Ever found yourself in a bustling group chat, trying to respond to a specific message, but all your reply options were… just text? Perhaps you wanted to drop an image but couldn’t directly link it to the original message. In today’s visually-driven world, where graphic and animated content plays a pivotal role in conveying sentiment and context, textual replies often felt a bit limiting for conveying our thoughts and feelings.

WeChat’s latest 8.0.60 update includes an enhancement to its quoted reply feature, which now fundamentally changes how you can express yourself and interact within your chats by permitting you to quote a message and respond with images and videos.

Imagine you’re in a high-volume group chat or even a busy one-on-one conversation, it can often lead to confusion when trying to figure out exactly which message is being replied to. Hence, this feature becomes an absolute lifesaver by allowing visual quoted replies that bring instant clarity to your conversation threads, ensuring better connection and comprehension.

Beyond clarity, this update, which allows the incorporation of preferred images and videos into quoted replies, moves beyond simple text and unlocks a whole new level of expressive possibilities. Ready to start quoting with visuals? Follow these simple steps:

1. Launch the WeChat application and navigate to the desired chat. Long-press the specific message to bring up the options menu.
2. Select the “Quote” option. Tap the “+” icon located to the right of the input area.
3. Choose “Album” from the available options.
4. Browse and select the desired image or video from your device’s gallery, then tap “Send.”
5. The selected media will be sent as a quoted reply to the message.”

Have you ever felt awkward chatting with a friend who speaks a different language, especially when they send a long message that leaves you confused? WeChat version 8.0.56 (or above) now has a feature that automatically translates incoming messages, allowing you to instantly understand them and respond seamlessly. Try this simple, practical trick today to overcome language barriers, making communication truly limitless.

Go to WeChat「Settings」, find the「General」option, then「Translation」. You’ll see a new feature toggle, swipe it to turn on and set the language to your desired language. Once activated, WeChat will automatically translate any foreign language messages, but messages won’t be translated if your chosen language is the same as the received message.

For those who prefer manual translation, first open the chat window, then long-press the message in the foreign language. When further options appear, select「Translate」.

This feature essentially helps you communicate with others even when you receive messages in a foreign language. Simply long-press the translated message, tap「Change Language」, and select another language. Now you can easily connect with friends worldwide.

In today’s digital world, scammers constantly seek to exploit unsuspecting users. Learning practical tips to recognize scams—via phone calls, texts, email, social media, websites, or in person is essential for you and your family. Scammers often use persuasive tactics, such as impersonating officials or friends, promoting fake jobs, advertising fake investment opportunities, pursuing a romance relationship, and offering fraudulent shopping rebates or prizes. With AI advancements, scams have become increasingly sophisticated, using deepfakes and AI-generated voices to deceive victims. Vigilance and awareness are crucial in combating these evolving threats. For more information, visit the Anti-Scam and Safety Guide: https://safety.wechat.com/en_US/resources/anti-scam/anti-scam-and-safety-guide

If you accidentally reveal personal details to these scammers, they may use your password and information to take over your account and engage in illegal activities such as stealing data, spreading malware, and impersonating you to lure more victims. Use the settings below to better protect your account from takeover. Let’s enhance your account security now.

1. Do not download apps from unofficial sources
2. Secure your account

Use a strong and unique password that includes numbers, symbols, and both uppercase and lowercase letters. Or, link your email to your account for easier recovery. Go to「Me」>「Setting」>「Account Security」>「More Settings」>「Email」> provide your email, and then「Next」.

3. Manage your contacts

Enabling the “Require Friend Request” feature by default, which allows only added contacts to reach you. Always verify friend requests and connect only with the people you trust. Go to「Me」>「Settings」>「Friends’ Permissions」>「Require Friend Request」.

4. Manage privacy setting

Manage the visibility of your information and content. Go to「Contacts」>「Select contact」>「···」>「Privacy」>「Chat only」.

5. Exercise caution when receiving invitations from strangers

When considering friend requests or group chat invitations from unfamiliar individuals, remain vigilant to determine their legitimacy, as group chats can be easily exploited for scams. What steps can you take to protect your account if you observe suspicious activity that violates the Community Guidelines?

a) To report content from a chat or group chat

Select the “…” (more options) button typically located at the top right-hand corner of the chat>Then, select “Report” and choose the most relevant user reporting category>Continue Reporting>Fill in all required information and any optional details you believe will help us determine if a violation of our Community Guidelines has occurred.

b) To report a WeChat user

Select the “…” (more options) button at the top right-hand corner of the user’s profile interface. After that, select “Report” and choose the most relevant user reporting category.

c) To report a Moment Post

Tap and hold the user’s profile picture (avatar) for approximately 2 seconds within the Moment post. Select ‘Report’ from the options that appear and choose the most relevant reporting category.

What to do if you suspect you are a victim of a scam?

1. If you suspect your account has been compromised, change your passwords immediately. Additionally, change passwords for any other accounts associated with the same password. You can also report the issue to us here, and we will follow up in approximately seven days: https://help.wechat.com/cgi-bin/newreadtemplate?t=help_center/contact_us&lang=en&Channel=helpcenter&plat=
2. Contact your bank immediately if you think you have lost money to a scam.
3. If you remain uncertain whether the situation you encountered is a scam, contact your local law enforcement agencies. For urgent assistance, contact the local police.

In our daily lives, WeChat messaging keeps us connected with friends, family, and colleagues. While chatting is often viewed as a casual activity, we might overlook the importance of saving our chat history. However, these histories can be vital in certain situations, as they often contain cherished memories, essential information, and important records. Since chat histories can be easily lost due to accidental deletions, device failures, or software updates, it’s wise to back up your WeChat chat history regularly.

Why Back Up Your WeChat Chat History?

• Your chat history contains cherished memories, allowing you to revisit meaningful moments and relive good times.
• When meeting new people or starting a new job, your chat history may sometimes serve as important records of information for commercial or other purposes.
• If you use WeChat for work, your chat history may include important documents, notifications, and tasks that are essential to retain.

How to Back Up Your Chat History

To back up your chat history to your computer, update WeChat to version 8.0.50 or later.

1. Connect your phone and computer to the same Wi-Fi network under stable internet connection. Don’t turn off the app until the backup is 100% complete.
2. Log in to WeChat on both your phone and computer.

On your phone:

• Go to 「Me」>「Settings」>「Chats」>「Chat History Migration & Backup」>「Backup and restore」 > Check your computer.
• Go to your computer and proceed with the backup operation (refer to the steps below), then return to your phone and tap「Start」directly or select specific chat records for back up.

On your computer:

Open WeChat, click 「☰」 icon in the bottom left corner, and select 「Migrate & Backup」 followed by 「Backup and Restore」. You can select between two options: 「Backup on Mac」 or 「Restore on phone」.

By following these steps, you can safeguard your valuable WeChat chat history and ensure that your digital memories are preserved for years to come.

Tired of relying solely on text and static images to express yourself? WeChat 8.0.34 allows you to create personalized, dynamic stickers using your own videos. It’s easy! Simply adjust the video size and ratio, add text, and edit clips to generate a custom sticker with WeChat’s built-in tools—all within seconds. Whether by creating a funny meme or adding more personal touch, these stickers bring a new level of fun and connection to your chats.

Create Your Own Custom Stickers

• Open WeChat and navigate to the sticker interface. Click the「+」icon.
• Select the video you want to use from your gallery.
• Shorten the video to a maximum of 5 seconds for optimal results.

• Three simple tools are available for quick editing, including adjusting size, adding text, and adjusting the length of the video. For more advanced editing, you can edit the video using reliable third-party video editing software before sharing it on WeChat.
• Once you’re done editing, click the 「✓」 button. Your video will then appear in your sticker collection.

How to Delete an Existing Sticker

• Navigate to the sticker interface，tap the 「+」
• Select the sticker you want to delete.
• Tap 「Delete」.

Create personalized stickers to spice up your chats. Share your creativity with friends now!

In the mainland of China, various entities—including media outlets, government agencies, organizations, businesses, and individuals—often establish Weixin Official Accounts to engage with their audiences. They typically utilize text, images, voice messages, and videos to share relevant information and promote products and services.

As the number of Official Accounts continues to grow, attracting attention and increasing visibility has become more challenging. WeChat’s newly introduced Highlight and Share feature in version 8.0.34 offers a potential solution to help creators boost visibility.

This feature allows users to highlight content and share them directly to WeChat Moments, enabling articles to reach a wider audience. However, high-quality content remains essential to increase viewership and further sharing of content. For avid readers, this feature provides a quick way to capture and share insightful content, making it particularly useful for gathering inspiration.To learn more about safety guardrails for creating content, refer to clause 6.1 in this link. 

How to Highlight and Share Text from a WeChat Official Account Article

1. Find the article you want to share, then long-press the text you want to highlight until a selection box appears.
2. Select the relevant text and tap the「Forward」button>「Share to moments」Icon.
3. The shared text will be displayed in a card format, with a link to the original article provided at the bottom, allowing your friends and contacts to read the full content by clicking on the link.

This feature is available on both iOS and Android devices, making it easy to share content effortlessly.

In mainland of China, most merchants rely on Weixin Mini Programs to enhance service quality and provide greater convenience for consumers. With Mini Programs, there’s no need to download separate apps for different brands—the Weixin Mini Program feature grants access to the services offered by most businesses.

From searching for dining options, enjoying food delivery, and taking queue numbers for tables, making reservations, shopping online, to accessing promotional deals, Mini Programs streamline everyday tasks. These features are widely embraced by Chinese businesses, which frequently update their Mini Programs to meet evolving customer needs.

Great news for travelers!

WeChat now enables users to link their international bank cards directly to their Weixin Pay accounts. This innovative feature offers a seamless, secure payment solution and marks a milestone for international visitors to the mainland of China, minimizes the reliance on large amounts of cash or on physical credit cards.

With Weixin Pay, you can enjoy smooth transactions by simply scanning a QR code, avoiding long queues, and bypassing the hassle of currency exchange. Plus, unlinking your card after your trip is quick and easy. This upgrade promises to make your journey in the mainland of China more convenient and enjoyable.

Why Link Your International Bank Card?

Effortless Transactions: Use Weixin Pay wherever you go—markets, restaurants, and boutiques. It’s widely accepted across mainland of China.

Simple Setup: Setting up Weixin Pay is easy. To activate all features, complete identity verification using one of the following：

• Foreign passport
• Mainland Travel Permit for Hong Kong and Macau Residents (Home Return Permit)
• Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan Residents (Taiwan Compatriot Permit)
• Residence Permits for Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan residents
• Foreign Permanent Residence card

Once verified, you’re all set to enjoy hassle-free payments. More details, can refer to: @外国朋友&老年朋友，更方便了！

Single Payment Method: Forget juggling multiple payment methods—Weixin Pay simplifies your travel experience. It’s always ready to pay as long as you keep your phone charged and stay connected, but make sure your internet connection is secure.

With Weixin Pay, you can immerse yourself in Chinese culture without worrying about payment logistics. Designed to be accessible to users worldwide, this service offers a smooth and convenient experience for all.

Pro Tip: Before using this feature, ensure your WeChat app is updated to the latest version from your app store.

How to Link Your International Bank Card

Follow these easy steps to activate Weixin Pay:

1. Link Your Bank Card

• Open WeChat and go to 「Me」>「Pay and Services」>「Wallet」>「Bank Cards」>「Add a Bank Card」>Provide your 16-digit bank card number and select the card type from the list.
• Alternatively, tap the camera icon to capture your card details and follow the relevant instructions until setup is complete.

2. Provide Identity Information

• Go to 「Me」>「Pay and Services」>「Money」.
• Under the payment QR code, tap on any unavailable service, such as 「Receive Money」 or 「Reward Code」and select 「Complete Now」
• Follow the instructions to complete the identity verification process, including uploading a clear photo of your ID.

3. Unlink Your Bank Card (After Your Trip)

• Navigate to 「Me」 > 「Pay and Services」 > 「Wallet」 > 「Bank Cards」.
• Select the linked bank card, tap 「Unlink」, enter your payment password, the card will be removed.

Important Information to know

• Once you have linked your bank card, you can tap on「Money」 to access the payment QR code. Ensure the “Default Payment” is set to your bank card, not the Wallet Balance.
• You can link your card with Weixin Pay without identity verification, with a spending limit up to RMB15,000. If you want to enjoy a higher spending amount and try more services like Red Packets or Receive Money, you may complete your identity verification.
• Always remember your 6-digit payment password, as it will be required to access payment s
• The Payment QR code is time-sensitive.
• An internet connection is required to use Weixin Pay.
• Only Chinese bank cards can be used to top up the Wallet Balance. International cards are not supported for this feature.

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 >>