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mcnlight · 11 months

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How Bubble works - a guide to the kpop idol messaging app

What is Bubble?

Bubble is a “private” messaging app for idols and fans, created by DearU. You can download and use the apps on iOS and Android devices.

How does it work?

There are multiple apps for all the different Korean entertainment companies, allowing numerous kpop idols, Korean actors and athletes to message their fans all around the world. However, there is a catch (or multiple)...

1. You have to purchase tickets to be able to receive and message back to your idol(s) of choice. Tickets work on a monthly subscription, you have to purchase the tickets for each group or artist individually. The pricing starts from $3.99 a month for one ticket, if you buy more tickets for idols from the same group you get a price cut, 2 tickets for $6.99, 3 tickets for $9.99 and so on. You can buy as many tickets as you want, but the maximum is always the number of members the group has, understandably. Take Twice as an example, the group has 9 members. If your favorite members are Nayeon, Momo and Jihyo - you can purchase 1 ticket for each of them separately or get 3 tickets at once, which is a bit cheaper. After you purchase your tickets, you have to pick the member of the group you want to receive messages from. You can change your chosen member once a month.

2. The app promotes itself as a private messaging app between you and your favorite idol. This is not entirely true. While it is really the idol who is sending you messages, they receive all the messages from the fans at once, more like a group chat rather than a 1-on-1 conversation. The idols can send messages, pictures, videos, and voice messages, but you can only send text messages back (3 messages per idol message). You can’t see the messages from other fans, so when the idols do reply to someone’s question, it might seem off with what you have sent to them. The app also provides message translators to a few languages (including english, japanese, chinese), which don’t always work 100%, but you usually can understand what the idol is saying.

3. The idols can use a command something like %username or [username] to send you personalized messages where it includes your username, giving you the illusion the idol is talking to you specifically. However, when you see your username in a message it’s just a command and every fan sees their own username. Idols cannot message fans privately, it is kind of impossible and also unethical (leaking someone's username for everyone to see, and the fans will feel betrayed and envious). A lot of idols do read the messages from fans and will reply to some questions or messages, they typically reply in a way that applies to everyone, for example: idol received a message asking ‘when were you born?’ idol replies: I was born in 2002. OR fans telling idols to stay healthy and rest or other positive messages, idol replies: Thank you everyone for the nice messages, it helps me a lot!

4. We are not quite sure how idols receive the messages from fans or what exactly they can see. Some idols such as SNSD’s Yoona and VeriVery’s Yongseung shared some behind the scenes info. Yongseung shared the process of sending out messages as an idol, you can read about the steps here: https://www.koreaboo.com/stories/idols-howto-send-bubble-message/

While Yoona showed in a video what she can see:

SM entertainment was the first to launch this service, their app is called Lysn and the video of Yoona is a few years old, so the way idols see messages might have changed. Some people online claimed idols can see your username next to the messages you send them, whereas others claimed the idol receives all fan messages in a big batch stored in a folder/cloud system, so they open them separately from the “chat” to read them. 5. Bubble has a feature called “Bubble anniversary” which is sampled after the anniversary traditions couples have in South Korea. Couples celebrate the number of days they have been together, for example day 10, 50, 100 etc. Bubble uses this feature to keep you subscribed for a long time by giving you messaging benefits after a certain amount of days you have been subscribed to the idol’s messages. You can send 3 messages in a row of 30 characters each message as a limit. Your character count for the messages will increase (The first one is 50 days and your character count increases to 50 characters. 77 Days you can do 77 characters. 100 days is 100 characters. There are some more milestones after these). You can see this by looking at the number near the Heart at the top of your bubble screen in the chat room. It is also against the rules (or illegal) to take screenshots and spread the content received from idols, a lot of people still do it, but it is heavily frowned upon.

6. Jaehyun of NCT recently sent a long message to his fans on Lysn (SM Bubble) about how his company asks (forces) him to send more messages on bubble because the idols get a contract. They get an ‘alarm’ to message at least one time a week or 4 times a month. You can read more about Jaehyun’s message here: https://www.allkpop.com/article/2023/04/netizens-express-divided-opinions-on-nct-jaehyuns-recent-bubble-messages

Bubble messaging is kind of like a duty for most idols (there are idols of course who enjoy doing it and spam you a lot) and a lot of them only send messages because of their contract. There are idols who like to share a lot, they usually write about what they are doing, what they ate and their feelings and thoughts. Some idols message a lot (10+) and every day, while others message a few times (few messages a week) or rarely (around 4 times a month). I also feel like a lot of idols take the fanservice of ‘Bubble duties’ to the next level sometimes, Stray Kids’ Felix got in a few controversies over his suggestive messages and photos from Bubble: https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/news-stray-kids-felix-sends-sensuous-selcas-bubble-sheds-cute-personality and https://kbizoom.com/stray-kids-felix-receives-criticism-for-sending-fans-r-rated-messages-through-bubble/

or many of them sending messages asking, ‘do you want to watch a movie? What should we watch?’ ‘So it is a date then, let’s see each other soon’ etc.

Different types of Bubble

Some bigger companies have their own Bubble service while other smaller companies join another Bubble type of app/service. The first Bubble app was Lysn, which is SM Entertainment’s idol messaging app originally launching in 2018, then gaining popularity in 2020 with the Bubble services. All of these apps work the same and provide the same services:

Lysn (SM)

bubble for JYPnation

bubble for Starship

bubble for IST

bubble for Cube

bubble for RBW

bubble for Jellyfish

bubble for WM

bubble for TOP

bubble for BPM

bubble for Treasure Hunter

bubble with Stars (more idols from smaller or other companies)

bubble for Actors (Korean actors)

bubble for Sports (Korean athletes)

Phoning (NewJeans)

Fromm (more idols from smaller or other companies)

The bubble apps for specific companies have all of their signed artists on the app, so they are easy to guess, but for the other apps here’s the list of idols on the apps:

bubble with Stars -

Lee Byeongchan

J.FLA

HAWW

Song Yuvin

Drippin

Kwon Eunbi (Iz*one)

Adora

Kep1er

Jo Yuri (Iz*one)

Yena (Iz*one)

Tempest

I.M (Monsta x)

B.I (iKon)

AB6IX

Wei

mimiirose

Tiffany Hwang (SNSD)

Aimers

ICHILLIN’

Yein (Lovelyz)

Yerin (Gfriend)

Youngjae (Got7)

Hwanhee (Fly to the sky)

Niel (Teen Top)

Yeeun (CLC)

Ryu Sujeong (Lovelyz)

KARD

CSR

Choi Yuree

Boramiyu

XEED

Heo Youngsaeng (SS501)

Lip J

Monika

Blitzers

Craxy

Jeon Somi

Son Hoyoung

Lee Woo

Park Jeup (Imfact)

H1-Key

Billlie

Aiki

Yoon Seobin

Mirae (the group)

Seo Jisoo (Lovelyz)

BOL4

No:Ze

Yoo Jiae (Lovelyz)

BAE173

Ciipher

Luminous

Gaho

You Chaehoon

DKB

Raon

Minzy (2ne1)

Kim Sowon (Gfriend)

10cm

Se So Neon

Seori

BZ-Boys

Nature

Hezz (Euijin from Sonamoo)

Yuju (Gfriend)

Tri.be

Stayc

Dreamnote

Kim Minju (Iz*one)

TO1

Kang Hyewon (Iz*one)

OnlyOneOf

Alexa

Yoon Jisung (Wanna One)

Yoon Jongshin

JeA (Brown Eyed Girls)

LUCY (band)

BDC

Kim Jaehwan (Omega X/Spectrum)

Chungha

Fromm -

EPEX

Able (Hyunseung from Beast)

Aaron (Nu’est)

CIX

Bang Yongguk (B.A.P)

Cignature

Cherry Bullet

BamBam (Got7)

Baek A Yeon

SF9

Ghost9

N.Flying

Dreamcatcher

Younite

Gree

tripleS

Hanhae

P1Harmony

Jooe (Momoland)

Jo Hyunah (Urban Zakapa)

Kim Hyeonjae (Black6ix)

Kim Jonghyeon (JR of Nu’est)

Kim Minkyeung (Pristin)

Kim Yewon

Kim Junsu (TVXQ/JYJ)

Prime Kingz Crew (dancers)

Kang Minhyuk (CNBlue)

Lee Chaewon

Lim Kim

Lighthouse Sound

Loopy

Minsu

Nam Woohyun (Infinite)

Park Jihoon (Wanna One)

Shin Yongguk (ATO6)

MustB

Seo Jieum

Sion (MVP)

So Soobin

Younha

Yang Dail

Zior Park

woo!ah!

Loona (Yves, Haseul, Yeojin, Olivia Hye, Gowon) - please don't subscribe to message them here because Blockberry Creative is getting the money, message them on Instagram instead for free!

Fromm has tickets which are called Arti Pass, you can buy up to 20Arti Pass at once. The pricing of the tickets are the same, however you can freely choose any idol of your liking and don’t have to purchase tickets per group.

Idols who are fluent or understand/speak English, so you can message them in English & they also write message in English:

Bang Chan, Felix, Han, Seungmin (Stray Kids) - fluent

Hyunjin (Stray Kids) - can speak English

Tiffany (SNSD) - fluent

Giselle (aespa) - fluent

Ningning, Karina (aespa) - can speak English

Jeon Somi - fluent

Keeho (P1Harmony) - fluent

Intak, Jiung, Jongseob (P1Harmony) - almost fluent

Lay (EXO) - can speak English

BamBam (Got7) - almost fluent

Wendy (Red Velvet) - fluent