Line Corp. on Thursday hosted Line Developer Day 2017 in Tokyo for engineers to discuss the company’s technology-related advances, strategies and future plans, the company said Sunday.

The annual tech conference consisted of 39 sessions on topics including the Line messenger app, the Clova cloud artificial intelligence platform, the LINE Messaging application programming interface, LINE API Expert accreditation system, and the new Line Kyoto “developer base” expected to be launched in spring next year.

Examining the artificially intelligent voice assistant platform Clova, or Cloud Virtual Assistant, the participants discussed the structure of Line’s new AI technology, namely the development of Clova-equipped products such as Wave and the Champ smart speakers. Wave is currently on the market in a prelaunch version, while Champ features designs based on Line’s official characters. 

The company said that it is planning to release the Clova Interface Connect and Clova Extension Kit in 2018, which will enable external engineers and third parties to develop products using Clova technology. No specific date has been revealed.

As for Line’s Messaging API, the company reviewed how third-party developers have explored it since last year, setting up more than 130,000 chatbot accounts and exchanging more than 10 billion messages with approximately 2 billion friends as of the end of August.

The Messaging API is constantly being updated for engineers, service providers and users, including the Rich Menu API, which will be added soon to allow developers to control the size and layout of rich menus -- a function that allows users to send text or URLs by tapping an image, according to Line.

A new program announced during the event was Line API Expert, designed to help third-party engineers and those who can expand upon the Line platform, by offering an accreditation system to certify and support external engineers who have demonstrated skills using LINE’s APIs.

One can apply to be certified as a Line APR expert, the company said, by submitting materials that can support one’s experience in such areas as giving presentations, disseminating information on social media and on blogs and giving feedback regarding API/SDK. A certified APR expert will be given pre-release beta versions of products.

At the event, the company said that the Line Kyoto developer base will be launched in spring next year. In addition to developing products and services, Line Kyoto will provide a space for local engineers and tech students to interact with Line engineers and gain expertise. The event “Line Developer Meetup in Kyoto No. 1” will be hosted on Oct. 20. 

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)