A quiet messaging feature moves behind a subscription
LINE plans to end free access to its silent messaging feature in early November 2026, moving a tool available through LINE Labs since June 2020 into its Premium subscription. For users in Taiwan, continued access will require a membership costing NT$165 a month.
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The change affects a practical way to send a message without interrupting someone. A silent message arrives without triggering a notification sound, a pop-up window or a push notification on the recipient's phone. Someone who remembers a task late at night can send it immediately without setting off the usual alerts.
LINE announced the change on October 13. As of November 5, it had not specified the exact day when free access would end, leaving people who use the feature with an early November window rather than a firm deadline.
A second change is scheduled for later: call recording, currently available for free testing through LINE Labs, is expected to become exclusive to Premium members in late January 2027. That transition also carries a deadline for people who need to save recordings made during the trial.
What changes for silent messages?
Silent messaging has been available for about six years, following its introduction in June 2020. LINE placed it in LINE Labs, the part of the app where users can enable experimental features and try them before a wider release.
LINE will stop providing silent messaging through Labs and include it among Premium membership benefits. People without a subscription will lose access to that sending option once the change takes effect.
The feature controls how a message alerts the person receiving it. Its useful quality is the absence of an interruption: the sender can pass along information while leaving the recipient to check the conversation later.
For someone who regularly uses silent messages, the decision becomes whether that convenience is worth paying for as part of Premium. At the stated monthly price of NT$165, keeping the subscription for 12 months would cost NT$1,980, calculated from the monthly charge.
That amount is the price of membership, which includes access to Premium features, rather than a separate fee charged each time someone sends a silent message.
How to use the option before free access ends
Users who still have access during the free period can enable silent messaging by opening LINE's settings, entering LINE Labs and switching on the feature. It must be enabled before the sending option appears in a chat.
After writing a message, press and hold the send button. A menu allows the sender to choose a silent message or send it normally. The longer press is the step that brings up the choice.
For people who have never enabled the feature, the remaining free period offers a chance to see whether it is useful in their daily conversations. Someone who often messages friends or colleagues outside their usual waking hours may use it differently from someone who sends nearly everything during the day.
Users should check whether the option remains available in their app, since LINE's announced transition falls in early November. The company has given a period for the change, so access during that period may depend on whether the transition has already taken effect.
Call recording has a later deadline
LINE's call recording trial follows a similar route from an experimental feature to a subscription benefit, but its timetable is different. Free testing is expected to continue until late January 2027, after which recording will become exclusive to Premium members.
The feature works in calls between two people, covering both voice and video conversations. Users can start or pause recording themselves during the call.
A voice call can be recorded for up to one hour per recording. Video recording has a maximum of either 20 minutes or 50 minutes, depending on the picture quality setting. Users therefore need to check the selected quality and the corresponding limit before relying on the feature for a longer conversation.
The longest stated video allowance is two and a half times the shorter one: 50 minutes compared with 20 minutes. Even the longer video setting allows less recording time than the 60 minutes available for a voice call.
To try recording, users need LINE mobile version 26.16.0 or later. From the Home screen, they can open the settings using the gear icon, scroll to LINE Labs and enable call recording.
Save trial recordings before the period closes
People using the recording trial face a second task beyond deciding whether to subscribe: protecting files they want to keep. LINE says users without Premium must save their recordings to their device before the trial ends. Those files will not be retained after the trial period closes.
Saving a file to a device means keeping a copy in the phone's storage rather than relying on its continued availability through the trial. For someone recording a conversation they expect to revisit, that makes downloading the file a separate step from making the recording.
LINE says recordings made during the trial will be unaffected for Premium members who have enabled advanced backup. Both conditions matter in that statement: having the membership and turning on the backup feature.
A person who intends to keep using the free trial without subscribing should make saving important recordings part of their routine before late January arrives. Waiting until the final day leaves less time to locate files and confirm they have been stored on the device.
LINE plans to announce the precise recording trial deadline through the latest information section in the app's settings. That notice will give users the date they need for saving files and deciding whether to continue through Premium.
The dates users need to track
LINE's changes span two features and several months. Silent messaging reaches its announced transition first; call recording has a longer trial period and a separate file retention requirement.
- June 2020: LINE introduced silent messaging through LINE Labs.
- October 13, 2026: LINE announced that silent messaging would leave Labs and become exclusive to Premium members.
- Early November 2026: Free silent messaging is scheduled to end.
- November 5, 2026: The exact silent messaging cutoff day had not been announced.
- Late January 2027: The call recording trial is expected to end, with the precise deadline to be announced in LINE's settings.
The difference between the two schedules gives users separate decisions to make. Someone who only uses silent messaging faces the November change. Someone testing call recording also needs to follow the January notice and arrange to save recordings before the trial closes.
Two features, different practical consequences
Silent messaging and call recording are both moving toward Premium access, but the immediate consequences differ. For silent messages, the change concerns whether a sender can continue choosing an alert-free delivery option. For recording, it concerns future access to the recording tool and the retention of files already created during testing.
LINE Labs is the common starting point. Silent messaging remained there for roughly six years, while call recording is being offered with an expected trial endpoint. Their schedules show why users need to check the terms attached to each experimental feature individually.
For people deciding whether to pay NT$165 a month, the useful comparison is with the features they actually use. Someone who sends silent messages frequently may place more value on continued access than someone who has never enabled the option. A person using the recording trial also needs to account for its time limits and backup conditions.
The most immediate actions are straightforward: check silent messaging access during November, keep LINE updated to use the recording trial, and save any recordings that need to survive the trial's end. Premium members who rely on LINE's stated protection for trial recordings should also check that advanced backup is enabled.
Key Points
- LINE is moving silent messaging from free access in LINE Labs to Premium membership in early November 2026.
- Premium costs NT$165 a month in Taiwan, equivalent to NT$1,980 for 12 monthly payments.
- Silent messages arrive without notification sounds, pop-up windows or push alerts.
- The free call recording trial is expected to end in late January 2027, followed by Premium access.
- Recording limits are one hour for voice calls and either 20 or 50 minutes for video calls, depending on quality.
- Users without Premium must save trial recordings to their device before the trial ends or the files will not be retained.
- Premium members with advanced backup enabled will retain their trial recordings under LINE's announced conditions.
