What is WeChat?Clear Doubts

WeChat is a platform that allows the users to connect via mobile device. You can easily download it from the App Stores on Google Play Store for Android, BlackBerry and iTunes for Apple and others here. According to TechAsia We Chat have over 300 million users worldwide.

You can get registered by Tencent QQ, Facebook Connect and mobile phone VM/M. The app initially launched in Jan 2011 as Weixin by China, later on supported foreign languages by Oct 2011 and was re-launched by the name WeChat on April 2012. The gaming site Ibibio is promoting it in India in which Tencent holds a large stake.

WeChat is a free app but in April 2013 there were rumors that WeChat is going to charge fee now on. But after a poll showed more than 90% strong opposes this move had to be stopped and WeChat is back to being free for downloading and usage.

Tencent had announced on July 2013 that WeChat has crossed the 70 million milestones that also outside of China making Lionel Messi the newest product ambassador for WeChat.

Though some claim WeChat to be quite similar to WhatsApp, WeChat offers more features than WhatsApp. Here are just a few of them:

Video Call: WeChat allows face-to-face video calling by just having to press “+” and then select “Video Call” (icon) under your chat window.
Moments: Want to share your memorable moments with your friends on WeChat well, this feature will make it a piece of cake. The visibility settings can also be customized.
Voice chatting: This feature has always been loved. Allows you to turn your smartphone to a walkie-talkie. Just have to use the feature under your chat window by simply switching on the “send message” and holding the “hold to talk” button. On finishing the sentence let go the “hold to talk” tab and send your voice recorded message.
Web WeChat: This feature lets you chat with your friends between the PC and smartphone. You just have to click on the image wand icon that appears on the upper right side and select “Web WeChat” and begin your cross-platform chat.
Emoticons: A favorite feature because it is customizable. Apart from the large emoji collection WeChat also has ability to download from other sites or even from your own photo albums.
Group chats: Want your own group chat, do so by just selecting the “start chat” wand. Choose your friends you want in the group and begin chatting. You are allowed 40 members for one chat maximum.
Shake: You want to add more friends but do not know how? Just shake your phone and anyone who is shaking at that time will come to your contact. This feature is an interesting way to get new contacts including it definitely is a time killer too. Just never reveal any personal information to anyone; after all you never really know who’s on the other side so just play safe.
Look Around: You must have come around this text “I am new on WeChat and do not want to use the “shake” opt as I want just local pals”. Take a chill pill, just select “Look Around” (it’s just under the “Social” tab) see who it is and greet if you like them.
Drift Bottle: We all know just how cool Drift Bottle is; after all it allows us to meet complete strangers with a unique sense of mystery to it. Now just one fact, do you have the time to buy the bottle, write a message for a stranger, then seal it, go to the bayside and throw the bottle into the ocean and wait for a reply. Supposed that person also follows the drift bottle opt, then what? Well here is the drift bottle feature from WeChat, Just write your text message or throw your voice message in the “bottle” and throw it into the “sea” and eventually someone will pick your bottle and answer. Both sides remain anonymous till both want to make friendship.
Social Connect: This app is created by China and is a really cool app from Tencent with the vision for supporting the social international acclaimed giant “Facebook”. WeChat also integrates QQ (China’s biggest social network) even though they belong to the same company.
Photos: You can take and embellish them unique artistic captions and filters and also place them in personal journals and share with others. The user data is fully confidential with an on-demand backup of the contact list retrievable from and to the cloud.

The new version of WeChat was released on 5^th July 2013 by Tencent. The version is 5.0 for iOS. The new version has some new features added:

Add nearby friends thanks to the new Hold Together function
Be able to download new anime stickers from the Sticker store at just 0.99$
Bind your debit and credit and your mobile pay-ups
Scan the street view, bar code, cover of a album or book and scan for any particular word
Play games with your WeChat friends in the Game Center, which is a preinstalled airplane war game
Public accounts can be divided in two categories: Official accounts for independence lists and Service for your chat lists
You can input with your voice
You can double-tab on the text to see full in full view

WeChat is definitely a boon in the texting and chatting field. With so many features it definitely is becoming the favorite of the users worldwide. This is growing day-by-day.