It has been nearly a year since Tencent decided to develop a BlackBerry version of WeChat, which almost discouraged all BlackBerry fans. Every time there is a rumor that Tencent WeChat is coming, but unfortunately it never comes. This event gradually evolved into a "wolf", but this time the "wolf" really came.
The Tencent WeChat development team recently started to recruit some netizens to conduct a small scale internal test of BlackBerry version WeChat, and frequently updated the version to repair the bugs found by some internal test users, which must be known by BlackBerry fans who follow. As one of the BlackBerry users, I am lucky to be a member of the internal test users. Just the day before yesterday, the WeChat internal beta has been updated to 1.0.20.1 beta.
Tencent's action on the BlackBerry version of WeChat is not only to frequently update and optimize the beta version, but also to have listed one of the BlackBerry models, the BlackBerry 9900, on the WeChat international homepage www.wechatapp.com, and marked "Coming Soon". In fact, it supports OS5 All models of OS6 and OS7, but they were canceled later. It happened that the screenshots were saved. Maybe it was the staff testing the web page, so I have reason to believe that the official version is coming!
When I first participated in the internal test, BlackBerry WeChat was really stuck. It was too hard to use. After several updates to the version in the internal test, there is basically no bug. Apart from some advanced functions, it is no problem to use general communication.
Before I got this installation package, I was actually questioning the authenticity of this rumor. One reason was that there were too many "wolves" before, and the other reason was that, as I had predicted, the BlackBerry version of WeChat had "missing functions and incomplete experience" compared with other mature WeChat platform versions. But it seems that Tencent was still ahead of the arrival of the BB10 system, The important meal of Blackberry WeChat was delivered to Blackberry users.
One of the self-evident advantages of the BlackBerry version of WeChat is the factor of BlackBerry hardware other than software, that is, the physical full keyboard - you can enter freely and communicate with friends on the full keyboard, which is a very pleasant thing when we experience the BlackBerry version. Entering WeChat text on my 9900 is an unprecedented input experience, Input feel and cheerfulness can be described as unrestrained.
Of course, it has many disadvantages, for example, it does not support QR code scanning to add friends and public platforms; The "circle of friends" community function is not supported; It does not support "shake, drift bottle" and other friend adding functions; Many WeChat plug-ins are not supported; It does not support WeChat public platform to push image and text information display, etc.
However, the interface for chatting with friends is very good, such as basic emoticons, supporting pictures, voice transmission, etc.
If I compare the official BlackBerry version of QQ with other BlackBerry versions of domestic applications or other BlackBerry versions of IM applications vertically within the BlackBerry platform, I can experience the sincerity and workload of this version of the WeChat development team. Of course, if I compare the current mainstream iOS, Android and WindowsPhone platforms horizontally, the gap is still obvious.
The WeChat QQ internal test group where the author works has had a heated discussion, which has responded to the bug and talked about the development direction of WeChat. It seems that BlackBerry has a large group of lovely fans supporting it, expecting BB10 to bring us more surprises!
