[Digital Today reporter Lee Ho-jung (이호정)] Kakao is continuing feature updates across KakaoTalk, focusing on boosting users' time spent and usage. The update direction has two main tracks. It is adding AI features to strengthen "conversation material" and "everyday convenience", and reshaping the open chat structure into a topic-centred comment (thread) format.

This is seen as a strategic move to shift KakaoTalk from a simple messaging app into an "experience and community platform". But as features grow, users are feeling greater UI (user interface) complexity and fatigue. User tolerance in proportion to the pace of platform expansion has emerged as a key variable.

AI from play to "agents"… a strategy to increase time spent

Kakao's AI strategy focuses on everyday play features rather than productivity tools. A representative example is "My own Jjordy", which creates a character from a single selfie through "ChatGPT for Kakao" at the top of the chat tab. By delivering image results without installing a separate application, it lowered the barrier to entry for users.

The "Kanana template", which applies Kakao's own AI model, converts still images into 2 to 3 seconds of video to enrich the context of conversations. Through features such as "Memory Restoration" and "Live Profile", it makes people in photos smile or move their heads. This approach strengthens emotional connections between users and prompts conversation.

The recently updated AI agent "Kakao Tools" is an attempt to evolve AI into a daily-life tool. Users can talk with ChatGPT while making KakaoPay transfers or calling a Kakao T taxi, and links with external platforms such as Musinsa and Olive Young are also planned. This is an attempt to increase time spent in the app by positioning AI as both a "conversation topic generator" and an "integrated payment and reservation window".

The overhaul of the open chat reply function into a comment format is in the same vein. A thread format that groups comments under a specific message addresses the downside of conversation context getting mixed in rooms with many participants. Expanding the participant limit to 4,000 is also a profitability-boosting strategy aimed at turning open chat into an "interest-based community" and managing time-spent metrics that tie directly to advertising revenue.

The flip side of platform expansion… feature bloat and worsening usability

Concerns are also being raised about usability declines from aggressive feature expansion. Comment notifications are currently duplicated across 3 places: open chat rooms, the top symbol (↳), and the general chat tab. Even after checking content in a chat room, a notification mark (N) can remain in other areas, and the duplicated notification system is increasing inconvenience for users.

Rising UI complexity is also under scrutiny. With the addition of a short-form window, a ChatGPT-linked tab and a separate comment window, KakaoTalk's distinctive intuitiveness is being assessed as weakening. In particular, because the service is used across all age groups, frequent overhauls and new communication methods require high learning costs for middle-aged and older users.

Ultimately, Kakao's latest update is testing the balance between securing profitability by increasing time spent and maintaining user convenience. If adding features for monetisation ends up damaging the messenger's inherent intuitiveness, it could in the long run have the opposite effect of reducing users' willingness to stay on the app.

An industry official said, "KakaoTalk's frequent updates are a platform survival strategy aimed at increasing its share of users' daily lives beyond a simple messenger," adding, "How intuitively it integrates AI functions and the community structure will determine its future success as a business platform."