WeChat: The Hidden Features [Part 2]
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• None of is living in China could live without WeChat. But do we make the most of it? It hasn't always been the most intuitive software to use - but in the last few years Tencent have really upped there game. You might not have discovered all the new WeChat features that can make your life easier.
• In our first article, we covered the basics - from the obvious, to little tricks you might not know about. Today, let's look at some other useful and fun features.
Select Who Can/Cannot See Your Moments
Finally, the new update means you can choose WHO can and cannot see your moments. Enough said! While sharing your WeChat Moment, select ‘Share With’, and then ‘Share With/Don't Share’, again and select the groups/contact you wish.
Select How Long People Can See Your Moments
You have the option between 3 days, 6 months or 1 year.
Go to Me > Settings > Privacy > Visible to Friends, select your desired timeframe. Remember, Moments posted before your selected time frame will be hidden from friends.
Sticky on Top
The "sticky on top" option is a handy trick that you can use if you don't want to miss any messages of a particular chat despite other notifications.
You can access this option by going into the chat of your preference and pressing the three dots on the right-hand corner. There you will need to enable 'Sticky on Top'. This will make sure that the chat that you selected will always be at the top of your WeChat.
Voice Message to Text
Besides the voice message to text function from your phone's keyboard that you might already be familiar with, WeChat has made it even more convenient to convert voice messages to texts.
This voice input function allows users to speak into WeChat and immediately convert their words into text. All you have to do is to long-press the voice message button, say what you want to be translated to text and just before letting go, swipe up and right and let go when you reach the bubble on the right side.
Search Related Stickers
Who doesn't love stickers? Now when you see a great sticker, you can also search for the related ones. All you have to do is to press and hold over the sticker and click the related sticker's function.
Floating Windows
When you use WeChat for literally EVERYTHING, sometimes it’s hard to find your place in an article after replying to a chat. Floating Windows has been updated so you can now pin up to 10 different types of content at a time, ensuring you can multitask like a boss.
When you're on an article, swipe right and hold at the bottom right-hand corner to float your windows for easy access.
Split the Bill
Split the bill does exactly what it says on the tin. The feature allows you to split a bill in a group chat instead of you needing to drudgingly contact everyone individually or never receive the remaining payment from certain people by accident or otherwise.
Simply create a group with who you need to split the bill with but if the bill was for a meal, event, birthday gift, you’re usually already in a group already.
Next, go to Me > WeChat Pay > Money > Split Bill > Create Now, and select the group you need. Once you have selected the group you can enter the total amount, you can even select which participants in the group you wish to split with.
If each participant owes you a different amount that can also be entered after selecting 'Specified Amount'. Then once it’s in the group you and the rest of the group will be able to see the status of the split bill and who and more importantly who has not paid you back.
Delete Comments
Another handy update is that now you can delete comments that you don't necessarily want under your posted Wechat moments.
To do this, press and hold on the comment and the delete option pops up. Voila! Gone are the days that you need to ignore or delete your whole post to rid a not-so-nice or inappropriate comment.
Use Web WeChat
You can download a desktop version of WeChat for your computer. However, if for any reason you are not able to do this, then this function will allow you to temporarily use WeChat on your computer without having to download anything.
Open your internet browser and go to web.wechat.com and scan the QR code shown and confirm it on your phone. Chat history won’t be shown but you can access all your contacts, send and receive messages. If you dowload the app on your desktop, limited chat history will be visible.
One advantage of this feature is that you are able to transfer files of less than 10MB from your computer. Just open a chat on Web WeChat and select the upload icon (the one to the right of the Scissors) and select your file.
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