Messaging App LINE To Get Its Own Digital Assistant ‘Clova’

When it comes to digital assistants, it seems that every company out there is interested in making their own as opposed to piggybacking on existing platforms. Apple has Siri, Google has Google Assistant, Amazon has Alexa, Microsoft has Cortana, Samsung reportedly has Bixby, SoundCloud has Hound, and now LINE appears to be getting its own as well.

In a report from the Financial Times (paywall; via Engadget), messaging app LINE has announced that they will be launching their own digital assistant called Clova. For those unfamiliar, LINE is a messaging app that seems to be pretty popular in Asia, so if you haven’t heard of it don’t worry too much about it.

At the moment there is no clear date on when Clova will be launched, but LINE is expecting that it should be released this coming summer. The platform is being developed with help from the likes of Sony and LG, who interestingly enough are two companies that do not have their own digital assistant platforms.

It will be capable of doing what most digital assistant platforms can do, such as accessing the news, weather, calendars, online purchases, “complicated questions”, and apparently even facial recognition. As to availability, Clova will be open to third-party apps and hardware, and will be initially released as a standalone app and integrated into a smart speaker system called “Wave”.

We have to wonder with input from both Sony and LG, could it be possible that we might see Clova find their way into future Sony and LG devices as well? We guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: AI (Artificial Intelligence), Apps, line