10 WeChat Features You Might Not Know About

In the land of the PRC, WeChat is king. Whether you’re using it for work or for family and friends, there’s really no better way to communicate with those that are both near and far. But WeChat is good for more than just sending hilarious stickers. Here are 10 features that will help you step up your WeChat game:

Quick pay

Me > Wallet > Quick Pay. It’s as easy as that. Now, it’s no longer necessary to bring a wallet or cash with you every day, because basically all shops and restaurants now accept WeChat as a form of payment. Also, if you click on the “+” symbol, at the top right of your chat page, and click on the “Money” option, you’ll save yourself some time by reducing the extra clicks it takes to reach your WeChat wallet.

Preview stickers

Have you ever accidentally sent a sticker to someone without knowing exactly what it does? Well worry no longer, because there’s a way of previewing the sticker before sending it out. So you’ll be able to see what the sticker actually does. Just press and hold the sticker and, if it’s not the one you want, just slide your finger off of it and you’re in the clear!

Price Compare

WeChat offers you a perfect way to guarantee you are buying a product at the cheapest of prices. Simply scan the barcode of a product you would like to buy in any store, and you’ll see if that same product has a different price in another store. You could be saving yourself some pretty pennies with this neat tool.

Send a Postcard

Seriously, WeChat just continues to surprise. You can save yourself a trip to the post office and send a post card anywhere in China for only ¥5. All you need to do is add a picture from your camera roll, type up a small message and add a city-specific stamp – that’s it! The company will print the postcard out for you and mail it to your recipient. BINGO. This is all done through the Public Services feature (Me > Wallet > Public Services) which also offers so many cool sub features like a mobile library, bus ticket sales and so on…

Order food

Check with your favorite restaurants to see if you can order your favorite dish through their official WeChat accounts! Some may require you to know a little Chinese, but others make it easy for you to place a delivery request, cutting out the middle man and making sure your stomach is filled with the best of the best. Restaurants like Wagas, Saucepan and Wheat have delivery options for you, and following their accounts ensures you’re staying up to date on their latest events, deals and other cool happenings.

Conference Call

You’ve got a group chat on WeChat with your closest friends or your family, you want to tell them all something important but can’t be bothered to type it all up – we’ve all been there. Well you can call them all at the same time! Just tap on the “+” button in your group chat, click on Voice Call (Group > + > Voice call) and you can chose the members you want to have that conference call with.

Mobile top-up

China Unicom or China Mobile stores can be difficult to navigate when you don’t speak Chinese. So, if you’re feeling a little unsure about how you can easily top-up your mobile phone, without getting a friend to help you out, you need this feature in your life. What’s more, this makes it super easy to constantly stay connected when you’re nowhere near a store to top-up. Go to Me > Wallet > Mobile Top Up and save yourself a trek.

Edit and tag aliases

Maybe you have a number of WeChat contacts whose names are all Chinese, or that one contact that just has an emoji as their name. Well, did you now that you can change the names of your contact? Select the contact and click Set Remark and Tag so that you can actually keep track of who you are talking to.

Step tracker

All you need to do to activate this is follow the WeRun account (Weixin Yundong 微信运动) and enable it on your phone. Once that is done, head to Settings > Add data source and you will connect your phone’s fitness tracker to the app. This is a great way to track your steps and even have a little competition with your friends.

Voice print password

Yes, you’ve read right. Now instead of having to digitally type your WeChat password to login into the app, you can record your voice speaking out the numbers and use that the next time you login! Just makes everything much faster and easier don’t you think?