[FEATURE] Must-Have Applications For Your Daily Dose of Korean Entertainment Fix

With the growing craze of Korean culture & entertainment, it is unsurprising that the Hallyu Wave has crossed borders and reached areas outside Asia. In order to keep up with the latest updates, the internet has become a powerful tool in bridging the gap between celebrities and fans from around the world.

As the number of international fans continue to grow, The Seoul Story has listed our top application picks downloadable on your phones to keep track about your favourite artistes and to stay in touch with other Korean entertainment aficionados! 🙂

Twitter & Instagram
Twitter and Instagram are popular social media sites used by majority of us today. They are easily accessible worldwide, efficient and their multi-functionality makes it enjoyable and fun to use! A lot of Korean celebrities are active in these sites allowing them to share their thoughts, photos and videos with fans directly. Official agencies also use these social media sites to update fans with schedules and other latest related activities of the celebrities.

However, one of the things to be careful about is the high risk of fake accounts created for the celebrities. Make sure to look for the blue check-mark on the accounts to know that they are officially verified. In some cases where the accounts are yet to be validated, be sure to do your own little research to be certain you are following the right people!

Available on both Google Play & Apple App Store

V LIVE
V LIVE also known as V App is a live-streaming broadcast application developed by Naver Corporation exclusively for Korean and other Asian celebrities. It has since become the instrument for celebrities to interact with their fans easily. Whether it’s by broadcast or chatting, it is comvenient to keep their followers updated of their activities in real-time. Knowing that they can come online anytime and anywhere, makes their fans even more excited to tune in to their broadcasts!

Afraid of missing any V-LIVE(s)? The channels will re-upload the videos for fans to watch them at their own convenience. Even if you can’t understand Korean, most channels will have subtitles in their videos that are not just in English, but other languages as well. If a channel is taking too long to offer subtitles, fans can also contribute to the different translations for other fans to understand better.

Available on both Google Play & Apple App Store

Idol Champ
If you’re into voting your idols to the top, this is for you! Idol Champ is a Korean application that is mainly used for Show Champion pre-voting which takes up 20% of scores in the music show’s point system. Aside from that, you can also participate in random fun fan polls and view Korean entertainment news.

The application also recently added a new feature where you can collect ‘hearts’ to help your idols get featured on the main page. For a greater cause, Idol Champ also allows you to make donations under your idol’s name (e.g Animal Protection Organisations) which makes for a meaningful contribution!

You can log-in via Facebook, Google+, or Kakao Talk accounts which makes it easier to operate this application. The slight downside is, you have to set your Google Play or Apple App Store’s location to Korea prior to downloading the application. Idol Champ is also purely in Korean so if you’re not that fluent, you may find some difficulties navigating the other features aside from the voting tab.

Available on both Google Play & Apple App Store

SuperStar SMTOWN, JYPNATION, BTS & BeatEVO YG
K-pop is all about fun and if you’re looking at applications to keep your fingers busy, then you are in for a treat! SuperStar SMTOWN, SuperStar JYPNATION, and SuperStar BTS are three separate rhythmic game applications where you can collect digital cards to improve your scores while gaming along to the songs of your favorite artistes.

The cards consist of themes that you can match depending on your favorite era or album of the idols. Once you’ve started playing, you are grouped weekly with random players to compete against and the higher you rank, the greater the prices!

BeatEVO YG is YG Entertainment’s version of the SuperStar games. You can get into the rhythm of your favorite YG artistes and collect their virtual cards to improve your scores. Aside from being a rhythmic game like others, BeatEVO YG’s interface and visuals are different from the other three, providing a darker and edgier theme with contrasting game play and scoring systems.

What’s great about these games are, they provide in-app games as exclusive promos that allow you to win merchandises, albums, and sometimes even concert tickets! A word of caution though, it can get very addictive! 😛

Available on both Google Play & Apple App Store

Amino
Amino is a fairly new application where you can join communities and discussions specifically catered to your interests. It doesn’t only cater to K-pop fans as there are also communities about various things and other topics that you can explore.

For the K-pop section, there is a wide variety of categories within the communities. It is divided into information about the idols and their official social media accounts, polls and quizzes made by fans for fans, fan-arts, fan-fictions, and even a live chatroom to interact with other fellow enthusiasts!

You can also post your own blogs and other contents to earn a following in Amino.

Available on both Google Play & Apple App Store

SNOW
SNOW is a camera filter application used widely among Korean celebrities. Its extensive range of filters and stickers call for fun and lively photos and videos being posted! The application also acts as a messaging tool which allows you to update your profile and send messages and clips directly to your friends subscribed to the application.

What makes SNOW much more fun than other camera applications are their fun filters which range from cute to funny and even scary ones! It allows selfies taken to the next level and you can also play around with the K-pop filters available starring popular idol groups BTS, TWICE and many more! Videos saved in your phone can also be converted into GIF files.

Available on both Google Play & Apple App Store

VIU
Looking to get your Korean dramas and movies fix? VIU is a highly popular streaming application (also available in website format) where you can watch your favorite Korean dramas, movies, variety and even music shows anytime and anywhere!

Thai, Japanese & Hong Kong dramas and movies are also featured in the application and website. Afraid you might get disconnected from the internet? Don’t worry for you can download the videos in advance! You can get one item at a time if you’re using a regular account, but can have much more perks if you upgrade into the Premium account with benefits such as unlimited downloads, all access pass to all contents, priority viewing and full HD resolution. What’s not to like? 🙂

Available on both Google Play & Apple App Store

**

With the applications listed above, your life as a Korean entertainment enthusiast has just gotten easier and much more fun! Do you have your own favourite applications? Comment down below & share it with us! 😀

Written by: Jackie & Lisa

–

PATRONISE US: http://www.theseoulstory.com/
TWEET US: http://www.twitter.com/theseoulstory
‘LIKE’ US: http://www.facebook.com/theseoulstorydotcom
WATCH US: http://www.youtube.com/c/theseoulsto