by upgrading the default text messaging app installed on smartphones. The next-generation messaging service supports up to 2,700 characters in Hangul, the Korean alphabet, and 4,000 characters in the English Alphabet. Users can also share large-sized files of up to 100 megabytes and engage in group talks of up to 100 people per chat room.
Mobile carriers including SK Telecom, the country's top mobile telecom company, have released the next-generation messaging services based on Rich Communication Services (RCS) through selected smartphones earlier this year but users were only able to use RCS' features with others using the network of the same mobile carrier.
RCS is a communication protocol designed to replace short messaging service (SMS). In 2016, GSM Association (GSMA), a trade body that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide, published the Universal Profile, a single specification for advanced communications.
Currently, Kakao Talk, a smartphone messenger app operated by web service giant Kakao, has the largest number of monthly active messenger app users of about 48.2 million. Kakao's messaging app provides easy data-sharing and group chat features. Kakao Talk also attracts users with one-stop mobile shopping services and digital payment service.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
