Concepts

This document introduces the features of the Kakao Talk Channel API.

Overview

Kakao Talk Channel (used to call 'PlusFriend') is a service to share various service news in the form of a message or feed with Kakao Talk users. Kakao Talk Channel provides a feature to send a marketing message to the Kakao Talk Channel friends that indicate users who have added a Kakao Talk Channel. To reduce costs, you can create a group of friends based on their user information, such as gender, age, region, and rating, and send a message only to the targeted group of the users who are more likely to do the expected action.

Kakao Talk Channel strengthens the relationship between the service and users by providing various extended features such as chat, smart chat, and bot. For example, You can attract more users to visit your service web page or share an URL that guides useful product information through Kakao Talk Channel messages.

Kakao Talk Channel provides two main features. You can use these features using a Kakao Talk Channel ID.

• Kakao Talk Channel API for Kakao Talk users.
• Kakao Talk Channel customer management API for Kakao Talk Channel administrators to manage customer groups more conveniently.

Note: Kakao Talk Channel ID

A Kakao Talk Channel ID is a unique identifier included at the end of the Kakao Talk Channel URL in {_English} format. To check your Kakao Talk Channel ID:

1. Go to [관리(Management)] > [상세설정(Detailed Settings)] in Kakao Talk Channel Admin Center.
2. Check the 채널 URL(Channel URL). Your Kakao Talk Channel ID is the combination of alphabets including underbar(_) after 'pf.kakao.com/'.
   • Channel URL: https://pf.kakao.com/_ZeUTxl
   • Channel ID: _ZeUTxl

Add Kakao Talk Channel and chat

Kakao Talk Channel API provided by Kakao SDK displays a bridge page for a user to go to a Kakao Talk Channel. When the user access the bridge page, a pop-up that asks whether to move to the Kakao Talk Channel is presented. If the user accepts, the Kakao Talk app is launched through the Custom URL Scheme and moves to the corresponding Kakao Talk Channel. Users can add the Kakao Talk Channel as a friend or start a chat on the Kakao Talk Channel.

This feature is only available for Kakao Talk users. If users who are not Kakao Talk users attempt to log in with their Kakao Accounts, let them know with the message "There is no Kakao Talk linked with this account."

Manage Kakao Talk Channel customers

The Kakao Talk Channel customer management feature helps you to register and manage a customer file through the APIs. Based on the registered customer file, you can make different groups of friends for the targeted users. You can also create a user list according to user conditions as a customer file and manage groups of friends on your own in Kakao Talk Channel Admin Center.

This feature also makes target marketing more effective. If you have integrated Kakao Login or Kakao Sync Simple Signup into your service, you can create a customer file based on the user information you obtained through the Kakao Login or Simple Signup process using this feature. Then, you can create a group of friends based on this customer file and send them a targeted message according to your desired conditions in the Kakao Talk Channel Admin Center. For more details, refer to Notice in Kakao Talk Channel Admin Center.

This feature is only provided by the REST API method, and you must make a call only from the server. Refer to each guide to see how to set and develop this feature.

Best practice

Once a user has been linked to your service through Kakao Login, you can check whether the user has added your Kakao Talk Channel through the Check Kakao Talk Channel relationship API, and use the user information for target marketing. Refer to each development guide to learn about how to develop this API:

• REST API
• JavaScript
• Android
• iOS

When you send a Kakao Talk Channel message to your Kakao Talk Channel friends, you may have difficulty in figuring out who has added or blocked your channel at that time. In this case, you can use the Kakao Talk Channel callback feature. With this feature, you can get notified when a user adds or blocks your service's Kakao Talk Channel and keep track of the addition status of your Kakao Talk Channel.

If you want to expose the [Add Friend] button to your service all the time regardless of the use of Kakao Login, use the Add Kakao Talk Channel feature. Then, users can easily start a chat by clicking this button to get supported while using the service.

Features

• Refer to Scope of support to know whether each Kakao SDK supports each feature.

Feature	Description	Documentation
Add Kakao Talk Channel	Provides a bridge page to allow a user to go to a Kakao Talk Channel and add the channel as a friend.	JavaScript Android iOS Flutter
Start Kakao Talk Channel chat	Provides a bridge page to start a chat with a the Kakao Talk channel on Kakao Talk.	JavaScript Android iOS Flutter
Check Kakao Talk Channel relationship	Checks if a specific user has added or blocked your Kakao Talk Channel connected to your service app.	REST API JavaScript Android iOS Flutter
Check multiple users' Kakao Talk Channel relationship	Checks if specific users have added or blocked your Kakao Talk Channel connected to your service app.	REST API
Kakao Talk Channel callback	Notifies when a user adds or blocks your service's Kakao Talk Channel, and update the user information.	Callback
Customer management: Register customer file	Registers a new customer file.	REST API
Customer management: View customer file	Retreives a customer file.	REST API
Customer management: Add user	Adds a new user to the customer file.	REST API
Customer management: Delete user	Deletes a user from the customer file.	REST API