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Remember when “poking” your friends on Facebook was a trendy thing to do? I feel old now just by recalling how my schoolmates and I could spend the entire evening “poking” each other online, refreshing the browser page every few seconds in attempt to return a “poke” at the fastest timing possible. Well, the younger generation who only got on Facebook in the recent year or two probably wouldn’t have an idea what I’m talking about since the trend has died down.

But you know how trends are revived every once in a while? “Poking” is now back with a new force, this time on the globally popular free messaging mobile app, LINE. Sorry to dash your hopes if you were looking forward to giving your LINE friends a cyber poke because LINE users are “poking” their favorite (or least favorite) anime characters and celebrities instead!

There are various free messaging applications for smartphone users, and among the gazillion choices out there, LINE is wildly popular in Japan and extending its reach to users worldwide at a rapid pace, due to the wide variety of games and supporting apps available on the platform. One of the most popular features of LINE has to be the myriad of expressive stickers and emoticons available for use with the chat function.

Anime and manga fans in Japan have recently found a way to “touch” their favorite 2D characters through the messaging app. The magic lies in a certain sticon that can be found in the service and downloaded for free.

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▼ You could choose to poke a real person instead.
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▼ Or… poke a certain crying Japanese politician.
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Here’s how to do it:

1) Open a chat window.
2) Go to settings and set the wallpaper to an image of your choice.
3) Open the sticon panel by tapping on the icon to the left of the text box.
4) Download (if you haven’t already) the set that is represented by a pink-haired girl.
5) Send the sticon as a message and poke away!!

▼The poking finger sticon can be found in the set.
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▼ This anime fan (yours truly) couldn’t resist trying it out on her all-time favorite character.
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Image: RocketNews24

Who are you gonna poke? Share your “poking” masterpieces in the comments section below!

Source: Zhaizhai News
Images: Game Over, Twitter