OVERVIEW
- Social Messaging App with 200 million users worldwide
Social app on iOS store across 24 countries
- Only app to offer Video/Audio calling and voice messaging
- Developed and launched by Tencent.
- Tencent is the largest internet company in APAC with almost 800 mn monthly active users. It is the third largest Internet Company globally in terms of market capitalization.
- International (iPhone) WeChat launch: October 27, 2011
- Current supported languages: 17 languages including English, Hindi, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Spanish and Portuguese.
- Current supported mobile platforms: iOS, Android, Symbian (V3 & V5) and Windows. Blackberry version launching soon.
- Current supported networks: Wi-Fi, 2G, 3G and 4G data
- Latest version (4.3) of WeChat was released in Sep 2012 which supports Video & Audio Calling, Group Voice Messaging, Moments (sharing including text, photo, video & URL).
- Manually, if you know their WeChat ID
- Contacts in the Phone
- Facebook Friends : If you link your Facebook to your WeChat, it will scan your Facebook friends and list the friends who have also linked WeChat and Facebook account together.
- QR Code : You can also connect with people using the QR code (Quick Response Code) similar to that of PIN Barcode in a BlackBerry.
REVIEW
WeChat is a free mobile communication and social networking app for Smartphones with features like Video/Audio Calling, Push-to-Talk Voice Messaging, Group Chat-text & voice (up to 40 people) and Location based friend-discovery social features.
Download
It’s free to download & install from iOS App Store, Google Play Store, Nokia Store and Windows Marketplace. It’s a huge 14 MB file, so took a bit to download as had to delete a few other apps from the phone.
Once, the app is downloaded, it’s a dream. All the features are simple and easy to follow and navigate, which makes it very easy to use.
Add a Friend
You can add a friend who is using WeChat App …
- Manually, if you know the WeChat ID of your friend
- Phone Contacts who also use WeChat app
- Facebook Friends : WeChat app can sync with your Facebook Friends who also use WeChat app
- QR Code : Just scan the QR (Quick Response) code of your phone with that of your friend, just like the PIN barcode in BlackBerry
You can chat with people in your phonebook who also have WeChat app by either Text Messaging or Voice Messaging. Now, the best feature of this app is ‘Hold to Talk. So, if you are lazy/tired to type your chat message, you can just use “Hold to Talk” option and talk to your friend. The message is immediately delivered and your friend can click on the message received and listen to what you have to say. This voice messaging is a smart way to chat, without a doubt.
You can have a group chat too, wherein you can have up to 40 people in your chat group.
You can also send a lot of emoticons, Emoji in your message and there are custom Emoji Art too, which add that extra zing to the conversation.
Apart from Emoticons, you can also send Images, Videos, Friends (Contacts) and Location to your friends in the chat which are the regular features seen in other chatting apps too.
Shake is an innovative feature to connect with people. All you have to do is shake your phone, and the app searches for people who are shaking their phone at that time. So, when I used this feature, my phone found 3 people who were shaking their phones and they were H Xiangtan who was some 4042 Kms away from me, S Zaozhuang was 4016 Kms away and Yunnan R was 2805 kms away from me. Incidentally, all these 3 people were from China, where this app was developed.
Connect with New People
Look Around is another feature which gives you data of people who are not your contacts but on WeChat. In using this option, I got some 80 contacts who were at a distance ranging from 800 meters to 10 kms from my location.You can sort the WeChat users by Location, so you can ‘View females only’, ‘View males only’ or ‘View all’. So, if you are keen to chat with virtual strangers, this is the app for you, though personally, chatting with unknown people is not my kind of scene so I am not going to use this feature!
Drift Bottle is another unique feature of WeChat. Remember, earlier people used to put a message in a bottle and throw it into the sea and hope that somebody gets it. Drift Bottle is exactly this. You write a message and stuff it in the bottle and throw it into the WeChat sea. Somebody will get it and then you can communicate with that person!
Moments
In Moments, you can record daily highlights and share with WeChat contacts. You can also upload a picture from your phone, or take a photo instantly and upload it to WeChat with a caption. Your contacts from the WeChat can post comments to this picture and even Like it. Like is shown with a Heart.
Broadcast Message
In this feature, you can deliver a message to many recipients at once. The recipient will see the message as part of a normal one to one char with you. The best is that the recipient list will not be disclosed. So you can use this feature to do mass marketing of a message/event/information etc.
In short, WeChat app is a complete mobile social networking site by itself and a innovative application for instant messaging which allows to make new friends too.
Rating : 4/5
This review is a part of the Product Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. For free download of WeChat App and more details visit http://www.wechatapp.com.
26 Responses
I am absolutely technology challenged but the review makes it sound fun.
It sure is a fun way to interact with friends. Try it out! 🙂
Seems interesting and your review is comprehensive. Shake is pretty innovative.
Yes, Shake is pretty cool way to connect. I tried shaking KG and my phones and we connected in a flash of a second on this app! 🙂
All this goes over my head
😛
must inform about this app to my 13 year old. He would be interested. We are now using skype to chat with my husband. PErhaps installing this app in phone might help.
Oh yes, you must try this out on your phone. Also it has video chat option and hold to talk pretty nice feature too. 🙂
I hate it when they the ios apps are made for android too / They only look better on Apple phones.. nowhere else
😐
🙂
drift bottle sounds cool! the review makes u want you try it out..
Drift is fun and it connects you with any random person out there in the whole wide world! Try it out! 🙂
Shilpa,
Aw, way beyond me. I may understand if I see this practically. But again would I need it at this age?
Take care
Hmmm… I understand your view point! But there’s no age to learn anything new!! Right! 😛
Good info, Shilpa:)
Thanks Mr Bhatia 🙂
That sounds good one.. I use What’s App.. and it have turned out to be great , sending files all over world , chatting , fone calls All free as it uses internet .. and Recently i downloaded TANGO.. which is a video call APP, you can have a video call with anyone in the world FREE .. if you have internet on phone ..
Bikram’s
Even I use Whatsapp and BBM. But this is cool too… with one app, you can chat, PTT and video chat too!! Will check out Tango! 🙂
Very informative Shilpa 🙂
Thanks Reshma! 🙂
Boo Hoo! My iPhone has been totally dead since yesterday! Have been trying to find ways to restore/repair/replace. Reading this has made me miss my right hand all the more!!! Great review btw Shilpa. Once I bceome smart again, will definitely try it out and that Shake thing seems to be cool.
LOL 😀 May you become smart soon, rather very soon, coz, I know, how difficult it is to survive without our smart gadgets around! 🙂
Thanks 🙂
Sounds like fun! I have always been a fan of whatsapp…..must try this
Try it Varsha and then do share your feedback! 🙂
hey…one of my frnd….he can creat flower shower on the screen…how to do that..kindly help:p