One of the fastest growing apps these days is WeChat, a fun and easy to use app that allows you to text your friends, make calls and a lot more all completely for free.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through some tips for how to use WeChat, along with how to download the app if you’ve never done so before. Overall it’s a super easy to use app, but may take a bit of getting used to before you’re up and running with it. You can do a ton with the app, including making video calls, voice calls, sending text messages and even emoticons and emoji in your conversations!
Remember the days when you would have to call someone’s house if you wanted to chat with your friend or girlfriend/boyfriend? The awkwardness of having to talk with their parents for a bit before you could chat with your friend. Then, along came cell phones and people could text directly to their friends. Although, you may get hit with a huge cell phone bill if you went over your allotment on how many text messages you could send out in a given month. Now, the newest technology allows you to use apps like WeChat to send text messages and make calls over the internet. No need paying for international texting rates, etc. You now have an almost unlimited use of texts and calls all on your internet. But make sure you know what internet service you’re using and whether it charges per GB and that you’re not going over your allotment.
You may have a lot of questions about WeChat and we hope to answer some of them here along with some tips and tricks to make WeChat as useful as possible. We will cover:
- How to download WeChat on your iPhone, iPad, Android, etc.
- What WeChat Web is and how to use it.
- How to login to WeChat app
- What are WeChat stickers
- What are WeChat emoticons, and more…
How to Download WeChat for iPad, iPhone, Android
WeChat is available to download for most mobile platforms, I’ll cover some of the most common platforms, along with tips to get them downloaded and installed. In total WeChat is available on iOS App Store, Google Play, Blackberry, Windows Phone, and on the web.
To download and install WeChat on your iPhone you simply turn on your iPhone and head over to the app store. From there, you will want to search for the app in the search bar at the top. Once you see WeChat, simply tap the install/download button and from there it may ask for your password for the App Store.
It will download the app to the end of your app list so swipe left to find it. From there, you will want to sign up by opening the app. You should let it send push notifications so you can see if your friends have texted you. Then hit the “sign up” button. From there, enter in your phone number of the phone you’re using WeChat with. They will then send you a verification code that you have to use to verify you own that phone.
From there, you will want to enter in your full name and your WeChat ID or username. Think about which username you want to use as that can be a good way to meet people and show people who you are and what you like. Include a hobby, about yourself, etc. Now you’re ready to use WeChat.
To get WeChat on your iPad you will need to follow the same instructions as above but if you don’t see WeChat for iPad when you search, make sure you tap the top left corner where it says “iPad only” and select “iPhone only” which will show you apps that were originally meant to download on the iPhone. You can download it on your iPad, it will just be a smaller resolution than a full iPad native app.
Likewise on Android, head over to the Google Play store on your computer or on your phone and search for WeChat. Download the app and follow the instructions on installing and to sign up for your account. Then you can login to WeChat and start texting.
What is WeChat Web?
You may have heard about WeChat web and wondered what it is and why people are all of a sudden talking about it. Your friend may have asked you to join WeChat web so they can talk to you when they’re at home or at school or work.
WeChat web allows you to use the WeChat functionality on your mac, just as you would on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. The easy thing about it is that you can transfer your conversations from your mobile device to your desktop without skipping a beat. You will need to verify your Mac to use your WeChat account, to do that you will scan the QR code or enter in the WeChat ID and password that you use to login to your app on your phone.
You can use all of the same functionality, but now on your Mac. If you’re on a PC you can use WeChat by heading over to https://web.wechat.com and scanning the QR code. That will allow you to use WeChat on your PC by just using a standard web browser.
What are WeChat stickers
You must remember stickers when you were growing up. You would share stickers and collect them with your friends. Now you can use a similar feature when using WeChat stickers. This feature allows you to purchase and upload your own stickers so that you can add a little liveliness to your texting. Basically, when you’re in WeChat, head over to “Me” in the menu and tap on the Sticker Gallery, which will show you all of the stickers you can purchase from the app. This is one of the ways WeChat makes money on their users, as the app is free to download. They have to make money somehow. There are actually several messaging services now that use stickers.
You can also create your own custom stickers, the website Tech In Asia explains how you can save a custom gif to your desktop, then transfer it over to your phone and apply it to your iPhone or Android WeChat app. Simply go into the regular stickers menu and from there you will see that there are options to get your custom stickers into the app. Now you can share your favorite items with your friends. Make sure they are original and try to find some funny ones, there are a ton of great GIFs out there if you do a Google Image search for them.
How To Use WeChat Emoticons
You can use WeChat emoticons to help liven up a conversation along with using emoji to convey your emotion through a text. A lot of times people use emoticons to share their experiences or be silly in a conversation, and now you can add your own emoticons to WeChat with a few simple steps. I’ll outline them below.
- Open WeChat and select the emoticons icon at the bottom right, it’ll be a smiley face next to the plus icon.
- Once that opens up you’ll see a list of emoticons you can use, but you can select the “special” tab to add more emoticons that are custom and not already populated into the app. Press the plus button after going to the special tab.
- Now you will be given the option to download emoticons from the website or choose a photo. If you already have a photo in mind, make sure you put it in your iPhone or Android picture gallery and select it. Alternatively, you can use the “download from website” option to get a ton more emoticons for WeChat.
Now you can use your custom WeChat emoticons to send silly photos to your friends or your new girlfriend or boyfriend. Send that heart to your crush or a cold beer to your best friend.
WeChat Vs. WhatsApp
If you own an iPhone or Android, you’ve definitely heard of WhatsApp and WeChat. Both are huge contenders in the mobile text messaging a communication realm. WhatsApp, you may have heard, was recently purchased by Facebook for a whopping $19 billion! As you can guess, Facebook is taking a chance that WhatsApp will be the main mobile messaging service moving forward. And rightly so, with 250 million active monthly users, it’s bound to make a decent amount of money and bring in a lot of young users internationally into Facebook’s reach.
That is the primary reason I would say WhatsApp may have the upper hand right now. Facebook hasn’t quite gotten in and changed a bunch to WhatsApp yet, they haven’t changed the business model or tried to juice out a high revenue from the app yet. They’re just supporting the infrastructure with Facebook’s amazing hardware and talent to back it. As of now, WhatsApp is likely more reliable and faster, however, that may change if Facebook starts to change a bunch of things and add advertising to the mobile app.
Ultimately, however, both services are excellent and the main driver in which one you should choose is where your friends are, which service is used more by people you know. Because, for the app to be popular and fun, you need to know people on it to connect with. As of now, it seems most people aren’t using the apps to make friends, but more so to communicate with friends they already have. So ask around to your friends and see what they think, what they’re using and go with that as your primary service. As always, if you have a lot of friends who use iPhone or iPad’s, you can use the iMessage platform to send free text messages to your friends.
WeChat Verification Code
If you want to use WeChat on your desktop or online you have to have a valid verification code. Also, when you sign up and try to login to WeChat they will ask to send you a text message with a verification code. You may have gotten a random text with a verification code but you don’t have WeChat. If that’s the case, just delete it and make sure you don’t respond. Most likely someone either entered in the wrong phone number when they tried to sign up for WeChat or they are trying to use a fake phone to get an account. Either way, it shouldn’t affect you, just ignore it.
This does mean that you have to have a phone to register for WeChat. If you don’t already have a phone you likely can’t sign up for the service as you need to initially sign up on a mobile device. If you don’t have a cell phone or a tablet, you could try to borrow a friends iPhone or Android, but you have to make sure they don’t want to use WeChat in the future because you don’t want to take away their ability to create an account in the future.
How to Change WeChat ID
You can easily change your WeChat ID by using a few steps below. Make sure you have the app downloaded onto your device and open it up.
- Head over to settings at the bottom right, then tap on “My Account” and it will bring up information based on your WeChat account.
- Select the “WeChat ID” at the top, which should be the ID you came up with when you first signed up for the service.
- It will then come up with an option to change your WeChat ID simply by entering in your new ID that you want. There are a few rules and restrictions to the new username but they’re not very tough
Make sure you come up with several different options for your WeChat ID, as the one you initially want may be taken if it’s a commonly used username.
How to Add Friends on WeChat
If you find yourself wanting to add friends on WeChat but can’t figure out a good way to find and sync friends, there are multiple options you have to add various friends to your profile. It partially depends on whether you have your contacts synced over with your iPhone or Android.
You can add contacts by using their WeChat ID as this is the easiest way to add contacts to your WeChat account. All you have to do is head over to the WeChat app and from there you can search for your new friends that you want to add. Click on Social in the preferences, then Add contact, then Add by ID. From there, you can type in your friend’s WeChat ID and they will show up on the search. You can view their profile photo to make sure that’s actually who you want to add.
Another really cool way to add a friend on WeChat is to use the QR code that is built into the app and is specific for your profile. Just pull up your QR code and have your friend scan it to get a new contact on your app. If you’re on Chats, you can click on the wand in the top right and from there tap on Scan QR Code. It will let you scan someone’s code to add to your friend’s list.
How to Show Confetti On WeChat
You can show confetti falling from the screen if you know the trick. You may be surprised to see that there is confetti falling during a random conversation and wonder how in the world can you do the same.
You can do this by enabling trigger words in WeChat that will cause a different response depending on what the trigger word is. For example if you type in “Happy Birthday” or “I Miss You” on WeChat you will get confetti to fall on both of your screens. You can also use the Chinese words “么么哒” which translate to honey or baby and is used affectionately by two lovers.
If you’re around a holiday season sometimes they work, for example you can try “Happy Easter” and that will work around Easter. Try Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Thanksgiving as well to get a special treat.
Remember to use them whenever you have a conversation to make the text a bit more exciting and fun. Also try different random ones and post any that you find that are new below in the comments.
That wraps up this guide on how to use WeChat, we hope that you learned a bit and will try out this awesome app if you haven’t previously. It’s very easy to download and tons of fun to use. Let us know if you have any questions below and we’ll be happy to answer them. Until then, enjoy your texting!