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The No. 1 chat app in East Asia has added an end-to-end encryption for all users of its program.

Line, the chat app from Naver Corp. of South Korea, calls its system "letter sealing", a form of encryption that works for all users of the service, including multi-party chat rooms, and both audio and video phone calls.

Line is a free app that currently is used by more than 100 million people on smartphones and personal computers. It is easily the most popular chat application in Asia, where it started life three years ago as an app with extensive emojis and stickers, and aimed at that time at female teens.

Without giving up its root attractions, it has grown into a serious chat application used in many businesses. By implementing encryption, Line has already begun claiming to be a new industry standard for businesses, agencies and individuals trying to avoid hackers or other outside surveillance or interference.

The new "letter sealing" feature is turned on in the app's settings. To work effectively, both or all ends of a conversation must enable the feature.

Few details of the actual encryption used have been released by the Korean developer. For now, it says little beyond, "Messages will be protected using advanced encryption."

However, it has been used and tested on all Line's core duties - text chat, multi-party chats, audio phone calls and video calls.

Line use grew quickly over the last two because of its ease of use. Even advanced features such as video phone chatting are performed with a single tap.

The app is free to use, and can be previewed and downloaded from the app's main website (line.me), or for phones and tablets through Apple's iTunes or Android stores.