Google Play Rating at 1.1, App Store at 2.2
Harsh Criticism Continues... Recovery Unlikely for Now
KakaoTalk announced its plan to restore the 'Friends List' just one week after a major overhaul, but user dissatisfaction appears to persist.
As of October 1, according to the industry, KakaoTalk's rating on the Google Play Store stands at 1.1 out of 5. On the Apple App Store, it remains at 2.2.
KakaoTalk unveiled its first-ever large-scale update since launch at its annual IfKakao event on September 23, but was met with strong backlash from users. The overhaul included changing the friends list to a grid-style feed and adding a short-form tab. After the update, users protested that KakaoTalk's core identity as a messenger had disappeared and that it now resembled a social networking service (SNS).
In fact, users flooded the Google Play Store and Apple App Store with the lowest possible ratings, demanding a return to the previous version and posting harsh criticism.
Ultimately, just six days after the update, KakaoTalk conceded and announced it would restore the friends list to the main screen of the Friends tab. However, even after this decision, the app continued to receive some of its worst reviews. While the wave of 'one-star attacks' has somewhat subsided, users are still leaving scathing comments such as "This is the worst," "Completely clueless," and "It's ruined," even after the restoration plan was announced.
Hong Min-taek, Chief Product Officer (CPO) of Kakao, is delivering the keynote speech at the If Kakao 2025 Conference held on the 23rd at the Kakao AI Campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. Kakao
Online, criticism continues to be directed at Hong Min-taek, the Chief Product Officer (CPO) of Kakao, who is known to have led this overhaul. In particular, there has been controversy over an explanatory post that Hong shared on the company’s internal bulletin board.
Although he clarified that there was no intention to diminish the messenger functionality, regarding the introduction of the short-form feature-another source of controversy-he reportedly stated, "Metrics such as app downloads and traffic are being maintained. I believe it could become a full-fledged service." This was interpreted as him standing by the overhaul.
The timing of the restoration is also an issue. Kakao has said improvements will be made during the fourth quarter, but the exact date has yet to be determined.
As a result, there are predictions that it will be difficult to recover from the lowest review scores anytime soon. One industry insider commented, "The backlash from users was beyond anything we could have imagined, so it will not subside easily. For now, we will have to calmly monitor the situation."
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