KakaoTalk’s Biggest Overhaul in 15 Years: AI, New Tabs, and ChatGPT Integration - IT조선

KakaoTalk is undergoing its biggest transformation in 15 years. The overhaul focuses on revamping the Friends, Chats, and Now tabs, while equipping the messenger with Kakao’s AI “Kanana” and OpenAI’s “ChatGPT,” turning it into an “AI lifestyle platform.” On the 23rd, Kakao hosted its developer conference “If Kakao 25” at Kakao AI Campus in Suji-gu, Yongin, where it unveiled and demonstrated the direction of KakaoTalk’s overhaul and its AI service strategy. The update consists of three key categories: tab redesign, chat enhancements, and AI service integration. Major KakaoTalk Overhaul… Friends, Chats, and Now Tabs Redesigned The first tab, “Friends,” has been transformed into a feed-style layout. Users can now see profile updates and posts in a timeline format without tapping individual profiles. Photos, status messages, and countdowns updated by friends will appear in a grid-style feed on their profile home. Users can control visibility settings or hide specific friends. These changes reflect user concerns about “Instagram-ification.” The second tab, “Chats,” has been optimized for convenience. Users can create up to 10 folders at the top to organize chatrooms, with up to 100 chatrooms per folder. New default folders for “Unread” and “ChatGPT” have also been added. The “Unread” folder lets users check all unread messages at a glance, with a pull-down preview option. Kakao’s AI “Kanana” will provide conversation summaries. Hong Min-taek, Kakao’s Chief Product Officer (CPO), said, “We are adding the much-requested chatroom grouping feature.” The third tab, “Now,” now consists of Open Chat and Shortform video. The new “Open Chat Community” lets users browse trending topics without entering a chatroom, and interact via comments in a feed-style community instead of live chat. The Shortform feature lets users watch videos, share them directly to a chat, or watch together in real time. Message Editing and VoiceTalk Call Recording Chat features have also been upgraded. In August, Kakao extended the message deletion window from 5 minutes to 24 hours; now it is adding a message editing feature. Edited messages will display an “edited” tag below the bubble. Like deletion, edits must be made within 24 hours of sending. The “VoiceTalk” in-app call service now supports call recording and speech-to-text transcription regardless of device type or carrier. Previously, recording was only available on Android devices, and iPhone users had to rely on third-party apps. The “# Search” inside chatrooms has been rebranded as “Kanana Search.” Instead of requiring manual input, Kanana Search analyzes conversation context to proactively provide relevant information. Kanana and ChatGPT Seep into KakaoTalk KakaoTalk is now equipped with Kakao’s AI “Kanana” and OpenAI’s “ChatGPT.” Kanana acts as an AI agent that summarizes unread messages, summarizes VoiceTalk transcripts, provides Kanana Search results, and connects to the broader Kakao ecosystem. Importantly, Kanana is on-device — conversations and calls are only summarized locally, not stored on servers or used for model training. ChatGPT will be integrated with existing OpenAI accounts, with a target launch in October. Users can link their ChatGPT account to KakaoTalk or sign up with their Kakao account. However, features like Custom GPTs or Projects will not be supported. The integration focuses on simple, seamless use so that even users unfamiliar with AI can easily access it. In the prototype demo, a conversation in a chatroom was sent to ChatGPT as a question, and the response was shared back into the chatroom in real time. CEO Jung said, “This KakaoTalk overhaul is unprecedented, but it’s only the beginning. Kanana 2.0 is evolving every week, and by next year’s If Kakao event, users will find KakaoTalk even easier, more convenient, and more enjoyable in their daily lives.” [email protected]