In March 2026, a messenger with an unusual name—KakaoTalk—burst into Russian app stores. By the end of March 2026, the app had reached 11th place in the Russian App Store’s “Social Networks” category, and thousands of users had already installed it across the country. Read the aif.ru help section to learn more about this service, its origins, its features, and whether it should be considered as a replacement for traditional messaging apps.
What is known about the KakaoTalk messenger ?
KakaoTalk is a South Korean messaging app developed by Kakao Corp. Its history began in 2010, when a team of developers led by Kim Bum-soo and Lee Jae-b decided to create a simple and stable messaging service. Interestingly, before launching KakaoTalk, the company had experienced several unsuccessful projects, but upon entering the smartphone market, the developers finally created a mobile platform and the result exceeded expectations: the service, initially designed for 100,000 users, began to be installed by tens of thousands daily. Today, KakaoTalk accounts for approximately 90% of the messaging app market in South Korea, and worldwide, the messenger has approximately 53.5 million monthly active users.
For Russian users, basic features like messaging and calls are primarily important. Furthermore, unlike some other foreign services, KakaoTalk allows you to register with a Russian phone number.
In addition to basic features, it allows you to create public chats, features a calendar with a built-in assistant, voice filters, and customization options. KakaoTalk can be installed from the App Store, Google Play, or the Russian RuStore . Desktop versions are also available for Windows and macOS.
