We all know WhatsAppIn fact, I would play it to say that all of you who are reading this use or have used WhatsApp. But currently there is a new service that is stealing a lot of prominence, LINE. In reality, the two are very much alike, share many of their main characteristics, and have their pros and cons. Still, there are important differences between the two. We want to put them face to face so that you can evaluate the best and the worst of each one, LINE vs WhatsApp.
Conversations
In conversations with users, they are very similar. We can have individual conversations as well as group conversations. If anything, in this aspect, LINE has an advantage, and that is that we can invite other users to an individual conversation, without the need to create a new group conversation, that's really interesting. In addition, in both we can share photos, videos, audio messages, the location where we are, as well as a contact from our agenda. As it cannot be otherwise, the famous Emoji icons are available in both systems. But yes, in LINE there are fewer icons and they are not exactly those of WhatsApp, although extremely similar; they retain the essence in any case. The main difference is in the stickers. At LINE we have large icons with drawings, larger than Emoji, and much more fun, with a real message. We can download free icon packs, which exist to a large extent, and we can also pay to acquire some specific and thematic ones. An additional detail is that LINE allows you to silence individual conversations, WhatsApp only allows it with group conversations.
Main difference: LINE has Stickers and allows to mute individual conversations.
Registration and friends
The way to add friends is extremely similar in one way. As we register with our phone number, it is able to recognize the friends that we have on our agenda and who have already joined the service in question. We can also block them if we don't want to talk to them, that in both systems. However, to LINE we must add one thing, and that is that in addition to registering with a phone number, it asks us to register with a user account and password. In this way, we can locate users by their ID. We can also find them by QR codes, or even through our Facebook account, searching among our friends. A luxury, without a doubt.
Main difference: LINE finds friends by your phone, user ID, Facebook, QR code, or even by bringing the devices closer together. WhatsApp only on your phone.
Compatible devices
For me, this detail is essential. And the proof is that a few days ago we published a post about Wassapp, a computer program that allowed us to use WhatsApp from our PC. The popularity of this has been tremendous, so there are many interested users. Well, thanks precisely to the fact that we can register with email, LINE allows us to connect to our account from the PC and Mac versions, thus chatting with our friends through our computer. Ideal for those of us who work with it and cannot lose sight of it when we are doing our tasks. WhatsApp cannot be used from the PC, but it is not even from a tablet, only from a smartphone.
Main difference: LINE is compatible with smartphones, tablets, PC and Mac. WhatsApp only with smartphones.
Resource and battery consumption
Here things change slightly. LINE is a good program, that is clear, but it consumes a lot of battery. The screenshot that I show you on the right should serve as a clear example of what I want to convey to you. While WhatsApp has only consumed 2% of my mobile battery, LINE is the second service that consumes the most, spending 32% and only below the screen, far from the rest of applications or services. Without a doubt, that is really worrisome. In addition, it also consumes more RAM. For entry-level devices, it may not be the most efficient, although that will surely improve over time.
Main difference: WhatsApp consumes a lot less battery and requires less resources. LINE is very demanding and uses a lot of battery.
Language and language
It may seem ridiculous nowadays, but the truth is that the language in which an application is made is very decisive. LINE is only available in English, in addition to other oriental languages. WhatsApp is available in Spanish. It is true that, for example, I had hardly noticed that it was in English. As all the options are accompanied by very clear icons, it is really intuitive. However, for those who have no idea of ​​English, it can be somewhat annoying. As expected, they will also improve this, especially considering what the application is pulling in our country. But for now, nothing at all.
Main difference: WhatsApp is available in Spanish. LINE is intuitive, but at the moment only in English.
Number of users
Again, WhatsApp has the upper hand here. Easy, if we take into account that LINE has 10% of the number of users that WhatsApp has, it is easily deductible that more friends will have this last service. To show a button, I have around 80 users on WhatsApp, while on LINE I don't have more than 15, and my contacts are quite a lot. geeks. Obviously, it is much easier for you to find users on the popular service than on the new and oriental LINE. But everything can be a matter of time.
Main difference: WhatsApp has a lot more users than LINE.
Technical drops
WhatsApp falls and the world falls. Yes, the problem is that it has fallen too much in recent weeks. At the same time, it reports an error according to which it does not allow me to see the status message of the users. It is affecting many, and it is precisely those moments in which it begins to talk about the alternatives. LINE is not intended to be dropped, on the contrary. It emerged as an alternative to mobile networks during the earthquake that struck Japan. Designed to survive disasters. Be careful, because that could end up killing the popular service.
Main difference: LINE has proven to be reliable in the roughest moments. WhatsApp goes down frequently.
Added services, VoIP
WhatsApp is limited to written conversations, to chats themselves. LINE goes further, being also a VoIP calling service, in the style of Skype or Viber. Viber was born as that, with the addition of being able to maintain conversations through it. LINE was born as a WhatsApp, with the addition of conversations and that is what can make it great, which presents it as the ideal alternative. It is as easy as selecting the user, clicking on Free Call, and speaking with him voice to voice what we were talking about in written form.
Main difference: LINE is also a free VoIP calling service.
Social aspect
LINE, worth the redundancy, is a Timeline. That is, we can upload our status, as if it were a social network, in a very similar way to Twitter. In WhatsApp we can do the same, but with a limitation, we can only show a status, and it is difficult to access. At LINE we have a history, a thread with everything our contacts have written, etc. In this way, it is extremely more social. It seems so useful that many users have asked for an integration with Twitter and Facebook. We will see what happens with this, but at least, for now, it is considered as much more social than WhatsApp.
Main difference: LINE has a Timeline of moods where we can publish open messages to all our contacts. A kind of Twitter.
Price
And finally, we focus on the price. LINE is free, with little paid add-ons that we don't need. However, WhatsApp is paid on iPhone. And be careful, because there are many rumors and statements from company spokesmen about the Android version. Iván MartĂn tells you everything in this other post, WhatsApp could become paid.
Main difference: LINE is free. WhatsApp is paid for iPhone, and we will see how things are with the other platforms.
