On September 28, while chatting with fans on Weverse, Beomgyu of TXT reacted candidly to KakaoTalk’s latest large-scale update.
He asked, “Why does KakaoTalk update however it wants?” and added, “I really hate when things suddenly change, and this update is just too much for me.” He continued, “Honestly, it’s really terrible. If you’re going to force an update, at least let us go back to the previous version. I like analog things, so having everything change at once is really hard.” Acknowledging that some updates can be meaningful, he said, “I get it if they’re adding something groundbreaking. But they just made it harder to use and added unnecessary features. And I really don’t care about anyone else’s profile, but now they’re laid out like a gallery.” After venting, he tempered his tone: “Okay, I should stop here… I still think it’s cool that the developers keep creating new things for users. Thank you for your hard work.”
KakaoTalk functions as South Korea’s de facto default messenger, woven into daily routines for family and school chats, work groups, shopping and banking alerts, deliveries, taxis, and some public services—so major design changes feel immediately disruptive to many users.
Online reactions largely mirrored Beomgyu’s points. Comments repeatedly called the redesign confusing and cluttered, said even parents now find it harder to use, and demanded a rollback option or the ability to opt out of forced updates. Typical remarks included variations of “Exactly right—please let us revert if you push an update,” “The new profile wall is unnecessary and intrusive,” and “I’m turning off auto-updates.” Others praised Beomgyu for “saying what we’re all thinking,” while noting that his closing thanks to developers came off as considerate even amid strong criticism.
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