LINE Official Account Roles and Permissions

A LINE Official Account is the customer-facing account that people add as a friend and message. LINE Official Account Manager handles its profile, broadcasts, chat settings, and staff access. LINE Developers Console holds a provider and its channels, including the Messaging API channel linked to the Official Account. A Business ID can be used to sign in to the developer console, but signing in is not the same thing as being assigned a provider or channel role. LINE explains the developer account and Business ID relationship.

Start an audit with the actual Official Account, not a person’s LINE login. Record the account name and ID, then check Settings > Manage permissions in Official Account Manager. Next, identify the provider and Messaging API channel in LINE Developers Console. LINE says the Channel ID is visible in Official Account Manager under Settings > Messaging API for an Admin, or in the developer console under Basic settings. Matching that ID prevents a common mistake: reviewing a test channel while a different channel serves customers.

The consoles have different jobs. A shop manager who must reply to customers needs an Official Account role. A contractor who configures a webhook needs the appropriate Messaging API channel role. Provider access alone does not automatically grant channel access, and channel access does not imply a role in Official Account Manager. LINE documents these scope boundaries explicitly. Keep a simple inventory with one row for each human, each console, and each channel. That makes an offboarding review more reliable than a single list of names.

The Official Account Manager permission menu names four operational choices: Administrator, Operator, Operator (Sending restricted), and Operator (Insight restricted). The distinction matters when an agency prepares a campaign but should not see performance reports, or when a support worker should edit responses without sending a broadcast. LINE’s Official Account permission guide and help article for adding administrators show the permission management screen. The Japanese guide was updated in October 2026; menu wording below follows the English help screen.

An Administrator is the right role for a company employee accountable for staffing and account settings. An Operator can handle day-to-day operations but cannot add administrators. The sending-restricted and insight-restricted variants narrow one operational capability each; neither becomes a substitute Administrator. Before inviting a person, decide whether they need to send broadcasts, inspect results, or simply do support work. If a campaign freelancer only prepares content, the ability to send to every friend is a real difference, not a cosmetic label.

A LINE Official Account can also belong to a group. LINE’s October 2026 permissions manual says users with group permissions may operate included accounts according to their group role. Therefore, checking only the account’s direct member list may miss access granted through a group. Inspect Settings > Manage permissions > Groups when an agency or regional team says it can still reach the account after its direct membership was removed.

A provider is a container for channels; the Messaging API channel is where the technical connection lives. At provider level, LINE names Admin and Member, plus “No role” for a developer who has channel access without provider membership. Provider Admin can edit the provider name, create channels, and manage provider members. Provider Member has much narrower visibility. A provider Admin still cannot inspect a linked channel’s details without a channel role. The provider permission matrix is published by LINE.

At channel level, LINE names Admin, Member, and Tester. For a Messaging API channel, Admin can view or edit its Messaging API and Security tabs and manage channel roles. Member can view Basic settings and, when enabled, webhook errors, but cannot edit Messaging API settings. Tester has limited visibility and is not a production bot administrator. LINE’s channel matrix separates these operations by channel type. Give the engineer who must change a production webhook channel Admin only for that channel. A QA tester who needs a QR code should not receive provider Admin just to find it.

Treat provider and channel grants as two rows in the access register. A developer can appear as a Member of a provider yet have no channel access, or as a channel Admin with No role at provider level. A missing production channel in the sidebar often indicates a scope problem, not a broken login. Ask an existing channel Admin to check the Roles tab before creating another channel. LINE also says removing a developer from a provider does not necessarily remove a pending channel invitation; inspect both role lists after any change.

For Official Account Manager, sign in with an existing Administrator, select the account from Accounts, then open Settings > Manage permissions > Add member. Choose the permission type and Generate link. Send that link privately to the intended person; they sign in with their own account and select Accept role. Verify the person and role on Manage permissions before assigning a customer conversation or a scheduled message. LINE’s English help article provides this exact path.

To change an existing Official Account permission, use Settings > Manage permissions, click Edit beside the member, select the new permission type, and Save. The Japanese October 2026 manual says a generated authentication URL expires after 24 hours and is valid for one person. Generate another link if a hire misses the window; sharing one invitation among a whole agency is the wrong model. That manual also describes an app route through Settings > Permissions, but the English web path is the clearest route for a cross-region handoff.

In LINE Developers Console, a provider Admin selects the provider, opens Roles, and uses Invite by email. For a channel, select the specific channel and use its Roles tab. LINE documents the provider actions as Invite by email, Edit, and Delete selected; channel grants must be checked separately. Remove the former developer from the channel before assuming a provider removal closed technical access. If the person handled a bot deployment, rotate its credential as well; removing a named role cannot retract a token already copied into another system.

For a departing Administrator, add and confirm a replacement first. Then change or remove the old member and inspect groups. This sequence is operational advice derived from the fact that Operators cannot add administrators. It keeps the ability to change permissions inside the company while the handoff is underway.

The person who first created an Official Account may be the only Administrator unless the company deliberately added others. LINE’s help page says an existing Administrator is required to add or change administrators, and Operators cannot add them. Check that dependency before an owner leaves. Keep at least one other accountable company Administrator with a separate login, and record who controls the Business ID and developer provider. Do the handoff while the current holder can still accept prompts and invitations.

Verification identifies the public account; it is not a staff permission. LINE markets Unverified Account, Verified Account, and Premium Account in its regional materials. A Thailand account guide describes gray, blue, and green shields respectively. But Thailand’s 2026 badge update says an unverified account no longer displays the former gray shield there after April 1, 2026. Do not use badge color as a universal audit rule. A paid Premium ID is also a separate choice about the account ID; LINE Help says Premium IDs are unavailable in Indonesia, Singapore, and the United States.

For a customer-facing account, keep the business name, contact details, and verification records under company control. Changing a public badge or buying an ID will not restore a lost Administrator. Similarly, a developer channel Admin does not automatically become an Official Account Administrator. During a founder or agency transition, confirm both surfaces with a second company login before ending the old employee’s access.

The Messaging API accepts a channel access token as proof that a request may act for a channel. LINE warns that a leaked token can let a third party send a broadcast to the Official Account’s friends. Its token guide describes four forms: v2.1 with a chosen expiry, stateless, short-lived, and long-lived. As of November 2026, v2.1 can last up to 30 days and a channel can have up to 30 of them. Stateless tokens last 15 minutes and cannot be revoked. Short-lived tokens last 30 days; a long-lived token does not expire until reissued or revoked.

Give each deployment or vendor its own revocable credential where the token type permits it. LINE’s example token operation explicitly separates development teams so one team can rotate without disturbing another. Store the token in the server’s secret store, not in a spreadsheet, browser script, or support ticket. A channel role tells you who can change settings; an access token tells you which software can call the API. Both need an owner and an expiry or rotation plan.

When a vendor leaves, find the token used by that integration and revoke the corresponding revocable token. For v2.1 use its revoke endpoint; for short-lived or long-lived tokens use their endpoint. LINE’s stop-using guide says stateless tokens cannot be revoked, so stop issuance and let their short lifetime expire. Disable Use webhook in the channel’s Messaging API tab if you are stopping the integration entirely. LINE notes the channel still appears in the console after webhook and token shutdown, so its presence is not evidence that a bot is still active.

Check automatic replies before connecting a new bot. LINE’s bot setup guide says greeting and auto-reply messages may be enabled in Official Account Manager even when the Messaging API handles replies. A customer may otherwise receive two answers to one message. Test a new friend and a normal inbound message, then document which system owns each response.

LINE describes two-factor authentication when a LINE account signs in to Developers Console by email: the code appears in the smartphone LINE app. Its login guide says a browser may then avoid another challenge for one year. That long remembered-browser period makes a departing employee’s machine and account access part of the offboarding review. Verify the actual sign-in method used by each Administrator; the console also supports business accounts, and the guide does not promise the same challenge for every method.

Use this order for a planned handoff: confirm a replacement company Administrator in Official Account Manager; confirm a company provider Admin and production channel Admin in Developers Console; inventory direct and group membership; identify every bot, webhook URL, and token; change or remove the departing person’s grants; rotate the tokens they could copy; test inbound replies and one safe outbound flow; and record the results. The ordering follows LINE’s separate role scopes and token revocation guidance.

For an incident, preserve the affected Channel ID and the times of suspicious messages. Revoke compromised revocable tokens first, then inspect webhook settings and staff roles. LINE’s corporate development guidance recommends saving Messaging API request and response logs for investigation. Do not publish customer message content in the incident ticket. If all Administrators are unavailable, use LINE’s account support path with business proof rather than creating a replacement Official Account: LINE Help warns that deleting an account deletes its friends and they cannot be transferred.

Mistake: treating a provider Admin as a bot operator. A provider Admin may be able to create a new channel but may still be unable to inspect the existing Messaging API channel. Check the channel Roles tab and its Channel ID before granting more provider rights. LINE’s role matrix makes this distinction clear.

Mistake: removing a contractor from Manager and leaving the webhook alive. That contractor may have deployed a bot with a copied token. Review the token inventory, rotate the credential, and check Use webhook in Developers Console. LINE treats webhook disablement and token revocation as separate actions.

Mistake: assuming the badge determines API access. Verification is a public-account state, while developer channel roles and access tokens govern the integration. A gray badge is no longer displayed for unverified accounts in Thailand under its 2026 update. Before writing a global operating guide, check the local LINE business site for the market where the account is registered.

Mistake: forgetting account groups. A regional agency may retain permission through a group even after its direct account row disappears. Review the Groups view described in LINE’s Japan permissions manual. Keep group and direct grants in the same access register so the next audit does not repeat the gap.