WeChat changes. And it changes fast. Here are 5 modifications to the platform which happened just over the last couple of weeks.
1. “Stick on top” for WeChat Public Accounts
Among all the new features published lately, this might be the game-changing one.
Much fuss has been made about WeChat public accounts replacing APPs on your phone. There is still a main problem with WeChat accounts compared to APP’s: they are not easy to access compared to an APP. With average user following more than a hundred official accounts, you likely to get 5 second window before your update is buried with other notifications.
This problem might just be solved. You love to order food from this restaurant’s WeChat? Don’t want to miss any WalktheChat news? Quite easy, you can now stick the account on top for easy access!
2. QR protection for WeChat login
This feature might, on the other hand, annoy many marketers out there.
All newly created WeChat accounts now require users to scan a QR code to log-in.
What’s wrong with that? Each account can have at most 5 people linked to it, and each user can be linked to at most 5 accounts. So if you have a big account with a lot of people working on it, or if you are an agency with one person managing many accounts, this new regulation might very well drive you crazy.
This feature is not mandatory for existing WeChat accounts, yet. Tencent is planning to apply this feature across all platform in the near future.
3. Tencent move forward with enforcing terms of use and blocks major accounts
A couple of weeks ago, Tencent blocked the “Kungfu Finance” WeChat account over spreading false rumors.
The account had received pre-A funding of 20 million RMB, at a valuation of 200 million RMB.
This is just one example of the 14,000 accounts Tencent blocked in the past three months, because of similar “false rumors” or sensitive topic messages.
Tencent is determined to enforce the terms of use it had previously outlined, even toward large accounts with strong investment behind them.
4. Modifications of WeChat user admin panel
The admin panel has added new functions enabling to tag groups of users at the same time, making it easier to tag users for targeted marketing.
5. PC version of WeChat article now displays views and comments
It has been long lamented that the desktop version of WeChat falls short in many respect. Desktop users will now be able to see comments and number of views of WeChat articles.
This feature is progressively being rolled out to all accounts, so you might not see it on your own accounts message just yet!