Upgrade now to WeChat 7.0.5, available on the iOS App Store and Google Play and try the latest improvements and features

1. Big changes to Moments

“Moments” allows you to share life’s most interesting experiences with your WeChat friends. In the latest version of Moments, we’ve made sharing even more “musical”. Now, you can search and add song snippets from WeChat’s comprehensive music collection to the videos you shoot and share to your Moments.

When browsing your friends’ Moments, videos will automatically play with the sound muted. You can tap on the video to view a fullscreen version of the video with audio. Worried about using too much data? Don’t worry, videos on WeChat use special methods to make video downloads on Moments use no more data than downloading a photo. Additionally, you can change your auto-play options within “Me” -> “Settings” => “General” => “Photos & Videos”.

Finally, at the request of many users, we’ve made it even easier for you to control WHO is able to view your Moments. When posting to Moments, you can select “Share List” => “Select from Groups” and select one or more groups who will have permission to view your Moments post. After selecting, only members of those groups will be able to view your post. This is another great way to make sure that only the people you care about see your personal photos, funny baby videos, or other Moments posts.

Select one or more groups. Afterwards, only members of these groups will be able to view your Moments post.

2. Time Capsule: Supports photos montages and music lyrics

“Time Capsule” is WeChat’s latest major feature and allows you to share a short video story with your friends for a brief period of time. Now, Time Capsule supports selecting multiple photos from your photo album after which a photo montage will be automatically created. It’s a great way to share either photos OR videos with your friends.

Also, while sharing photos or videos,  you can now search a song title, artist, or lyrics to accompany your video. An additional option allows  you to display a song’s lyrics. Decorating your Time Capsule with song lyrics adds extra feeling to your Time Capsule.

Search and add a song from WeChat’s extensive music collection

Enable “Lyrics” to display song lyrics to accompany your Time Capsule video

3. Floating Window now supports multiple windows and window types

Have you ever needed to view your chat messages while reading an article within WeChat or playing a Mini Game? It’s a hassle to back out of your article mid-stream in order to check your messages.

Floating Window was initially introduced in 2017 as a way for you to save your place and minimize an article while checking other parts of WeChat like chats. We’ve now greatly expanded Floating Window so that you can “float” up to 10 different windows. Windows can be articles, document previews, or nearly any other type of content. When viewing a music or audio Mini Program, you’ll also be able to see what’s playing via our new music display in Floating Window. Floating Window makes multi-tasking within WeChat a breeze.

When viewing an article, document preview, or other content, simply swipe right and hold to minimize the article to your Floating Window.

The Floating Window appears as a small tab that you can move around the screen.

Tapping on the Floating Window tab shows all of the screens that you’ve “floated” and can easily reopen. Float articles, document previews, and tons of other screens to make your WeChat browsing experience even more convenient.

Be sure to download the latest version of WeChat now and try out all of these new improvements!

WeChat continues to push forward with more ways to connect and communicate. Our latest version, WeChat 7.0.4 is now available on both the iOS App Store and Google Play and introduces the following new improvements:

1. Improvements to Time Capsule

We first introduced Time Capsule at the beginning of this year as the easiest way to share funny moments or short pet videos with your friends. From the “Me” tab, tap the camera icon in the upper right-hand corner to begin recording your own Time Capsule and it will be shared with your friends for 24 hours.

With the latest version of Time Capsule, after capturing a video, tap the music note button to receive a smart recommendation about what song to accompany your Time Capsule. You can swipe left or right to sift through the recommendations.

Already know what song you want? Tap the search bar and search for the song that you want to play in the background of your Time Capsule.

Music makes your short Time Capsule videos even more lively and interesting!

Check out your friends’ Time Capsules by tapping the “Time Capsule” area at the top of Moments. When viewing their Time Capsule, you can now leave a private comment by tapping the Comment bubble at the bottom. Any comments that you leave will only be viewable by the owner of the Time Capsule so all your comments and “bubble” likes remain completely private!

We’ve also added the ability for you to mark a Time Capsule as “private” so that only you will be able to view it. This is a great way to use Time Capsule as your daily video diary available for your viewing only.

2. Moments privacy options

At the request of many users, we’ve added a new option to Moments to limit the length of time that your Moments posts remain viewable to others. Previously we offered the option to limit availability of your posts to other to three days and six months. Now, by going to “Me” -> “Settings” -> “Privacy” you can also set your Moments to only be viewable to others for one month. As always, your Moments or Time Capsule posts will always be available to you by going to “Me” -> “My Posts”, even if you limit viewing to others.

Together, these Moments and Time Capsule offers the best way for you to record your everyday life while still maintaining your personal privacy.

3. Translate images in chats

WeChat is used around-the-world and we want to make communication even easier for our users. Previously, we offered chat message translation — if you receive a text message in WeChat in a foreign language, just long press the message and select “translate” to translate it to your language.

Now, you can do the same for photos in your chats. Open any image in your chat that contains Chinese text, long-press the image, select “Translate Image Text”. Your image will be automatically scanned for Chinese text and will be translated for you in an instant.

NOTE: This feature is initially being released for a select number of users and will be available to all users soon. Translating image in chats is currently only supported for English and Simplified Chinese users. We hope to support this valuable feature in additional languages soon.

4. Registration and Log In via Facebook Login

Are you registering for WeChat for the first time? In that case, we’ve added a new option that will make Facebook even more convenient: When tapping “Sign Up”, you can now select “Sign up via Facebook” to link your WeChat account to your Facebook account.

After verifying your Facebook account, you will still need to provide and verify your mobile number. However, subsequent to signing up via Facebook, you will be able to easily log in to your WeChat account via your Facebook account instead of having to type in a password.

Are you already a WeChat user? You can gain access to this easy way to log in by going to “Me” -> “Settings” -> “Account Security” -> “More Settings” and tapping “Facebook”.

To protect your privacy, your Facebook is not viewable to others from your WeChat profile.

Be sure to download the latest version of WeChat now and try out all of these new improvements!

Editors’ note: Recently there’s been heated discussion of WeChat as an example of the “all-in-one app” trend that has been circling many tech circles. We would like to take the opportunity to share our official translation of a recent speech by WeChat founder Allen Zhang, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent, and President of WeChat Business Group, at WeChat’s Open Class Pro event  on Jan 9th 2019. 

In his 4-hour-long speech, Allen asserted that the number of users always has a maximum ceiling, but the value that mobile apps can deliver via improved services is limitless. Constant innovation is the only solution for a brighter future. However, there is a limit to how much a single app can hold, therefore WeChat is expanding to revolve around different standalone apps (including WeRead) and will try different services that are independent from but related to WeChat. 

Please note that the content is a translation of a speech originally delivered in Chinese and does not necessarily represent the exact wording in Chinese.

Good evening everyone! I’m Allen Zhang.

We just looked at some complaints (on screen). Very good, because every day I hear complaints, I’m already used to it. I feel that in China, every day there are 500 million people saying we are not doing well and 100 million people wanting to teach me how to make products. I think this is very normal. But I’m not here to teach everyone how to make products.

I feel this year was special, WeChat’s eighth year. In August, WeChat’s daily login rate surpassed one billion. This is a momentous milestone, possibly the first Chinese app to reach one billion daily active users. We never released such information before. Maybe to us it was just a matter of time, but to a mobile product developer, it is still an achievement worth celebrating.

Read More What is WeChat’s dream? WeChat founder Allen Zhang explains >>

Download and install the latest version of WeChat version 6.6.7 for iOS and check out the latest features.

Float a web page window

When reading an Official Account article or viewing a web page, swipe and hold right and a small “Float window” area will appear in the lower right corner. Drag and release to this corner and your web page will be minimized to a small, floating icon so that you can continue to use other parts of WeChat and return to reading your web page later.

 

Use “Scan” to translate English to-and-from Chinese

Go to the “Discover” tab and select “Scan” and a new “Translate” option is offered. Place  text such as from a menu or a newspaper in screen and tap the camera button and it will automatically translate the text. This is a great option for when you’re traveling or on-the-go.

  

This feature converts English to Chinese or Chinese to English and we hope to add additional languages over time.

Voice Input now supports English, Mandarin Chinese, and Cantonese Chinese

Want to send a message while on-the-go or when it’s inconvenient to type a message out? Within a chat, tap the “+” button, select “Voice Input” and start speaking your message to have it automatically converted to text. Now, “Voice Input” supports English, Mandarin Chinese, and Cantonese Chinese making it even easier for you send messages to your friends around-the-world.

  

Go to the iOS App Store and upgrade to the latest version of WeChat today.

Spring time has arrived and a new version of WeChat for iOS brings a useful new feature.

Share your life’s favorites memories to your friends by posting your photos to Moments. In the latest version of WeChat, if you need more time to assemble your Moments post, you can tap “Cancel” in the Edit screen and select to save a draft of your Moments. This allows you to continue to browse your Moments or check your chat messages and return to your draft later.

Download the latest version of WeChat for iOS from the App Store.

The WeChat Team has just released WeChat version 6.6.2 for iOS and it contains five new improvements:

1. English Voice Input: English and other non-Chinese interface users can speak and have their English speech automatically converted into a text message
2. Login Manager: Conveniently switch between different WeChat accounts
3. “Discover” tab management: Show or hide features shown via the “Discover” tab
4. File size limit raised: Now send files in chats up to 100MB in file size
5. Animated GIFs support in Favorites: Animated GIFs saved to Favorites will display as animated

1. English Voice Input

English and other non-Chinese interface users can now use “Voice Input” from within the chat “+” menu to send text messages. Voice input allows users to speak into WeChat in English and immediately convert their words to text so you can send a text message instead of a voice message.

As shown below, tap on “Voice Input” and a “Hold to Talk” button will appear.

Press and hold the “Hold to Talk” button and begin speaking your message and you’ll see the converted text appear on-screen in realtime. Once your done speaking, you can check and edit you message as necessary before sending the text to your friend. This not only saves time, but is also a convenient way to text long messages or to send text messages when on-the-go.

2. Login Manager

Do you frequently switch two different WeChat accounts on the same device. Now you can use Login Manager  by going to “Me” > “Settings” > ”Login Manager” to easily switch to another account. You will be logged out of your current account (meaning that you will no longer receive system notifications when you receive a message on the prior account) and logged in to the new account.

Tap the “+” button and enter your login credentials to log in your second WeChat account. After logging in to your second account, return to this screen by going to “Me” > “Settings” > “Login Manager” again to easily switch back to your original account. For your account’s safety, you’ll need to verify your identity by entering a password, SMS confirmation code, or Voiceprint verification each time you switch between accounts. You can also tap “Edit Accounts…” to remove an account from the Login Manager screen.

3. “Discover” tab management

At WeChat, we work hard to bring you innovative, new features that enrich your app experience. In order to make the WeChat experience more suitable for all users, we’ve added the ability for you to show or hide features that appear in your WeChat “Discover” tab.

Go to “Me” > “Settings” > “General” > “Manage Discover” and you will have the option to show or hide the various optional features displayed within your “Discover” tab.

4. File size limit raised: Now send files in chats up to 100MB in file size

Share files up to 100 MB in size when sending from WeChat’s mobile app . On iOS, a “Files” button has been added to the “+” menu in chats which allows you to select a file from  iOS “Files”.

5. Animated GIFs saved to Favorites will be animated as well

Animated GIFs saved to Favorites will display animated. Previously, saved GIFs would only show the first frame of the animation, but now you can have the whole animated experience within Favorites.

As seen below,  adda GIF image from your Photos Album to your Favorites.

Once saved to Favorites, the GIF image will be shown animated.

The WeChat Team has just released WeChat version 6.6 for iOS and it contains two feature enhancements:

1. Notes in Favorites can be saved as an image, making it easier to share them to Moments or chats
2. After recalling a message, just tap a link to quickly edit the recalled message

1. Notes in Favorites can be saved as an image, making it easier to share them to Moments or chats

WeChat has made it easier for you to share the notes that you’ve saved to Favorites to Moments and chats. Now you can tap the upper-right corner menu and select “Save as Image” to save your entire note as a single image. Post the entire image as a Moments post or to a chat.

Alternatively, now you can choose to share the note directly to Moments. From the upper-right corner menu select  “Share on Moments” and your note will be shared to your friends.

2. After recalling a message, just tap a link to quickly edit the recalled message

Sent a message with a typo? Recall the message, reuse the old content to edit your message and send! When you recall a message in version 6.6, a Re-edit link will appear next to “You’ve recalled a message”. When you tap on the Re-edit link, the message input box will contain the recalled text. Now you can easily modify your original message to correct the typo and send again.

Be sure to upgrade to the latest version of WeChat on iOS today.