【Singapore】

One hot rival has entered the arena for workplace messaging.

Japan's most popular messenger app Line announced on SingaporeThursday the launch of Line Works, its chat app for offices.

SEE ALSO: Line is set for a billion dollar IPO thanks to stickers

Line Works is available for iOS and Android smartphones, and for Windows and Mac on the desktop.

The company, which is owned by South Korean web firm Naver, has an average of 218 million monthly active users, and is immensely popular in Japan and other Asian countries such as Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia.

Line is well known for its iconic stickers, which generated $280 million for the company in 2015.

The stickers are usually used in place of emojis or GIFs -- and there's one for almost every emotion.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Line is hoping these stickers will set Line Works apart, although it's launched the office-ready platform with more traditional features like a calendar, cloud storage and an address book.

But Line Works faces some heavy competition.

Microsoft last year announced the launch of its own group chat for office -- Microsoft Teams -- which comes free as part of Office 365.

Facebook too has jumped on the bandwagon with its product Workplace, which lets companies create their own internal Facebook-like group for employees.

Facebook is charging a per-user-fee for Workplace, at $3 per person for the first 1,000 active users; $2 for the next 1,000 - 10,000 people; and $1 for more than 10,000 active users.

Line and Slack might be cheaper for smaller firms.

Line and Slack, on the other hand, are sticking to a monthly subscription payment plan, that doesn't change regardless of the number of users. That might be attractive to smaller firms with fewer employees.

Line's subscription rate is priced at around $2.70 - $10 per user, which could potentially beat out Slack's pricing range of $6 - $15.

So the next time you find yourself reaching for the perfect reaction GIF, remember that you could be posting a nifty Line sticker instead.

---

Featured Video For You

---

Can dating apps be used to catch fugitives? You bet.

---

• Social Good
• Games
• Shopping
• Science
• Tech
• Life
• Digital Culture
• Deals

• The Permanent Vactioner
• #ItTakesOne is a campaign to end sexual harassment at music gigs
• Artist and mom of twins harmoniously pairs working and breastfeeding
• If you hate auto insurance, you're going to love driverless cars
• <em>The Voice</em> and Its Village
• This map is your interactive guide to fall foliage
• The iPhone now comes in black, and an even blacker black
• Dos Equis debuts younger, Spanish
• Throne of Games
• Amazon leaks iPhone 7 product page, showing off Bluetooth headphones

• The difference in these shoes for girls and boys shows sexism is very much alive
• Watch this Yankees fan's heart break as things go quickly south against the Red Sox
• The internet attempts to comprehend Trump's unhinged press conference
• DOJ wants the IP addresses of 1.3 million visitors to a Trump protest website
• Tesla's 'Full Self
• Google lists Halloween 2020's most popular costumes
• Robocalls, WeChat messages, and more spread misinformation on Election Day
• How to check if your mail
• Unhinged Trump was hard at work on Twitter before you'd even had your morning coffee
• From pizza to playlists, how to help people standing in line to vote

• Operation Snowflake
• Apple introduces 'swim
• How the iPhone 7 Plus compares with Samsung's Galaxy Note7
• No, Apple, killing your headphone jack is not 'courage'
• The Tyranny of the Takes
• The 5 biggest takeaways from the Apple event
• Artist and mom of twins harmoniously pairs working and breastfeeding
• Powerful illustration perfectly sums up the pressures women face
• Watch NASA video of total lunar eclipse from space
• Parody site encourages an 'upgrade' to iPhone 7 by plugging up your headphone jack

• Catholic Sisters Storm Capitol Hill
• The queens of 'Broad City' stumble upon small rural town of Yass
• The gold luxury Apple Watch experiment is dead
• Amazon leaks iPhone 7 product page, showing off Bluetooth headphones
• The Cambridge Analytica Con
• Uber parks up a swimming pool next to Shoreditch station
• The iPhone 7 Plus's dual camera means true zoom is possible
• Woman doesn't understand why everyone thinks she is dead
• Who is Michael Cohen?
• Not even humble candy corn is safe from the brunch trend