Why You Need to Open WeChat as Study Preparation in China

WeChat, The App for Everything in China

WeChat is the most popular social media platform in China. Chinese people use WeChat in almost all daily activities, like messaging, making calls, planning events, making payments, managing official company accounts, maintaining online classroom activities, and so on. These are the reasons why WeChat is called “the app for everything” in China. More than 1 billion active users are, currently, using WeChat in China. International students who are flying to China to pursue their studies must have WeChat installed on their cellphones as it is widely used in almost every sphere of life in China. This is the single app on which international students rely on in China. Universities are now conducting classes online on the app in this pandemic situation.

Why You Should Open a WeChat Account as Study Preparation in China

• Almost everyone in China uses WeChat for messaging, making voice or video calls to each other.

• Chinese universities use WeChat for marketing promotion and providing information, pushing news and events, etc.

• The university student network is strongly maintained over the app.

• The Chinese place orders for daily shopping through the app.

• WeChat is the giant payment gateway in China now as almost every purchase is made with the WeChat payment system, WeChat Pay.

• WeChat is now being used in classroom activities widely in China.

• The Chinese share their photos, videos, music, or web links in WeChat Moments.

• Important organizations and groups in China send articles and messages to their fans and followers via WeChat Official Accounts.

• People also book appointments with doctors, hire taxis, apply for loans and do many more things with the app.

• The WeChat QR Code scanning feature makes things happen instantly in a moment without any hassles.

• WeChat users can share locations with others which helps them reach the destination smoothly.

• WeChat translate gives its users the facility to translate any Chinese signs, directions, and menus into English.

• Young users of WeChat love the feature “shake to meet new friends nearby” as it facilitates them to find out friends nearby.

• Min-apps for specific purposes are used for performing specific activities, such as downloading games, booking rides, ordering food, and so on.

Text, Voice Message, Voice and Video Call, and Group Chat

WeChat gives its users the same features as Facebook. They can send text and voice messages, voice and video calls, make group chats. These messages and calls are end-to-end encrypted which means nobody can see or listen to them even WeChat itself cannot do that. For messaging and making calls all the users must be friends on WeChat which restricts unwanted texts and calls from unknown users. This security feature will keep you secured as you are a foreigner in China. This feature also works in the same way for group chats. Classroom activities are also being maintained on the app.

QR Codes

Sharing Contact information, processing payments, and linking up with official pages can be done instantly with WeChat QR Code. You can add a person to your WeChat contact list by scanning his or her QR code, and make payments by scanning a merchant’s QR code. This scanning takes only 2 minutes to complete the full process of your payment, networking, shopping, and many more. This QR code helps you access mini-programs, official accounts, and events quickly. You will be directed to your destination page by simply scanning the code. Different types of special discounts and freebies are also offered to the customers using these QR codes.

WeChat Pay

WeChat is now the most popular payment gateway in China. Every purchase from buying groceries to booking rides is made with the WeChat payment gateway, WeChat pay. All WeChat accounts have WeChat wallets that need to be activated with a verified bank account in China. For doing so, you have to link a bank account to your WeChat account. Make a transaction to your WeChat wallet from your bank account, or any other users. Then you can make payment for your purchase from your wallet. This wallet will give you the facility to pay a single bill in collaboration with other persons’ (friend or family members) contribution to the bill, such as paying a bill at a restaurant by every person dining with friends.

Sharing Location

This feature gives you the option to share your location with other WeChat users in your contact list. This feature will help you a lot if you are in a new city trying to meet someone at an unknown place. When you share your location to other users, he or she can open it in a map application which will show all of your locations to each other in real-time. You can see other persons’ positions and distances as you progress.

Chinese to English Translation

Foreigners in China may face problems understanding signs, directions, and menus as they are all written in the Chinese Language. WeChat has the facility to scan a text in Chinese and convert it into English. For doing so, you have to click on the Discover tab at the bottom of the user page then click on the Scan menu, and finally, slide to the Translate feature. Click on the Translate icon after taking a photo, WeChat will automatically translate the page into English. Communication with friends is now easier only for the built-in translator in WeChat messaging. You can translate a Chinese text by simply tapping on the text and selecting the English translation.

Shake to Meet New Friends Nearby

With this Shake to Meet New Friends Nearby feature, users can meet other users from all over the world. You just need to click on the Discover tab and click on Shake to start shaking for others. Then, WeChat will look for the persons who are also shaking for friends at the same time and suggest to you the users’ profiles complete with usernames, approximate distance from your location. You can choose anyone from the suggestion list. The app will also suggest you the option to add that person to your contact list.

Social Media in China

WeChat Moments is an alternative to any social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. You can post any updates in your timeline and see your WeChat friends’ updates too in your newsfeed unlike Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media platforms. You can also like, comment, share your friends’ posts and upload your own photos, videos, and audio clips. Moreover, there is an option to limit who can see your posts in WeChat moments and how many of your posts they can see. You can also set the duration of your shared moments after that period the moments will disappear automatically.

Get Information and Read Articles

WeChat official accounts are the alternatives to the official pages of companies, organizations, brands, influencers, and other groups that maintain online digital activities. This is the place where the promoters can gather fans and followers, send notifications and articles, and direct them to their respective online platforms, like websites. These WeChat accounts appear in WeChat chatbox, so the users can engage themselves in the same way as they do with usual WeChat contacts. Furthermore, the users can access the WeChat official accounts (pages)  at any time to get updates from the groups. These official pages can be found by tapping on the Search Tool in the top right corner of the user window. There is also an option in WeChat to scan the Companies’ or groups’ QR codes to follow their official pages.

Mini-Apps for Specific Purposes

Mini-Apps are the apps built-in WeChat itself. The users can get access to these Mini-Apps for specific purposes, such as hiring taxies, ordering foods, booking rides, and many more. These Mini-Apps do not require any installations on your phone to run operations. These Mini-Apps strengthen boost the performance of the existing apps and allow the users to download the lighter versions of the existing apps. For doing specific tasks in Mini-Apps, you need not leave the WeChat. You can search these Mini-Apps from the discover tab.

User Experience

The user experience of the app for everything, “WeChat” is very satisfactory as the app is a top-rated one. It has been with 5-star rantings for many years because of its efficacy and performance, and benefits. Considering all these, it is a must-have app in your journey to study in China. The name given to the app as “The App for Everything” is undoubtedly worth giving. Download the Android and IOS versions of the WeChat app from the link below:

Download the Android version

Download the IOS Version