Messaging API overview

# Messaging API overview

Use the Messaging API to build bots that provide personalized experiences for your users on LINE.

You associate your bot with a channel on the LINE Platform. When you create the channel, the LINE Official Account will also be automatically generated.

How to acquire basic knowledge of LINE Official Account

If you don't know what a LINE Official Account is before learning about the Messaging API, you can learn the knowledge and skills of LINE Official Account online on the comprehensive learning platform "LINE Campus (opens new window)".

# How it works

The Messaging API allows for data to be passed between your bot server and the LINE Platform. Requests are sent over HTTPS in JSON format.

  1. The user sends a message to the LINE Official Account.
  2. The LINE Platform sends a webhook event to the webhook URL of the bot server.
  3. According to the webhook event, the bot server responds to the user through the LINE Platform.

Messaging API architecture

# Experience Messaging API with LINE Official Account for demo

LINE API Use Case (opens new window) provides LINE Official Account for demo using the Messaging API and its source code. Add the LINE Official Account for demo as a friend on your smartphone to experience the Messaging API for yourself.

# What you can do with the Messaging API

# Send reply messages

Reply with a message to users who interacts with your LINE Official Account. Requires a reply token in the request. For more information, see Sending messages.

# Send messages at any time

Send messages directly to users whenever you want. For more information, see Sending messages.

# Send various message types

Choose from various types of messages to send to users including:

For more information, see Message types.

# Get content sent by users

Get image, video, audio, and other files sent by users. Note that content sent by users is automatically deleted after a certain period of time.

For more information, see Get content in the Messaging API reference.

# Get user profiles

Get LINE user profile information of users who interact with your LINE Official Account in one-on-one and group chats. You can get users' display names, profile images and status messages.

For more information, see Get profile in the Messaging API reference.

# Join group chats

Send messages in group chats and get information about the members of the group chats. For more information, see group chats and multi-person chats.

# Use rich menus

The rich menu is a customizable menu which helps users discover how they can interact with your LINE Official Account. Users can access this menu from the chat at any time.

For more information, see Using rich menus.

# Use beacons

Using LINE Beacon, you can configure your LINE Official Account to interact with users whenever they enter the range of a beacon. For more information on using beacons, see Using beacons.

By using the account link feature, providers (businesses and developers) can securely link the existing user accounts from their service with accounts belonging to LINE users that have friended providers' LINE Official Account. For more information, see Linking user accounts.

# Get the number of sent messages

This only returns the number of messages sent with the Messaging API, not LINE Official Account Manager.

For more information, see the following sections in the Messaging API reference.

# Messaging API pricing

You can get started with the Messaging API for free. Anyone can use the Messaging API to send a message from a LINE Official Account.

You can send a certain number of messages each month for free. The number of free messages depends on the subscription plan (opens new window) (only available in Japanese) of your LINE Official Account. The subscription plan may vary by country. See your country’s subscription plan for more information.

You can also send additional messages beyond the free message limit. You will be charged based on the number of additional messages sent. To send additional messages, open LINE Official Account Manager (opens new window), select your LINE Official Account, and then select a subscription plan that allows you to send additional messages. Here, set a maximum number of additional messages.

For more information about how to change your subscription plan and set a maximum number of additional messages, see the Activity and billing (subscription plan changes and payment related management) (opens new window) (only available in Japanese) page on LINE for Business.

How to count the number of messages

The number of messages is counted by the number of people to whom the message was sent. For example, even if you send a push message with four message objects specified in a single request to a chat room containing five people, the number of messages counted is five. The number of message objects specified in a single request doesn't affect the number of messages sent.

Also, if you send a message to a user ID that has blocked the LINE Official Account, a user ID that doesn't exist, or to any other users that won't actually receive your message, it won't be counted as one message.

# Next steps

To create a bot, create a Messaging API channel in the LINE Developers Console. A LINE Official Account is created together with the channel.

For more information, see Getting started with the Messaging API.