Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
KakaoTalk meets ChatGPT: Korean messenger unveils major updates to flagship app
Kakao CEO Chung Shin-a speaks during the company's annual if(Kakao)25 conference at Kakao AI Campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Courtesy of Kakao
By Lee Gyu-lee
Overhaul adds GPT-5, on-device AI, improved messaging features
Tech giant Kakao is rolling out major updates to its flagship messenger service KakaoTalk for the first time since its launch 15 years ago, integrating ChatGPT and self-developed artificial intelligence (AI) model, Kanana, to the platform, along with personalization and expanded communication features.
The company unveiled the updates at its annual if(Kakao)25 conference on Tuesday at Kakao AI Campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, outlining its ambitious road map to bring AI to its users.
“Over the past 15 years, Kakao has pursued a single goal to make everyday life easy and convenient for everyone. Now, Kakao seeks to prepare for the next 15 years in the way it does best,” Kakao CEO Chung Shin-a said during the conference.
“And the starting point of this is the renewal of KakaoTalk. A change of this scale is the first in its history. This renewal reflects KakaoTalk's commitment to focus on users’ voices and behaviors while closely responding to the changing era.”
The key highlight of this update is the deployment of OpenAI’s GPT-5-powered ChatGPT next month through a strategic partnership between the two companies. Users will be able to access the global-grade AI conversational tool on the messaging platform with a dedicated tab, which will also directly link conversations to Kakao’s services, such as Kakao Map, Gift and Melon, without switching apps.
“This gathering is a celebration of just how far AI has already come in Korea and a reminder of how much more we can achieve when technology and imagination move forward together,” said Oliver Jay, OpenAI international managing director.
“Together we can combine global technology with local leadership to create experiences that are natural, useful and entrusted … We look forward to expanding this collaboration and exploring new integrations across Kakao's platforms.”
Kakao Chief Product Officer Hong Min-taek speaks during the if(Kakao)25 conference at Kakao AI Campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Courtesy of Kakao
Kakao’s proprietary on-device AI, Kanana in KakaoTalk, is also slated to be released after running a closed beta test starting next month. The agentic AI feature will utilize Kanana Nano, a lightweight model optimized for the Korean language context, for real-time conversational assistance, automatic summarization and suggestion, along with advanced multimodal search features.
“Until now, users had to actively seek out AI and make requests. But, Kanana will automatically detect and recommend important tasks and various helpful information for daily life, even before a request is made,” Chung said. He also pointed out that its on-device feature solely operates within the app, ensuring privacy security.
KakaoTalk’s interface is also getting a major revamp with updated features reflecting user feedback.
The friends tab is redesigned to adopt a feed-style interface where users can share regular updates, photos and stories with their network, allowing for deeper social engagement through the app. Users can customize their friends list to set different levels of access to their feed.
Users can now organize up to 10 custom chat folders to sort their chatrooms, including a folder for unread messages, with each folder able to hold up to 100 chatrooms, making it easy to separate personal, professional and group conversations.
The unread folder includes features such as message previews and AI-generated summaries for quicker access to important updates.
The update also allows users to record their voice chat, providing AI-powered written summaries, and to edit sent messages.
The platform’s open chatroom feature will be upgraded to a community-style format for users to browse topic-based discussions and trending issues in a feed without joining the chatroom.
The newly launched short-form tab will enable users to discover, share and watch short videos within the app. This tab serves as a channel to enjoy trending and exclusive Kakao content and allows creators to easily produce and distribute their work.