Tag Archives: WeChat

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO WECHAT – PART 3

Let’s lock up our WeChat account, shall we? There are three ways to do that. You can use your mobile number, your email or your Facebook account. Here’s how to link your email:

1. Press Me then Settings then My Account.

2. Depending on how you registered for WeChat, you will see different options on this page. We registered using a mobile number. For us, only email and Facebook are showing. What you see here may be totally different from what someone else sees. This is about what we can do with our account in North America.

3. Email verification is the easiest. Click on the word Email then type in the email address that you want to link to your WeChat account. Make double/triple/quadruple sure that you type the address correctly. If you happen to make a typo, someone else could steal your account before you realize it.

4. Once you fill in the details, wait patiently for the verification email to arrive. This is what it looks like:

WeChat email verification 1
Click on the OK and your account is automatically linked to your WeChat account.

5.Click on OK and this is what opens up in a new tab:

WeChat email verification 2
Success!

6. Remember that you cannot link two email accounts or two phone numbers to your WeChat. Only one of each. If you have to register a new email or number, you have to unlink your old one. Keep that in mind.

We’ll link a Facebook account to our WeChat in the next post. In the meantime, comments and questions are welcome but  Likes on our Facebook page get immediate attention.  Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook .  Thanks for reading!

The Ultimate Guide to WeChat – Part 2

Once you’ve got your WeChat account up and running, make sure you add a real profile photo and a greeting. You can take a photo with your camera or use one that you’ve taken before. Your message should be polite and friendly. Don’t be rude, whatever you do or you’ll probably get banned.

Photo of WeChat
Here they are, WeChats social features.

Not that you’re all set up, share some Moments. Add photos or short videos, you can even type a message or thought or status update. Just hold the camera icon for a second or two. That will allow you to type your message. WeChat has changed the way you add photos to your Moments. Instead of a still photo, you can only add short videos. If you want to add a photo, you have to take the photo when you are outside of WeChat then choose ‘Images’ when you press on the camera icon. The video part is good but we kind of miss the immediate photo sharing.

If you want to meet people, WeChat has three options for you. The easiest to use is People Nearby. WeChat uses your GPS to show you other WeChat users who are close to your location.

Photo of People Nearby
You can choose to meet males or females here.

Shake is another way to meet people but it seems to cause problems for some users, problems we think that come from using it too often. Your mobile device must have a motion detector for Shake to work. If it does, all you do is Shake your phone or tablet and WeChat finds another user who happens to be shaking their device at the same time. Cool huh? We’ve had hundreds of questions about Shake so we’re pretty sure that it’s one of the most popular features that WeChat has to offer.

WeChat Shake Photo
A warning and then a Shake. Works for us!

Finally, there is Drift Bottle. Just as it sounds, you write a message and toss the bottle containing it into the ocean. Sooner or later, much later it seems, someone might find your bottle and answer your message. It’s the least popular feature of WeChat but that’s not to say it doesn’t work. It just doesn’t work as often as the other systems.

WeChat drift bottle feature
Write a message and toss the bottle into the ocean. Quite romantic, actually.

Yes, this post was supposed to be about security in WeChat. We’ll do that in our next post. The social features of WeChat are VERY popular so we decided to describe them before we got into WeChat security.

Comments and questions are welcome but  Likes on our Facebook page get immediate attention.  Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook .  Thanks for reading!

The Ultimate Guide to WeChat – Part 1

WeChat isn’t new, that’s for sure. In the few short years that it’s been around, however, it’s become very popular in many parts of the world. WeChat is so popular, it’s become our #1 topic here on Computers Made Simple. Why is it so popular? Well, many of our readers seem to get into jams with it, situations that we’ve never encountered with our accounts but ones that need solutions.

Our next few posts will guide you through the basics, everything from getting a new account to the intricacies of recovering a lost password or a banned account. Off we go!

1. Download and install WeChat from your app store. Make sure it’s the REAL app, not a third-party fake :

Photo of WeChat App
This is what the REAL WeChat app looks like in the Google Play Store

2. It seems that you need a mobile phone number OR Facebook to sign up for WeChat. That’s new. At one time all you needed was a QQ account or email. It seems that WeChat has tightened up their security for some reason.

Johnny Appleseed? How did they know? Use your real name or a fake name, doesn't matter.
Johnny Appleseed? How did they know? Use your real name or a fake name, doesn’t matter.

3. If you have Facebook installed on your mobile device, the ‘Sign in with Facebook’ option will come up on your screen when you attempt to register for WeChat. If you don’t have Facebook installed, you’ll have to cough up your mobile phone number.

NOTE: If you have an old account, you can still log in with your QQ account number, your email or your WeChat ID but for new registrants, it’s mobile number or Facebook, that’s it.

4. If you don’t have a real mobile phone, let’s say you’re using a tablet instead of a smartphone, you can try registering with one of the many free WiFi phone numbers that are available. We used Fongo to get our free number.  Since we couldn’t seem to receive SMS messages, we chose to get the verification code via phone call. That too was hit and miss but we were finally able to get a code and enter it into the proper verification line.

5. Once you get the verification code via SMS or phone call, enter it in the proper space and you’re in. You’ll get a message or two or three from WeChat. Ignore them, unless you want to add some stickers to lighten up your chats.

6. Next, set up your profile. Make up a name for yourself, tell WeChat where you are and what city you’re in, things like that, and you can start to add contacts.

7. People Nearby and Shake are easy to use. We prefer People Nearby but it’s up to you.  Tell WeChat who you want to meet ,as in men or women or both, then you’re off!

Installing and running WeChat is simple, no different from any other app that’s out there. What seems to be confusing is the security options. In our next post we’ll give you tips on how to secure your account.

Comments and questions are welcome but  Likes on our Facebook page get immediate attention.  Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook .  Thanks for reading!

 

 

WeChat – Protect your account

WeChat is our most popular topic by far.  It always amazes us that people don’t protect their accounts. As the saying goes ‘you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone’. Protect your account BEFORE you lose it…and all of your contacts.

It’s not rocket science, trust us. It’s all in the settings. The point of this protection is to prevent someone else from stealing your password and locking you out of your own account. If your account is accessed from a new device, you have to verify that device with WeChat.

You can use WeChat on any mobile device, no matter if it’s Android or iOs. We’re talking tablets, iPods, iPads, etc. Since WeChat is an app that you add to these devices, it can’t be used on a PC, neither laptop or desktop. Yes, you can chat on a computer but only with Web WeChat.

Even though you can use WeChat on any mobile device, you still need a smartphone to enable the SMS verification. WeChat limits this verification to one profile per phone number. If you change your phone, make sure you unlink your old number from WeChat. Here’s a post on exactly how to do that:

WeChat – Change your Phone Number and Email 

We’re going to run through all of this in a new series starting next week. Stay tuned.

Comments and questions are welcome but  Likes on our Facebook page get immediate attention.  Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook .  Thanks for reading!

 

 

WeChat – It’s free and fun but seems full of bugs.

WeChat is now the most popular topic on Computers Made Simple. Check out the comments at the bottom of this post: Weixin/WeChat – Shake your way to new friends, and you’ll see what we mean. People all over the world are using this free and fun app to meet and greet other users.

Photo of WeChat
Have fun with it but don’t take it too seriously.

WeChat is not without its problems, however. If you look at the comments from our readers, you’d think that WeChat is more of a problem than a solution. That’s not the case but, on the other hand, the makers of this app have not responded to our repeated requests for their input into the bugs. On yet another hand, WeChat is totally free. Because of that, users really can’t complain too much.

App software is a relatively new phenomenon, one that doesn’t require much or any cash input from users. These apps are usually platforms for ads. Some of them, ones such as WeChat which attract younger users looking to meet users of the opposite sex, are wide open to misuse and abuse. Some of the bugs that crop up may be the result of hackers who have found a way to manipulate the software or its servers for their own gain.  Also, we suspect that some governments in the world would rather not have their citizens using such an app.

Because of all of this, we’re here to say, “Enjoy it for what it is. Don’t take it too seriously and, lastly, if WeChat is the only way someone can meet other people, maybe they should take a break.”

If you’re shelling out your hard earned money for something, you have a right to gripe when it doesn’t work. WeChat usually does what it says it will do and is our current choice for keeping in touch with friends from around the world. Why? Simply because it offers so much for so little, nothing as a matter of fact. Chatting, sharing photos and videos, voice messaging, searching for other users, video conferencing, voice chats, well, you get the picture. If it doesn’t work perfectly when we’re looking for other users, no big deal. When it does, it’s fun. When it doesn’t, we do something else.

Finally, we know that this kind of app is addicting. Angry Birds is addicting too but in a different way. WeChat has opened up the world by allowing its users to find, communicate and add friends from just about anywhere. On top of that, WeChat lets you do this in a very unique, fun way. In the same way that Angry Birds was addicting because it was new, WeChat is very similar but the addiction comes not from knocking over pig’s homes but from maybe meeting the right girl or guy who could possibly change your life. Let’s call it a digital single’s bar.

Questions about WeChat or any other topic are the lifeblood of Computers Made Simple. We can’t always help but we do our best.

Thanks for reading!