QQ big update, voice progress bar is here!

On April 13, QQ welcomed the update to version 8.0.0 for iOS.

From the update description on its App Store, we can see that this update not only upgrades the QQ interface and optimizes the experience of multi-person voice and forwarding messages, but also supports pause and progress dragging of voice messages.

I have tried the new version of QQ. Let's take a look at its performance.

Interface and icon upgrades

1. Login interface

After upgrading to version 8.0.0 for iOS, you can clearly see that the input box in the login interface has changed from horizontal lines to rounded corners. When you have completed filling in your account and password, the gray arrow under the input box will be "lit up" to a blue arrow with dynamic effects.

It looks simpler and more technological.

2. Message page

In addition to the login interface, you can clearly feel the changes in icons after entering QQ.

We have set QQ as the default theme. You can see that on the message page, your avatar and your friends' avatars are reduced in size, the bottom menu icons are changed and a frosted glass effect is added. After clicking the "+" in the upper right corner, you can see that the function icons are significantly enlarged and changed from hollow to solid.

3. Personal information page

Originally, when you swipe the screen to the right on the message page, an incomplete personal settings page will appear. In the latest 8.0.0 for iOS, the personal settings page will be displayed in full screen, the operating logic remains unchanged, and the button layout appears more "grand" - the spacing is increased, the icon effect is unified, and the graphics and text are more refined.

4. Chat interface

Not only the input box on the login interface has rounded corners, but the input box on the chat interface has also become rounded corners. If you are a loyal user of QQ, you may not be able to adapt to the change in the chat background color.

In addition, the "Chat Settings" icon in the upper left corner of the chat interface has changed, and after clicking to enter the chat settings page, the layout changes are similar to those of the personal information page.

When you open the extended menu bar of the QQ chat interface, you may be surprised by the changes in the icons, which have been adjusted from the previous single color to gradient or colorful effects, adding a touch of liveliness.

5. Dynamic Pages

The changes to the dynamic page should please many users. The search input box has rounded corners, the spacing between functions has increased, and "Nearby" and "Interest Tribes" are no longer so noticeable.

6. Add Pages

On the message page, click "+" in the upper right corner and select "Add friend/group" to enter the add page. The "Find public account" option has been removed in the latest version.

In addition to the above pages, the settings and other pages have also had interface upgrades, which will not be explained in detail one by one.

Voice messages support pause and progress dragging

The emergence of this feature is really exciting. The long-awaited "voice progress bar" feature on WeChat was unexpectedly implemented on QQ first. After experiencing it, we summarized this feature into the following points:

• Changed the display effect when sending voice messages
• Voice messages are displayed in the form of spectrum
• Support pause when voice is playing
• Added a progress bar during voice playback and supports dragging

Whether you are using voice changer, intercom or recording to send a voice message to the other party, or receive a voice message from the other party, the above effects are supported. It is worth mentioning that the voice message sent through "voice changer" will be decorated with a few small stars.

We made a dynamic picture to demonstrate the specific effect

The preview pop-up window cannot be edited when forwarding an image

The update description on the App Store mentioned "optimizing the experience of forwarding messages." In fact, for this "optimization," QQ gave up a practical function.

In QQ 7.9.9 and below, you can edit pictures when forwarding them; but in QQ 8.0.0 for iOS, the forwarding operation becomes similar to WeChat, where you can only attach a message but cannot edit the picture.

Why doesn’t WeChat have a “voice progress bar”?

Since February last year, there have been rumors online that WeChat is testing a "voice progress bar" feature, and most users are supportive. Judging from everyone's feedback on this matter, most people are "disgusted" with long voice messages that are almost 60 inches long.

But if you search for the word "voice" in the official mini-program "WeChat Rumor Refutation Assistant", you can see that in fact WeChat had already refuted this rumor in February 2018, clearly stating that it had not conducted internal testing of the relevant function.

Even though the user community has been calling for a "voice progress bar", and even though the feature launched by the popular "Bullet Messenger" last year has been well received, WeChat, perhaps the social product that understands voice messaging the best, has never taken any action. Why is that?

Of course, if you just add a "voice progress bar" as shown in the picture above, I personally think there is no need for it - voice messages are different from videos. You can correspond to the frame number and determine the position you want to drag to. You can only "adjust to a position first and listen to a section."

QQ has provided a solution to this problem, which is to directly change the form of voice messages, and use the spectrum (in simple terms, the higher the sound, the longer the vertical line) to present the voice with a "sense of picture" to facilitate positioning.

This is a good method, but in actual application, the "voice progress bar" is still a low-frequency demand. Maybe it is more practical when you listen to the voice again (in fact, you can convert voice to text if you need to listen again), but if you receive the voice for the first time, out of curiosity or fear of missing information, you will listen to the voice to the end.

The lack of a voice progress bar is also closely related to the design principles advocated by Zhang Xiaolong. Zhang Xiaolong has always said that there is no "restraint" in WeChat's dictionary, and it is more about doing the right thing. In the general environment of over-marketing, WeChat's so-called "doing the right thing" may mean giving up many things that seem to be taken for granted.