WeChat 7.0 Android version preview: Beware that your short videos may be viewed by strangers

WeChat is now 7 years old. When you have gradually forgotten who was the first friend you added, it has already penetrated into your daily life and become a part of your connection with the world around you. The official version has released a major change across versions, directly upgraded to 7.0. Not only has the startup screen changed dramatically, but many design details have also adopted a simple and elegant style. So what new features does the new version of WeChat bring? Apple users have already tried it, what are the different highlights of the Android version? We got a beta version to take a look.

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The Earth is missing?

What has attracted the most attention is the disappearance of the iconic WeChat startup screen, the Earth, which has remained unchanged for seven years. As everyone knows about the Apple version, the new version replaces the classic startup screen of the Earth ("blue marble") and the silhouette of the little man with the Cosmos. However, we did not find this major change on the Android side. The official reply stated that this is still an internal test version, and this screen cannot be regarded as a real replacement. Only the Cosmos is displayed on the first startup after the user side is updated, and the classic Earth startup page is still used for subsequent startups. Therefore, those who want to be nostalgic can rest assured, your Earth and the little man are still there.

Let me share with you some background information about Cosmos: its scientific name Cosmos in Greek originally means universe, harmony, order, reputation, good deeds, etc. Cosmos is also called Mr. Zhang Flower. After entering Tibet during the Guangxu period, Zhang Yintang was not only praised by the imperial court and the Tibetan local government, as well as monks and lay people, but people affectionately called him "Mr. Zhang".

Zhang Yintang cherished national unity and was obsessed with flowers. When he entered Tibet, he brought a bag of "Persian chrysanthemum" seeds, which he gave to the dignitaries and monks at the time. They were sown in the courtyards of temples and monks and officials, and then quickly spread to all parts of Tibet. The simple Tibetans did not know the original name of the flower, but only knew that it was given by Lord Zhang, so they all called the flower he brought "Lord Zhang". I wonder if Zhang Xiaolong and Lord Zhang are also related by blood? Of course, this is a later story.

The apathetic style is completely new

The color of the WeChat icon has become lighter, and the Android version has also inherited this change. At the same time, this is also consistent with the overall interface style migration of WeChat 7.0. Compared with the line that "imitates" WeChat, there is a very obvious difference and a more advanced visual experience. I personally think that the icons of this revision are very good-looking. Secondly, the banner at the top of the main interface has changed from black to pure white, keeping the same color as other locations. Then the text and icons on the interface have become smaller, and the style is more flat.

The flat and simple changes of icons are also applied to other columns. For example, the My Page has also been changed. The original "Wallet" column has become the current "Payment". This change makes it easier for the elderly to locate. At the same time, the more refreshing icons also give people a clearer indication of what this function does without reading the text.

Simple experience but not simple functions

WeChat also focuses on Moments. The WeChat team used design to "centrally layout" and "forcefully beautify" the originally complex pictures, but this is only limited to one's own Moments album. If it is updated to a wider range in the future, users will be able to review the "big events in Moments" that they missed in a day through the picture reading mode, with everything at a glance. I just don't know if old users can get used to this new design.

The next new feature is the controversial "Strong Reminder", which allows users to set messages from designated contacts to be in strong reminder mode. In the strong reminder mode, if a contact set as a strong reminder sends you a message, as long as you open WeChat or browse other articles in WeChat, there will be a forced black screen message reminder.

This feature may be a way for strong girls to stop their partners who like to play games from making excuses like "I didn't see it" or "I forgot it".

Tencent's short video ambitions remain

I have always believed that this official launch of “Moments Video” is nothing more than an update of Tencent’s short video function (the previous Weishi has been abandoned), because it is also a short video mode and only supports 10-second videos (direct shooting supports 15 seconds). But I later discovered that its self-destructing feature seems to be somewhat similar to the design logic of Instagram and Weibo stories.

Moment Video supports video editing, posting emoticons, gifs, text, automatically recommending background music and adding geographic locations. The most fun thing is that it can directly read gifs in your WeChat and insert them directly into Moment Video. The operation is very easy to use, but it is not easy to find it when you first come here - for example, the new version of Android testing, it is located on the "Me" page and users can only activate it by pulling down the page.

Compared with the hidden function, its browsing seems less "restrained" - the moment videos shot by users are not posted in Moments, but are marked with a small blue cursor on the upper right of the user's avatar. You only need to double-click the avatar to enter the moment video of your friend. Browsing friends can leave "bubble" comments on the video. Bubble comments are like pop-ups. Long pressing the bubble can open the comment function, which supports text and emoticons.

But the problem is, if you are in a WeChat chat group of 200 people, the other 199 people, including friends you don't know, can also see the moment videos posted by members of the group in the same way as swiping Douyin, but they can't bubble up or comment. Do you understand? These 199 people may not be your friends, and the content you shoot will be exposed to the public, instead of being shown to people you have social connections with like you send it to Moments, although you may not be in touch with most of them.

In summary, I hope that all users who have updated to the new version can be mentally prepared and not be too late to delete or modify. There is another point that needs to be vigilant or worth reminding. Users who are quick to post a Moment video may not know how to delete it? This point is also hidden quite deeply. The publisher needs to go to My → Album → Moment Video → Open and play the video to be deleted → Long press the screen → Click Delete.

However, the official also has reservations about this issue. As mentioned earlier, Moment Video is somewhat similar to Instagram's "Limited Time Dynamics" and Weibo's Friends' Stories, which automatically disappear after 24 hours. So even if you post something you shouldn't, you don't have to delete it to remedy it. And I personally feel that this function will soon be used by WeChat merchants for advertising and become unpopular. Of course, everything depends on how the official positions it.

To sum up, this is probably the basic content of WeChat version 7.0 reflected in the Android beta version. More functions are subject to the official release version.