Wechat released a Wechat Contacts app as an enhancement to smartphones’ existing contacts. The most appealing feature is offering users to make free VoIP calls. It also offers auto backup of contacts, Wechat profile photo imports, group SMS and bulk deleting contacts.
Only users who use this Wechat app can make and receive free calls. The caller is redirected to leave a voice mail if the receiver does not pick up. According to the official introduction, the app uses 300K data for every one minute’s call under 2G/3G/4G network. Users might need to pay for the data to the networks. But, under Wifi the service is totally free.
We tested this app in the team and the voice quality is very good; even better than regular network voice calls. The three telcos in China should be very nervous right now.
Wechat has been working to enhance its feature to create more broader engagement with mobile users, advertisers, business users, gaming users, and app developers. It launched a micro-video shooting function in October 2014 that seems promising.
It has also gained popularity in international markets such as India. 21% correspondents surveyed said they used Wechat in the past month, more than Line and Snapchat app.