Character art (Credits: Teaz’s X/Twitter account / Lezhin Entertainment)
Webtoon giant Lezhin Entertainment has officially launched Teaz, an AI character chat service built around its original webtoon IPs, in Korea today, October 19.
Teaz lets fans interact directly with characters from original series published on Lezhin Comics and Bomtoon. Users can either step into the story as one of the characters or chat with them from a third-person perspective. It is the company’s boldest move yet to turn its IPs into something readers can talk to, not just read.
What makes Teaz different
The service runs on officially licensed IPs, and its hook is relationship-based conversation. A character’s responses — and its relationship with the user — change depending on the choices made during chats. For webtoon fans used to following a fixed storyline, the idea of a character remembering your decisions and reacting to them is a genuine draw.
Lezhin is also leaning into game-like collection elements. Users can unlock hidden illustrations and in-chat items created by the original webtoon artists themselves. That collector angle, paired with creator-produced artwork, gives the service a reason to keep fans coming back long after the first conversation ends.
A web launch first, with more modes on the way
Teaz debuts as a web service, with a mobile app planned for a later date. Lezhin says it will roll out additional features in stages, including a text-based role-playing game mode. The company has not yet said whether an English version is planned, so international fans will have to watch and wait.
Parent company KidariStudio framed the launch as part of a wider push to combine its content IPs with new technology, expanding what a webtoon property can become beyond the page.
Part of a bigger AI chat wave
Lezhin is not alone in betting on AI character chats. Back in July 2026, Naver WEBTOON launched byUs, a story chat service that lets users build narratives with characters from creator-approved webtoon IPs, starting with Ctrl+Alt+Resign. That followed its Character Chat service, which debuted in South Korea in June 2024, crossed 100 million messages by June 2025, and expanded to Japan through LINE Manga in February 2026.
Taken together, the launches show webtoon platforms treating AI conversation as a serious new layer of reader engagement — one that keeps fans inside an IP’s world between chapters.
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Source: Anime News Network — read the full story there.
