This is my sixth app review — WeChat app (Version 2.12.556). This app is mainly used for messaging, voice and video calling.
Google play: WeChat
These are the features of the app taken from Google play:
• MULTIMEDIA MESSAGING: Send video, image, text, and voice messages.
• GROUP CHAT & CALLS: Create group chats with up to 500 people and group video calls up to 9 people.
• FREE VOICE & VIDEO CALLS: High-quality free calls to anywhere in the world.
• WECHAT OUT CALLS: Make calls to landlines and mobile around the globe at low rates (in certain regions only).
• STICKER GALLERY: Hundreds of free, fun, animated stickers to express your feelings from some of your favorite cartoons and movies.
• MOMENTS: Share your best moments on your personal photo stream.
• BETTER PRIVACY: WeChat gives you the highest level of control over your privacy. It’s the only messaging app to be certified by TRUSTe.
• MEET NEW FRIENDS: Use “Friend Radar”, “People Nearby” and “Shake” to meet others.
• REALTIME LOCATION: Instead of having to tell others where you are, just use real-time location sharing.
• LANGUAGE SUPPORT: Localized in 20 different languages and can translate messages to any language.
• AND MORE: Desktop app, custom wallpapers, custom notifications, and Official Accounts.
The great features are, of course, the multimedia messaging, group chat/calls and the free voice and video calls. The video and audio are quite clear when you make calls regardless of the speed of my internet connection (this is based only on my experience). I haven’t tried downloading the stickers though, I have very few friends who use WeChat.
When you open WeChat app, you will see four tabs on the bottom: Chats, Contacts, Discover, and Me (tab). So for Chats you will see a list of your conversations. Contacts are the list of the your…. contacts of course. What was exciting for me is the Discover tab. Clicking on it will redirect you to another menu: Moments, Scan QR code, Shake, People nearby and Games. Moments is technically your profile, and you can post messages and pics here for your friends to view.
I tried the Shake first. Basically it will match you to other people who are also shaking their phones. That means you could connect with any person in the world as long as they are shaking their phones simultaneously with you. I’ve gotten matched mostly with individuals from Asia (including the Middle East). No matches yet from Europe, US etc. Maybe most of the users of WeChat are from Asia. That is quite strange to me, because the app developer is based in California, USA. I would expect that this app would have fans from the US (oh well).
Next I clicked People nearby. The app will then show you a list of users near your area (my photo above didn’t show any, maybe due to some error on my GPS). You can choose the list to be a mix of girls and boys. Or you could choose just one, boys or girls, depending on your preference. If you use this feature, you are automatically included in lists of other people. So occasionally I would receive friend requests and messages from people. I was spooked at first, but then I discovered its because I allowed the app to locate me and get included in People nearby lists. You have the option to turn this off if you do not want to get messages/requests from unknown people.
The Shake and People nearby options are great ways to connect and make new friends, around your area or around the globe. However, I have a gripe about this, particularly the Shake option. I am not saying that all users who use this option are perverts, but 90% of the time, I get those type of users. My purpose of course is to make new friends from other countries, which I have done using other apps. However, due to this pervert problem, I have refrained from using this feature since all I get are users who make my skin crawl (haha). I really hope that my experience is just an isolated, unlucky case. It deters the user from making the most out of this app. The good thing about this is you have the option to block a user (which you are already friends with) if he/she is harassing you (haha!) or the conversation has turned in another direction (you know what I mean). Also, I do not receive notifications when I receive friend requests, so I have to open the app to check.
Other than this little gripe, the app functions way more than just a messaging and calling app. It helps people connect around the world regardless of location, and that is one unique function if you compare it with other messaging apps.
Try this app and explore its features. However, please exercise caution if you like meeting new people. 🙂
Your Novice App Reviewer 
Always great to hear a detailed review from someone who’s actually used it. Thanks!
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Thanks for visiting my blog! 🙂
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There are so many new social media apps out there, I can’t even keep up…sounds like an interersting app
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I’d heard of this app but didn’t know what all it did. Thank you for the review!
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Really interesting app- I like the ability to connect with people around the world. Thank you for the review!
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It is a fun app but there are so, so many Indian and Middle Eastern perverts and fake profiles on Wechat Shake. I would say that 90% perverts and fake profiles might be a conservative estimate. It became intolerable. I reported every single one, and it seemed to be a pre-loaded customer support response of 3 Unsuccesful findings to 1 Successful report they did something to remedy. As of late, there seems to be many Chinese men with fake profiles too. Perhaps because of all the users I have reported this began happening too. No more Shakes for me. Wechat already had to get rid of their Bottles recently because perverts took it over. They need to do a much better job of communicating with the users who contact support with these issues and not simply sending programmed replies. I feel like nobody cared about the perverts. I do believe support took issue with.the complaint numbers about perverts – most of whom support did nothing about. Shake used to be fun before regular users got sqeezed out by an ineffective support team and system. Also please, be very careful with the users you allow in as a friend. Take care to make your photos private first before allowing friends until you get to know them over a long time. Otherwise you are contributing to the many fake profiles using stolen photos that anyone who views your profile and pictures posts can simply download onto their phone. And while all of that is bad and true, the app does have its good qualities like the voice text, calls, video calls, and 100’s of fun emojis you can use when you do make a real friend from around the world.
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