LINE Notification Messages (LON) in Taiwan 2026: What They Are, Cost, Eligibility, Allowed Content and What Small Shops Can Do Instead

What is a LINE notification message?

In one sentence: if a business holds a customer's mobile number, it can use its own LINE Official Account (LINE OA, the business side of the LINE messaging app) to deliver a notice to the LINE account tied to that number, whether or not the person is a friend of the account.

LINE Taiwan calls the product LINE 通知型訊息, in English LINE Official Notification Message, or LON for short. The official sales kit names the interface behind it the Phone Number Push API, which is why you also hear "PNP" in the market. It is the same thing.

Three things set it apart from an ordinary broadcast.

First, recipients are specified by phone number, not by friend list. The sales kit explains that the numbers held by the business and the numbers of LINE users are each hashed before they are matched, and the push only happens on a match.

Second, the content can only be a notice. In LINE's own words, a notification message "is not an advertisement". It is limited to notices that are valid and necessary for the user, and any promotional, advertising or discount message is prohibited.

Third, the look is set by LINE. The message format and fields have to pass review by LINE's team. The LINE Developers documentation notes that recent versions of LINE show an "Important notification" label (重要通知) next to the Official Account icon so the recipient can tell it is not a regular push.

Who can use it? Three gates to check first

Read this part first. It can save you the next thirty minutes.

One more note: LINE's Official Account product page states that a verified account needs a premium ID (專屬 ID) and has to pass LINE's review. Also, from April 1, 2026, standard Official Accounts no longer show what used to be called the grey shield, so "has a shield or not" is now the line between verified and unverified.

If you are a one-⁠person studio, just opened your account, or have no order or booking system, these gates will almost certainly stop you. No need to feel bad. Jump to the alternatives further down; that section is written for you.

How is a LINE notification message priced?

LINE publishes exactly one number: NT$0.2 per notification.

LINE's own comparison is with SMS: the product page says a traditional text message costs roughly NT$0.8 to NT$2 each, and notes that this is a reference figure and you should confirm the real rate with your SMS provider.

What FRIDAI Editorial wants to point out is that NT$0.2 is only LINE's message fee. If you go through a technology partner, LINE's own article says the usual pricing is "an integration fee plus a message service fee"; if you build it yourself, there is engineering time. When your monthly volume is low, the SMS savings may not cover the cost of getting set up. Pull out last month's SMS bill and do the sum before going further.

What can you send, and what can you not?

The official sales kit lists 18 eligible use cases. They are grouped below; see the use-⁠case list in the sales kit for the full wording.

What you cannot send is easy to remember: anything with a marketing, promotional, advertising or discount purpose. Birthday credit, limited-⁠time discounts, new arrivals, gift-⁠with-⁠purchase offers all fall in that group.

Three rules that are easy to miss.

First, for content outside the list, LINE reviews case by case whether it is valid and appropriate for users. Even for a listed use case, adding or changing the description triggers an individual review.

Second, a notice can carry a button that opens an external link or a LIFF page (a web page that opens inside LINE), but the page has to relate to the notice, or LINE can require you to change it. Using a "View order" button to smuggle in a promotion page is a dead end.

Third, if you break the rules, LINE has the right to stop your use of notification messages.

Four conditions before a customer actually receives one

Sending is not the same as arriving. The sales kit states that all four conditions below must hold. Miss one and the message does not go out.

On consent, three official documents fit together like this. The sales kit says the setting is on by default for users on a recent enough version who have agreed to the privacy policy. The LINE Help Center explains that users can switch it on or off themselves under Settings, then Privacy, then "Provide usage data", then "LINE notification messages", or simply block a particular Official Account to stop its notices. The LINE Developers documentation adds that if a user has never set it, the system first sends a message asking for consent, and if they do not agree within 24 hours the notification is deleted.

On verification, the Help Center says LINE sends a phone number verification reminder about every 180 days to confirm that the number on the account is still in use.

This has a practical consequence. According to the sales kit, a failed number match is known immediately, but the other three failures (blocked, no consent, verification not completed) are only known 24 hours later. That is why LINE itself recommends notification messages for important messages that are "less urgent", such as ordinary shipping and arrival notices, bills and booking reminders. For card-⁠transaction alerts, order-⁠placed notices or system incidents that must arrive within five minutes, stay with SMS, email or app push.

Last, legal responsibility. The official rules are blunt: the business must confirm with its own legal counsel that the mobile numbers were obtained lawfully before using them for notification messages, and LINE takes no legal responsibility if a user questions how a number was obtained. Also, any message other than a notification message may only be sent to friends, never to non-⁠friends.

Notification message vs broadcast vs one-⁠on-⁠one chat

People often lump these three together. They solve three different problems.

How broadcast fees and quotas work is covered separately in LINE Official Account pricing 2026.

Do you need LON? One chart to decide

FRIDAI Editorial's view: LON fits businesses that hold a lot of phone numbers, whose customers are mostly not friends yet, and that send a large volume of transactional notices every month. Think e-⁠commerce with an order system, restaurants with a reservation system, chains with a membership system. If your customers already come to you on LINE, LON solves a problem you may not have.

How to apply: go to LINE directly or through a technology partner

LINE's article describes two routes.

Either way, the sales kit lists the same four-⁠step application process.

1. Use-⁠case review

You submit the notice scenarios you want to send, with descriptions, and LINE headquarters reviews whether they fit the permitted use cases.

2. Contract signing

You sign a purchase contract and an NDA. LINE notes that the documentation for this advanced API is only provided after signing.

3. Testing and acceptance

LINE provides a test environment. When testing is done you submit a screen recording for acceptance.

4. Go live

LINE estimates the process above takes about 10 to 20 working days, and specifically warns that this does not include API integration and system development time.

The technology partners currently listed on LINE Taiwan's product page are Crescendo Lab (漸強實驗室), Omnichat, 直通國際 (esi-⁠tech.net), 台北數位廣告 (taipeiads.com), 翔評互動 (alleypin.com), 91APP, 酷必資訊 (coolbe.com.tw) and 樂排 (inline.app). The list changes, so go by what the product page shows on the day. Each partner's quote and minimum volume are not published by LINE; you have to ask.

If your shop does not qualify, do these instead

At its core, LON exists because "the customer is not a friend, but I still have to notify them". A small shop can turn that around: make the customer a friend at the moment of the transaction, and the later notices no longer need LON.

1. Add friends at the moment of purchase

Put the add-⁠friend QR code on the checkout counter, the booking-⁠confirmed page and the card that goes in the parcel, and say plainly what adding you is good for.

Sample sign copy (Chinese): add us on LINE and we will notify you here about shipping and pickup, a reminder the day before your booking, and you can message us with questions.

加入我們的 LINE，之後這些事都在這裡通知你：
・訂單出貨與到店取貨
・預約前一天提醒
・有問題直接傳訊，營業時間內回覆

More entry points are collected in ways to get LINE Official Account friends.

2. Move confirmations and lookups into chat

When a customer messages you to book or order and you confirm in chat, that is one-⁠on-⁠one chat and is not counted as a message fee. Fixed questions can go to auto-⁠replies; see LINE auto-⁠reply setup examples.

Sample booking confirmation (Chinese): we have your booking, with date, time and party size, and you can reply to this message to change or cancel.

已收到你的預約
日期：＿月＿日（＿）
時間：＿＿：＿＿
人數：＿位
要更改或取消，直接回覆這則訊息就可以。

3. When you do need to reach out, use targeted messages

For things you have to announce yourself, such as an arrival or a schedule change, you can send friends a targeted message that goes only to the people concerned. It counts toward the monthly quota, but a small list means a small count. See LINE targeted messages and tags.

4. Put a "check status" entry in the rich menu

Rather than notifying one message at a time, let customers look things up whenever they like. Put order lookup and booking history in the menu; the design approach is in the LINE rich menu guide.

5. Leave the truly urgent to SMS or a phone call

Even LINE recommends keeping highly urgent messages off notification messages. A same-⁠day cancellation or a sudden closure is fastest by phone. No need to force a tool onto it.

Common pitfalls

First, treating LON as cheap promotional SMS. It will not pass use-⁠case review, and a violation after launch can get you cut off.

Second, assuming sent means delivered. Two of the four conditions are out of your hands, and the sales kit says outright that notification messages can replace only part of your SMS cost; failed ones still need another channel.

Third, duplicate notices from SMS fallback. LINE mentions that a user may get the SMS first, then complete verification and receive the notification message too. LINE's suggestion is to include the time the event happened and add a line such as "if you have already completed this, please ignore this message".

Fourth, a stale list. If the number differs from the one registered on the customer's LINE, there is no match. LINE recommends updating numbers regularly and checking again before you send.

Fifth, broadcasting so hard that people block you. Someone who blocked you cannot even receive notification messages, and the sales kit lists "broadcast less, send personalised targeted messages instead" as a way to raise the success rate. Drive customers away with noise and you cut off the notice channel along with it.

FAQ