Can WeChat?

I can bet you 50 bucks you decided to download WeChat on a whim and don’t know what the hell to do with it and why Lionel Messi appears inTV ads for it, right? Well here’s a breakdown of the app and hopefully it will be as popular in Zambia as it is globally.

Competing with  apps like Whatsapp and Viber, WeChat is a also an instant  free messaging app that you can download on  Android, Blackberry, iOS, Windows phone, Java and Symbian. All these apps have similar features though; you can send messages, voice notes, share files, create group chats, the usual, but what makes WeChat stand out?

Well unlike Whatsapp, WeChat allows you to make use of both stickers and emoticons at the same time for free. Great for expressing yourself without having to type words.

Secondly you can create a live multi-chat. This concept is is similar to a walkie-talkie operates and only one person can talk at  a time when the screen shows a green light. 

This next feature is vying for Skype‘s position: Video Chat. It allows you to talk face-to-face with your family or friends in real time. It cuts out all that “long -distance” talk that was there years ago and now it feels like people are still around even when far. Plus, now you can still keep an eye (literally) on your son abroad at school, mom.

Ok this other feature I found really creepy. It’s called “SHAKE” and what you do is shake your phone and it will show you people around you, strangers inclusive, who are also “shaking” their phone at the same time.  It has me freaked out because I wouldn’t want random strangers chatting me up like that. However, if you don’t mind the free advertising, that’s a feature none of the other apps (Whatsapp, Viber) have. WeChat must have thought this one through though because there is a blocking option so you don’t have to worry about dealing with too many unwanted random people at a time.

Whatsapp almost had an unofficial PC version of its app, thanks to android emulators, but they didn’t bother creating an official one from themselves and this is where WeChat decided to take lead and roll out theirs. You can chat directly from your PC.

We all know moments are special and even more amazing when shared. so WeChat allows you to share your photo “moments”  to Facebook as long as you link the accounts together. Simply take your pic, add a comment and share it to Facebook. Easy peasy!

Speaking of pics, WeChat also allows you to add a wide range of filters to them to enhance their look before you actually post and/or share them, without having to use other photo editing apps. What would we do without filters? They just make everything look so much better.

There, my people,  are the perks of  WeChat. I tried it out with my colleague but at some point it  wouldn’t allow her to send messages because her messaging was too frequent (???).

Try it out for yourself. Let me know now that goes. I’m off to “shake” now!

Pictures courtesy of Softonic

DISCLAIMER: The $50 bet is solely at the discretion of this writer.