What's New WeChat: The Ins and Outs of Voice Messaging, Plus Tencent Presents China at the Dubai Expo

Cut the chit-chat and gather around to learn the latest about everyone's favorite super-app in our ongoing column, What's New WeChat.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has a love-hate relationship with WeChat voice messages – though nice to use when your hands are tied and you can’t type, listening can be a hassle at best or impossible at worst, not to mention all of the unspoken rules about using them in group chats.

Incidentally, WeChat recently unveiled a new function that allows users to pause a voice message in the middle, but if you’re not one for actually listening to voice messages in the first place, this merely delays the inevitable.

That being said, there are those among us who are quite fond of sending voice messages, so here’s a nifty little guide about when, where, and how to use this somewhat polarizing feature:

Speak slowly and coherently when sending

If and when the time comes to send a message, make sure to speak slowly and clearly no matter the language. The reasons are numerous, but in short (a) the person on the other end won’t have to ask you to repeat yourself and (b) it allows them to use WeChat’s special readout function more easily.

Just what is this readout function, you ask?

When you see a voice message, simply press and hold until a bubble pops up next to it with the word “convert.” Click it, and you’ll be able to read what’s being said in the message.

Note: This function is only available for Mandarin with some phones/versions of WeChat, so try at your own risk.

Send a text message first asking to send a voice message

This is kind of like that unspoken rule of sending someone a text to ask if they’re free before calling.

If you really can't type out a message before sending a voice message but have quite a bit you'd like to say, just ask if it's alright to send. It's as simple as "Hey I can't type now, can I send a voice message?"

That way you won't irritate the person on the other end if they're really not in the mood for voice messages, or if they aren't in a position to listen to one. Bonus too for being considerate.

Sending long messages? Just call!

Nothing’s worse than being sent a string of voice messages that vary from 30 to 50 seconds in length, as listening can be tedious if you’re on the go or using WeChat web at a time or place where listening might be inconvenient – happened to us more than a few times.

Plus, if you need to talk about that much stuff, why not use your phone for what it was originally intended and call the other person? We hear you can even do it over WeChat, too. Give it a try!

Don’t send in a group chat!

While this rule is generally unspoken until it happens, it has been written up a fair number of times – which makes it easier to call out offenders in group chats instead of sending an impromptu message.

More often than not, voice messages in groups are accidental (basically the WeChat equivalent of a butt or drunk dial), but some people simply don’t get it and will send them along anyways.

Perhaps it’s the fact that no one in the group knows you personally that makes voice messaging in groups all the more awkward, but it’s best not to speculate on things like this and just tell it like it is: voice messages in group chats? Bu hao!

In other WeChat and Tencent news…

Tencent, in its role as official partner of the China Pavilion at the 2020 Dubai World Expo, will be hosting a live broadcast on Jan 17 at 8pm to give citizens of the world a glimpse at the “Cool life of the Chinese people.”

To find out what this entails, just head here and book a spot. According to the post, it’ll involve quite a bit of climbing the Great Wall, visiting Dunhuang, and jumping snow leopards.

READ: What's New WeChat: Users Finally Allowed to Share External Links

Images: 人民日报, tenor.co, lingholic.com, 微信派