Kakao on the 2nd announced a new update to the Kanana app, which is operating as a beta service. The update reflects user feedback to improve features and design and was carried out to strengthen the app's usability.
Kanana is an app where users can converse with the group AI mate "Kana" and the personal AI mate "Nana" to experience AI in a familiar way, and in this update the first screen was revamped into three bottom tabs.
In the "Home" tab, in addition to chatting with the personal mate "Nana," users can also talk with topic-specific special AI mates such as tarot, four pillars (saju), challenges, study coaching, and insurance consultations. For example, the tarot mate is a cute and friendly character that offers various fortunes and consultations, while the challenge mate helps with goal-achievement tasks favored by the MZ generation. In addition, the study coaching mate analyzes learning tendencies with education experts, and the insurance consultation mate explains complex insurance terms in simple language.
In the "Chat" tab, a group room list and friend-invite feature are provided, and in the "More" tab, users can set up personal profiles and link external data. Along with this, a multimodal feature has been added, allowing users to generate images or continue drawing images to suit each person's taste within group chats. Voice-based conversations are also supported, and conversations are possible in multiple languages including Korean and English. Personalization has been strengthened to provide more tailored responses based on conversation history with the mates.
Kakao also said it plans to develop the Kanana app into a community AI service. To that end, after a pilot run of the "biased broadcast" group room, it will resume operations to coincide with the 2025 KBO postseason starting Oct. 5, along with various prize events. The "biased broadcast" is a group room that helps fans immerse themselves by cheering for a specific team, with real-time game coverage and AI analysis.
Kim Jong-han, performance leader at Kakao, said, "We will further activate interactions between users and AI through a diverse range of AI mates and will work to discover use cases within the community."