EDIT: We’ve been in touch with WeChat on Twitter. They’ve sent us a couple of Direct Messages there. Here’s what they said:
“Hi Brian. Thx for helping us answer users’ questions! I can see that ur site is a super useful resource! We really appreciate it!”
All well and good but how about some help! Here’s the next one:
“We read through some of the comments & submitted these issues to the team. We’ll get back to you as soon as I hear back….”
The last one was back on September 27th, 2013. Still waiting. We’ll post when we hear from them.
Last week, we wrote about WeChat. Here is the post: WeChat/Weixin . Here is the link to WeChat at the Apple Store. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wechat!/id414478124?mt=8 It’s available in the Android app store, as well.
Sometimes it seems that the only innovations in social networking are coming out of China. Honestly, that’s not all that hard to figure out, seeing as how there are over a billion people there and almost half of them use the Internet. Of those users, about 400 million access the Internet using the various mobile devices available, many of which are Smartphones.
Add the fact that Chinese Internet users are very sociable, probably more so than North Americans, and you’ve got a perfect wave forming for a company like Tencent (http://www.tencent.com/en-us/index.shtml). Enter Weixin or WeChat. Tencent already has a huge market with QQ and its own version of Weibo but now, with WeChat, they have come up with a purely mobile chat application that is, to us anyway, stunning.
Read our previous post then come back and find out how to meet new people using WeChat. Take your time, we’ll wait.
OK! Here we go. There are three completely different ways to look for other WeChat users. Of course, you can plunk in your other social media passwords and find out which friends already use WeChat or you can invite them to start using it, but here we’re talking about meeting completely new people.
1. The first way is to simply ‘Look Around’. If your mobile device has a GPS monitor, you’ll be able to search out WeChat users who live in your area. In my case, I found users within 900 meters of my home. To me, that’s kind of like standing on your porch and shouting, “Is there anybody out there?” Of course, the local users are all Chinese, except for me that is. Most early adopters of WeChat are overwhelmingly Chinese but, theoretically, that will change.
Once you find a WeChat user nearby, you can simply say, “Hi”. You can also tune the Look Around feature to show only males, only females or both. Personally, I think this feature is pretty cool but I can also see how it might seem creepy to some of you. If it does, you can easily delete the Look Around plug-in. It is part of the default set of plug-ins and is easily removed.
2. Instead of looking around for other WeChat users, you can shake your way to new relationships using the Shake plug-in. Choose the option from the screen and simply give your mobile phone a shake. WeChat looks around for other users who are shaking their devices at the same time and gives you the option to say hi to them. This plug-in is more proactive than the Look Around feature since you already know that the person shaking their phone is looking to make contact with someone. Say hi and see how it goes. You can always shake again if things turn sour. Remember, again, that virtually every user you contact will be Chinese. If you know anything about China and the Chinese people, you will know that almost everyone wants to learn English but many Chinese already have a rudimentary knowledge of it. Many Chinese speak and write better English than some of your friends and neighbors, too.
TIP: If you meet someone you like and the English thing isn’t getting you anywhere, you can download QQ International. We’ll do another post on it but, for now, we’ll simply say that you can chat with someone who only knows Chinese even if you only know English. There is a wonderful translation app built into the International version which has opened up the world to China and, of course, China to the world.
3. The last way to meet new friends is to simply cast a bottle out into the ocean. Of course, this is a virtual bottle but it works the same way as a real bottle with a message in it. Type in your note or use a voice message and then toss your bottle into the ocean of WeChat users. WeChat will notify you when someone replies. Just now, I tossed a bottle out and almost instantly got three replies. One was a female exchange student in Denmark, another was a man who left me a voice message and the third was also a guy who just said, ‘Hello”. In the span of five minutes, I’ve got three new people to share things with. Cool!
WeChat isn’t for everyone. At this point, you have to have a keen interest in China and the Chinese people. You also have to be patient and be able to understand that not everyone in the world speaks perfect English. Once you’re over those hurdles, WeChat is loads of fun. Additionally, if you wait a year or so, WeChat will be flooded with millions of other users. At this point, it supports Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Portuguese, plus English and Chinese. (If you know social networking, you’ll see the importance of having WeChat available in Portuguese. Orkut, the Google version of Facebook, is extremely popular in Brazil.)
Questions, comments, links are all welcome. Thanks for reading!
Why would someone’s account get suspended?
And if there account is suspended, would it show up as message send but rejected?
Since WeChat is on everyone’s contact list, they may be monitoring what you do, at least in Moments. Someone may have reported you for something you said or did. If the account was suspended a message should show up as ‘not received’, something like that, or ‘user does not exist’. Good luck and thanks for commenting.
hi, maybe my problem is about that , suddenly its 2 weeks if someone try add me by id says i dont exist…what means¿? someone report me or something? and without any warning i dont exist by id?
If you can still use WeChat with your current contacts, then you haven’t been banned. Make sure you use the correct spelling and numbers as well as getting the case correct, upper and/or lower. If you have been banned, you can’t do anything on WeChat.
Thanks for commenting.
how to get USA friends in wechat . is it possible to get people only from one country ????
No, you can’t fine tune WeChat, it’s hit or miss. That’s the beauty of it. The only way to see people in one area is to use the ‘People Nearby’ feature. Good luck!
Thanks for commenting.
How come in only getting people within 7 mi of me and I would get them over and over
In People Nearby? That’s what is supposed to happen. Shake is where you get people from all over the world. Thanks for commenting.
my we chat is working i can chat but shake and people around are not working have deleted n updated nothing works.for 3 months everything was fine not defected.
Make sure your GPS is turned on AND that you have said it was OK for WeChat to use it. There are no settings in WeChat for that, you have to tell your device (phone) that it’s OK for WeChat to access your GPS settings. If that doesn’t fix things, and it should, check that other apps are working properly with your GPS. Good luck!
Thanks for commenting.
hello.. when i shake in wechat i am getting only from china people and it show they in so near to me(like they are in around 20km to me)but i am from india(karnataka) can you tell me how can i get from different country people…
Change the time of day that you Shake. Better yet, read the hundreds of suggestions on this page. Many other users are having the same problem.
Thanks for commenting.
There is definitely a glitch with Wechat while in Shake mode. I contacted Wechat but did not get a reply. I live part of the year in a small town about 2000km north of any big city. This small town has no more than 50 Chinese, whom I all know (I actually live with one Chinese family who is the unofficial “organizer” of the Chinese community here), and none of them use Wechat. Whether I am in a big city or in the small city, I get that same glitch with the Shake function telling me that only people from China, but from nowhere else, are within a few kilometres from me, which is not accurate whatsoever especially that nobody except a few hardy trappers live more than 2 km radius from city centre, and these people have no electricity or telephone service. Even if you remove and reinstall the app and do all the suggestions listed here, it will not solve the problem. Wechat is a fantastic app, but there is a small glitch, and it is with Wechat, not with your device. Thank you.
It sounds like you’ve described the problem perfectly and in an area where you can guarantee that it’s the app, not your device. Thanks for that. As you probably know, we are not connected with WeChat in any way, other than the fact that we follow each other on Twitter. They have sent us a couple of direct messages on Twitter saying that they have sent everyone’s comments to their troubleshooting people, for whatever that is worth, and they will let us know when they solve the issue. Our problem with the whole thing is that Shake is working perfectly on two devices, one Android and one iOS. There is some missing link here, some geographical glitch, that creates erroneous errors in Shake. We can only suggest that users in this situation use Shake as a meet and greet app for the millions of Chinese that they might meet using it, at least until WeChat fixes it.
Thanks for the update and for commenting.
Regardless of this small glitch, Wechat is still one of the best apps for meeting people and making new friends. I am a flight attendant and I use it all over the place and never met any rude people, unlike QQ where it seems that every other person who sends me a greeting is a bit shady or a perv.
We agree. It’s all for fun and it’s all free. We think too many people take it seriously, as if it’s the only way they can meet people.
Thanks for commenting.
Dear sir
I understood that if I use shake frequently I will get wrong Chinese people and I have to wait for a while, but it is 20 hours that I get wrong Chinese accounts.
We haven’t be able to discover why this happens. Try changing your display name, some users say that this works for them. That’s your display name, not your actual profile account. Good luck! Thanks for commenting.
will my mobile number be seen by a person whom i am chatting with through wechat shake?
No. You can link your mobile phone contacts, the people who already have your number, to WeChat but no one will see your phone number.
Thanks for commenting.
Hello…I am facing the same problem of getting china people on shake… but i from malaysia,i very sure that china is not 10-20 km distance from here…
i uninstall and rollback to an old version…
change the display name… all not work for me..
You can do two things. Read all of the comments on this page, there are hundreds of people who have the same problem. Second, we know for a fact that there are thousands and thousands of Chinese in Malaysia. Just because they say they are from China does not mean that they are IN China. See what we mean? If you travel to China, your WeChat would still say Malaysia. Chinese are everywhere in the world. Change the time that you use Shake and maybe you will see people from other countries. Read the comments on this page, there might be an answer for you.
Thanks for commenting.
Reaching Chinese people within 14km is really normal because they are really near you. Don’t be panic, it’s not a bug.
That was our initial reaction to the questions but many readers insist that there are no Chinese near them. One was in Iraq but most are in India. We know there are Chinese in India, have been for a couple of centuries but we’re not sure about Iraq. Thanks for your comment, this might be a non-problem to begin with. We’re glad you supported our original opinion.
Hi..even I am facing the same problem as others”finding Chinese people within 10-20km distance..Some times shake option works properl but sometimes it will start showing Chinese user..something ia wrong because when I was in india it showed those chinese users whom I see in abudhabi also ..and I work in a desert in abudhabi and there ia nothing near by..so how is it possible? ??
We suspect that you are shaking too frequently. Give it a rest and try again. This has worked for other readers.
Thanks for commenting.
*SOLVED*
well..technically..maybe not…But I have found a walk around..
Uninstall your current wechat and rollback to an older version..preferably before version 5..
I am using 4.5 and after 1 month I can finally see users from other countries…
Try the same & please let others know whether it works out..
HAPPY SHAKING 🙂
Sounds good but how do you find older versions of WeChat? Let everyone know, thanks!
HelloI have problem with my (wechat) in the shake function in the beggening its started perfect but niw when i shake it keeps finding people frim china and it saids that they are 13 km away i live in india how that must be possible do i have somthing wrong with my gps please help!!!
Try this: Uninstall your current wechat and rollback to an older version..preferably before version 5.. This is from another reader. Good luck!
HelloI have problem with my wechat in the shake function in the beggening its started perfect but niw when i shake it keeps finding people frim china and it saids that they are 13 km away i live in india how that must be possible do i have somthing wrong with my gps please help!!!
Try this: Uninstall your current wechat and rollback to an older version..preferably before version 5. This suggestion is from another reader. Good luck!
I am facing the same problem of getting chinese people on shake . I hav changed passwrd of my account first that thing helpd me bt for jst a short time period after 15 mins again i got chinese users . I hav changed evwrythng bt nothing worked even today i logged in from diffrnt account but it is still same so wat to do now ? I am totally unaware.
Try this: Uninstall your current wechat and rollback to an older version..preferably before version 5… This is a suggestion from another reader. Good luck!
[Possible solution?]
Ok, this might be just a weird coincidence, but I think that the Location Bug might be related to having contacts/chats from people who have blocked you.
Unfortunately, because there are a lot of perverts out there, a lot of the female users block other users so quickly, even if they just misunderstood a question, or if you took too long to reply…
But ok, I can understand that 🙂
Anyways, when I removed those users (chats + contact) the problem seemed to go away FOR A WHILE, and then it came back.. but then I noticed that some other random contact that I didn’t talk to for a while suddenly blocked me… I removed that user, and it worked again.
So this is either a possible solution, or a really weird coincidence.
Thanks, this is quite interesting. How do you know that someone has blocked you? Does it show up on your contact list somehow? This might be the solution to the problem but let us know how you can tell if someone has blocked you. Then we can pass your solution around to everyone.
Thanks for commenting.
Actually, I’m not sure that they have blocked me, but I noticed that I can’t see their Moments anymore, so I just assumed I was blocked.
OK, that’s a good way but if someone has a lot of contacts, this would take some time. Anyway, we’ll put it out there and maybe other readers can try it. Thanks again.
Now I’m not so sure this is the solution… I’m pretty sure my contact list is without any block, but the issue has returned… but I had 2 days of no issues… weird.
My guess is that’s it is some problem with the software on their servers… but I don’t know.
Well, it was nice while it lasted. We can’t duplicate this on a continuous basis. Sometimes EVERYONE is 100 km away but then we shake again and it’s all back to normal. Maybe the servers can’t handle the load of everyone shaking at once. We generally use Shake for testing in our morning, meaning that China is pretty much asleep and Europe is hard at work in their afternoon. Thanks for your suggestion. We hope things get back to normal soon.
when i try to log in its says verification error(3,-1) what does it mean..?
This could mean your password is wrong or WeChat has banned you, we’re not sure. Have you linked your account to your phone? WeChat sends out a verification number as an SMS text message. Try creating a new profile to see if the problem is with your old account. Good luck!
Hello
I have problem with my wechat in the shake function in the beggening its started perfect but niw when i shake it keeps finding people frim china and it saids that they are 13 km away i live in iraq how that must be possible do i have somthing wrong with my gps please help!!!
Read the comment that has ‘SOLVED’ at the start.
Thanks for commenting.
Navneet i also faced this problem ftom last one week,what can i do plz rply on my gmail account
Read the comment that has ‘SOLVED’ at the start.
Thanks for commenting.
I’ve been using WeChat for some time now (iOS).
I also have the chinese-only (~14km) bug… But it seems like it comes in waves.
I think it is a location bug with WeChat…
Most of the times when I have this issue, if I close the app and wait a while (like 30min), when I re-open it and shake, the first shake brings good results, but then all the next shakes have the issue again…
Sometimes it would be fixed for a long while, and the all of a sudden the issue returns during shakes.
I will try to open a new ID and see if it happens there as well, and I will also try to delete contacts i don’t chat with anymore, although I doubt it would help.
WeChat should really release a formal statement about this (if they are a serious company… That remains to be seen).
Read the comment that has ‘SOLVED’ at the start. That might help.
Thanks for commenting.
Hi, thanks for answering all of these questions! I have another one: I used the shake function plenty of times lately and I always got 3-4 males in 500m or 1000m distance (I am in China). But, since today, I only get females who are in 10-20 km distance. Why? I didnt change my gender…
We’ve found that if we set our preferences in People Nearby, they generally carry over to Shake. Go to People Nearby, press the three dots up on the top right and choose male or female then try Shake again. It seems to work for us.
Thanks for commenting.
my account is **@@**##,add me as your frnd in wechat
Sorry Sabu, this is not a meet and greet board.
I have used wechat shake feature for 6 months without any problems. but for the past 3 weeks only Chinese users from Chinese cities are shown in it and the proximity is shown below 25 km. I am from south India and I think I can safely say the info is wrong. I used the shake feature for 1 hour straight but I couldn’t find one user outside China. this is a new problem and from the comments I can see that many others are also having the same problem. kindly fix it soon ..
Check on what other apps that you have recently installed. If you have installed any ‘helper’ apps, that is your problem.
Thanks for commenting.
I have never installed any helper apps & I have uninstalled all the apps I had installed for the past month and used cleanersoftware to remove residual files. I have also reinstalled wechat but no luck..
Read the solution posted by a reader. It will be further up the list.
Thanks for commenting.
Tried the *solved* name change method.. but still no result. Also tried to link different email id’s and disabling the previous ones. Still no go…
Appreciate your efforts though..yours is the only site I have found which takes up this issue..
Keep your eye on the comments, we might find an answer at some point. It seems like everyone is working on it. Knowing that you’re in India and that China is very close to you, we’re wondering if your data signals are routed through China or maybe they are messing with your signal somehow. We wondering if this problem is peculiar to one data supplier and it it’s the same on wifi as it is on data? Thanks for your comments. WeChat has no interest in helping, it seems, so we do our best. It’s a community effort, more than anything.
Thanks for commenting.
Even i m facing same problem when i use wechat shake option it only find people in China it was not the case few months back. Please can anyone suggest a resolution for same.
Thanks in advance
Read the comment that has ‘SOLVED’ at the start.
Thanks for commenting.
Nothing works in shake. Just shows chines people. I live in india ajd how come the are 10 to 15 km away.
I reinstalles 4.5 version but same proble occures
This is a common problem. There doesn’t seem to be a solution, not yet anyway.
Thanks for commenting.
nowadays i could not receive any replies from the drift bottles that thrown out.why?
before that i’ll always receive replies in just a few minutes.is there anything wrong with my wechat?
The only thing we can think of is that Drift Bottle is not as popular as the other features. Shake seems to be very popular so maybe you can try that. Drift Bottle seems to be more ‘gentle’, if that’s the way to say it and usually isn’t instantaneous. Keep trying, maybe it will work again. Did you change your profile photo? Your greeting?
Thanks for commenting.
nowadays I could not receive anymore replies from the drift bottle that thrown out.Why?Before that I’ll always got replies in just a few minutes.Is there any problem with my wechat?
Answered already. Thanks for commenting.
Hi all WeChat wannabe Shakers 🙂
I’ve also recently had my Shake function affected by the ~20km Chinese only placemat results.
I’m using Symbian S60v5 Touch and have tried everything to resolve this, including flashing my phone’s firmware to rule-out conflicts with other apps etc., and installing both the China Mainland and International versions directly from weixin and WeChat … I’ve contacted Tencent in Chinese and English but have yet to receive any reply … I did not try a new user ID yet … I believe it may be an issue related to the Symbian version but I have not tried testing this belief yet … The only other possible reason could be my ID has been flagged for some kind of breach of service terms, but I think this unlikely as I have behaved myself online 🙂
So, Symbian or a flagged ID … any thoughts ?
Do Symbian devices not use an app store? You’re saying that you downloaded versions as if you didn’t get them from the Symbian app store, if there is one. If we’re going to add an app to any of our devices, we only do it from the official store for that device. If you’re adding a third party app that you’ve downloaded from the Internet, even if it is from what seems like a known site, we think that opens you up to the kind of problems that you’re having. We have a very basic Symbian device and haven’t found WeChat in the Nokia store. We don’t think it would work on our device anyway. We can only suggest that you check ALL of the settings on the versions that you’re downloaded. Maybe there is an answer there. Also, try another ID but if Tencent was going to flag you, we don’t think you’d be able to use the app at all. Keep trying and let us know what you come up with.
Thanks for commenting.
The international WeChat version is ofc installed from Nokia Store … The Chinese Mainland Weixin version is a direct dl … Both have the Shake issue … Your site is prominent in Google results on this emerging topic, so my hope is you can help our understanding. Is the issue solely confined to Symbian ? … It’s also suggested that a new user ID on the same device can overcome the issue. If true, this would point to an account issue and not Symbian … I am unable to test this as, after nearly 4 happy years, I’ve moved on to Xiaomi’s MiTalk now, which I highly recommend to all Shakers 🙂 … Good luck with your investigations !
-* SOLVED *- Change your Nickname/display name and fully exit/close WeChat … Not your login/user ID/WeChat ID … I used Chinese, English & some symbols in mine for nearly 3 years which maybe is not acceptable anymore … if anybody needs more help with this, ask me on WeChat pls, ID davidflannery … Happy Shaking !
Thanks! We’ve left your WeChat ID in your comment. Hopefully you are honest and won’t spam anyone who contacts you for help. If anyone does have a problem, please let us know. Just so everyone knows, you can change your name to anything you want, as many times as you want. Go to Me (lower right) then press your profile name or photo then press Name. According to David, this will work. Good luck!
Thanks for commenting.
changing my Display Name (and fully exiting WeChat) didn’t help with the issue in my case :/
and I also don’t think it’s a virus in my case, since I downloaded WeChat from the Apple AppStore and nothing else.
As you know, we aren’t associated in any way with WeChat. All we do it try to help our readers. We can’t duplicate the problems that people are having with WeChat so it is difficult for us to fix something we can’t see ourselves. So far, we’ve been lucky and Shake and People Nearby have worked perfectly. All we can suggest is to keep up with the comments on this page, check it every few days, and maybe someone will find a solution. We really wish that the WeChat people would comment, we’ve asked them to, but nothing yet. If we find a solution, we’ll post it right away. Good luck!
Thanks for commenting.
before when i used to shake i used to get lots of results…now only one is being displayed..how can i change it? does it need any update…and i had this problem of seeing “Chinese” people as mentioned by some others as well..i uninstalled several other apps and also reinstalled we chat.. it is solved for now ..
Good news! Thanks for letting us know about this. Could you tell us which other apps you deleted? Maybe we can narrow it down to one specific app that is causing a problem. Thanks for commenting.
u dint answer to my question..i see only one person when i shake..why is it..?
If you see more than one, you’ve got something that is changing your search. The default setting is one. It’s not ‘look for everyone’, it’s look for another user shaking their phone. They highlight one, if you don’t like that one, shake again. Sometimes you may luck into getting several results but usually only one. That is our experience, at least. Down at the bottom of the Shake window, there’s an icon of an arrow. Press it to see more, if there are any.
when i shake my phone i see only boys …how to change it to only girls?
Sure. Go to People Nearby and press on the three dots up on the top right. Choose Females Only. That setting seems to work for both Shake and People Nearby.
Thanks for commenting.
I had uninstalled the wechat and then installed it again..even I had rese my phone…but still facing the same problem of finding Chinese people only…lost my all friends…but still the problem is not resolved..if anybody has solution regarding this plz reply or mail to me..coz I love this app but it’s frustating now…plz help me…sir plz ask to wechat people..
You can ask the WeChat people yourself. They are on your contact list, right? Every WeChat account has the official WeChat profile as a contact. Send them a message and, hopefully, they will answer you. Good luck!
Hey guys i am from india…. its been almost a month now that i didnt found any indian when i shake my phone… it always show chineese peoples aroud 15 or 20 or 10 km etc away from me…… i love this app but this problem is irritating me…. i made my second account and still face same problem….. whereas none of my friends have this problem… plz help me……. then plz mail me…. thank you!
Did you add any helper apps to WeChat? Any environments from someone or that you downloaded from the App Store? We suspect that you have added something or added another app that is interfering with WeChat. Read our latest post on this. Click ‘Computers Made Simple’ then read the post about WeChat viruses. Good luck!
Thanks for commenting.
P.S. You will get a reply from us but we removed your email address from your post. Posting your email in a public forum is the best way to get spam and/or viruses in your email.
sir I hv also the same problem of finding chineese people while shaking the phone..I hv deleted my wechat account thrice and also login through different ID but after five minutes of shaking the same problem starts again plz help me to sort out this problem as I am not able to find new friends..
Uninstall any additions to your WeChat app. That’s all we can suggest. We find people from all over the world when we shake, both on iOS and on Android. The only add-on that we have tried is WeChat Voice, nothing else. We think that an app has hijacked your WeChat app.
Thanks for commenting.
Hey, thanks for the clarification on my earlier questions. But now I’ve got another one… I’d like to know what those sparklers or something that go off when I’m chatting..is it sent by the other user?
Yes, those are the same as the old environments on other chat services. The difference is that the old apps used to ask you if you wanted to accept the other user’s environment, probably because it required a download on your part, but WeChat doesn’t do that. The environment must be running on the other person’s device but you can still see it. Glad we could help!
The first time I tried ‘shake’ feature, the app asked me the location and gender of (i guess) the people I’m looking for. As I was just checking the feature, I entered sth randomly! Now it seems I can’t change it! Is it really the case or there is a way I can reselect the location and gender. I’d be thankful if u help me with this.
If there is a way to change your search parameters, we haven’t found it. The only area that has anything like what you describe is in the People Nearby settings. There you can choose male or female users but nothing else. If you don’t have a huge set of contacts, why not start fresh with a new profile/account? When the Shake feature asks you what you’re looking for, then you can change your settings. Good luck!
Thanks for commenting.
If I uninstall Wechat, can my contact still see my profile or send message?
Yes to both. Uninstalling WeChat just means that you won’t see the messages but you will not be able to see them. If someone is bothering you, we would suggest deleting and/or blocking them, deleting all of your Moments photos and your profile photo then turning off all of the settings in your privacy area. You should also change your profile ID and turn off ‘Find Me by WeChat ID’ in your privacy settings. Once you have done all of that, open a new account under a different name if you still want to use WeChat. Let us know if you need more help.
Thanks for commenting.
Hi..I have a problem with the Shake feature. Although I got a number of friends through it, none of the my countrymates(Indians) reply to my greetings . I feel that my greeting doesn’t go through. what is your opinion on this?
also I would like to know if there is any limit on shake and driftbottle . And finally,is it really necessary to have the GPS and other location services enabled to use Shake?
You don’t need GPS/Location Services to use Shake. As for a limit, there may be one but we don’t know for sure. We’ve tried Drift Bottle quite a few times but keep getting the starfish which means that there are no bottles available. We suspect that this feature will be dropped soon. If people do not respond to your greetings, change your style. WeChat would tell you if your greeting didn’t go through. Use a different style. Good luck!
Thanks for commenting.
hi,
I’m using wechat for last 2-3 months. I found it very interesting. I’ve made many friends from different regions and countries like Brazil, Spain, Thailand etc. Through shake. but now from last week I’m fed up of this Application. when I use shake I get only Chinese. but earlier I is to get other nationalities. I’m not saying that I don’t like Chinese but when I click on their profile pic to see it changes to different pic. means if the pic is of male and when I click on it changes to female. or other. And not for only one person, whoever I’m getting on shake it every person’s pic changes. It sounds funny but it’s true and I’m fed up with that.
And now I get only Chinese 24×7 and not a single person from other nation. how it’s possible? ??????
please help
It does sound odd but we’re not sure what you can do about it. We just shook and checked people nearby, both worked fine with lots of other users shown. The problem we encountered is that all the Shake people were shown to be 100 M away while they were actually all over the world. They certainly weren’t just from China. You may have a virus or malware. What apps have you added? Any from sketchy or unknown publishers? Have you downloaded any pages or photos from a similarly sketchy website? WeChat is on the verge of exploding worldwide, meaning that it’s becoming very popular. When that happens, some ruthless people try to hijack the app to promote their own objectives. Try deleting anything you’ve added sine you added WeChat, maybe even delete WeChat, add it again and use another profile. Lastly, change your password. If something has hijacked your account, changing your password might bring you back to normal. Good luck. Sorry we couldn’t be more specific.
Thanks for commenting.
sorry may i know what if still dont work ? will any update from wechat to fix this ?
thanks for the reply
We’ve asked the WeChat/Weixin people to comment here but, so far, they haven’t. We are not associated with WeChat in any way. We simply try to help. Updates usually fix problems so maybe that is the answer.
Thanks for commenting.
Last week onward I use shake I get only Chinese. but earlier i get other nationalities. I created another id and try shake again i get result in my device. I do not know what happened to my original ID. If there any virus attack, its need to be cleared for the next update, but it wont happen. The problem is its happens only in my ID. Please help me. How can i restore the weChat as normal, without deleting my existing friends ?..
Thanks for confirming our suspicions about this problem. To state this in another way, you are saying that the shake results from each WeChat ID are different? We think that’s what you are saying. The old one got only Chinese users when you used Shake and the new ID gets users of other nationalities. There’s not too much you can do except switch your contacts over to your new account or use the new one for Shake and the old one for interacting with your contacts. That seems like a lot of work, unfortunately. Here’s a question. Do you know everyone on your contact list? If you don’t, delete the ones that might be suspicious. Secondly, clear your cache and clear your chats. Maybe someone put something in one of your chats, perhaps a link, which is affecting your Shake results. We’re not saying that the other person did this on purpose, just that it is possible they were infected with something and sent it on to you. Clear you cache, delete your chat history, uninstall the app and then reinstall it and then sign in on your old account. That might help solve the problem. Please let us know the results.
Thanks for commenting.
I tried this already i even reformat my phone because of this shake but still same thing happen gotta asap let wechat fix this and wait for new update
We’re not sure that an update is going to fix this. One of your contacts has messed up your WeChat settings. You’ve proven that by opening a new profile and finding that Shake works differently. If something has accessed your ROM, a format won’t get rid of it. Send a message to WeChat and see if they respond. They are on your contact list, right? Again, good luck. Sorry we couldn’t help any more than we have.
For past two days when I shake I only get people from china moreover the people shown are at a very close range eventhough am from India…..please explain
Read the answer to the comment just before or just after yours. We suggest different solutions to this problem, mainly that you might have a virus or malware.
Thanks for commenting.
hi dear,
if i use shake feature to find ppl when my wechat idd is my phone number, are they able to see my phone number? or they just see the name that i select at my profile?
Yes, for sure. Do you mean your actual ID, as in Sam0453, is your phone number? Or do you mean that you have linked your WeChat account to your phone number? If your ID is actually your phone number, change it right away. Otherwise, if you have just linked the accounts, no one except those who already have your phone number will be able to see it. Let us know if you don’t see what we mean.
Thanks for commenting.
Recently theres a problem on shake where my friend and i try the app whether works anot so we shake about 20 times and his phone shows my name and my phone didnt shows his in fact show people in china like beijing, hubei, shannxi , heilongjiang etc etc and all of their photos are from internet …. please help i got no idea its a bug or wechat put bots to entertain ….
Your phone probably has a glitch, as in a virus or malware. The problem is very frequent now, it seems. Read some of the comments below yours. We tried to answer as best we can. We’ve also asked the WeChat people to help us figure out what’s going on.
Thanks for commenting.
Thanks for your reply is there anyway to fox it ? I had tried all i can …. i even reset my phone and still dont work please help thanks
We’ve asked WeChat for help on these questions but they haven’t responded. Sorry!
Thanks for commenting.
hello sir.
i had the problem saying that the message has been successfully sent but rejected by the receiver.is there any other reason for the problem to occur other than being blocked by the message receiver.does using bad language creates it
Sure, using bad language will get you blocked but not by WeChat. Depending on where you are, some countries monitor all forms of communication and block certain words. Then again, rejected by receiver means that you’ve been blocked by that person.
Thanks for commenting.
Well you only get that message when the recipient has blocked you 🙂
How to unblock contact that been blocked by me? cannot find any unblocked button. Thanks
The pathway is as follows: Me (lower right), Settings, Privacy, scroll down to Blocked List, find the person you want to unblock and press their profile, look for the three dots up on the top right and press them, then choose ‘unblock’ on the screen that comes up.
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Shake results no loner get Asian users:
For the last week or two when I SHAKE, I am only getting South America (lots of mexico and brazil), Turkey, Iran, Italy. Before a when I would SHAKE it give me hits with Philippines, Thai, Indonesia, Vietnam and some Chinese users. What has happened that I can no longer shake and get these Asian countries?
As more and more people discover WeChat, we think it’s going to be much harder to get hits on Asian users unless you are in Asia. It’s got nothing to do with you, just the fact that WeChat is getting to be very popular.
Thanks for commenting.
I just signed up for Wechat and discovered a friend through recommendations through my phone contacts. I clicked to view details and there was the profile with User name, Region Mexico, the mobile number of course (US) and under What’s Up Status a name that didn’t I didn’t know. I called my friend and they said they didn’t know anyone by that name. How was it possible for that name to have been entered under the What’s Up area? Iphone5
Could be a few things, actually. Someone could be spoofing your friend, as in pretending to be them. Your friend may have a profile that they don’t want anyone else, namely their friends, to know about. Maybe someone used a random number or used a number they had on their contact list. Remember that not everyone knows the ins and outs of how WeChat is connected to their contact list. If the number is still in use by your friend and if it’s listed on a WeChat profile, then we’d say that your friend is the person that you found. Why? Because WeChat verifies the numbers that are linked to a profile. This is done by SMS text.
Thanks for commenting.
thank you for your reply. there was a female’s name entered under the What’s Up status unbeknownst to me or my friend Have no idea how it got there.Very strange indeed. Have you or anyone else experienced something like this?
We’ll leave this up for a while to see if anyone answers but we really can’t see how this could happen with the validation. Someone had to have your friend’s phone to receive the text message and enter it into the WeChat app. Is there a chance that someone is playing a prank on your friend? We would suspect that ahead of there being a fault in WeChat. The profile you found wouldn’t have to be on your friend’s phone either, right? WeChat uses the SMS to verify the phone number not the device. We could ‘borrow’ your phone, get WeChat to send the SMS then enter it into our device and then delete the text from WeChat. Easily done in just a few minutes or less. The only relation between the app and your friend is the phone number, nothing else.
i meant to add that my friend had deleted this app and said they were no longer using this for quite some time. Strange. Any further ideas?
You’ll have to describe the whole problem again, sorry. This string of comments is getting unmanageable.
i had found girl while shaking and she send me friend request somehow i didnt accept it immediately ,now each time i tried to accept the request this message appear”unable to send request” even if iam trying to greet her the same message appear. btw i can see her pictures whenever she update it.
i tried to search for her ID (which is still visible to me) and the surprise is that the search came up with nothing .
how to solve this please
That’s a tough one. She’s changed her ID, it seems. How can you see her photo updates if you can’t find her ID? That’s the part that doesn’t make sense. If you see her Moments updates, then she must be on your contact list, maybe under another name. Let us know.
Dear i can see her moment update when i go to shake then from setting of the shake i move to greetings where i find each person i send him greetings.from the i click on her to find her profile with her friend request to me still available .about her id i just found that this is her name that appear to me not her ID which make sense now for me.ok i had this updated issue today i could send her greeting and it works but adding her still dont.
We’re not 100% clear about what your problem is but thanks for trying to explain it. If you can see her Moment updates, then she is already on your contact list. Go through your list to see if you can find her. Sometimes people change their WeChat name and they seem to disappear. You can change your WeChat name but not your WeChat ID. If we can help you more, let us know.
Thanks for commenting.
Please .. i used to see the distance in look around or in shake in kilometers ; but since i upgraded to 5.1 ver. the distance now displayed in miles !1
how to return into kilometers ????
That’s a good question! We’re still in kilometers, even after the update. As far as we know, any distance settings are controlled by your device, not by the apps themselves. However, the only place where we can see any kind of distance setting is in Maps. That’s in the settings area under Maps, of course. Beyond that, this might be controlled by the country you are in, at least the country you say you’re in. Most countries use metric but the U.S. and England are stuck in the past with Imperial measurements. All three of our devices are in metric when we use WeChat, even though one insists on using miles when we use MapMyRun. That is one app that allows us to change its settings from one measurement to the other but we haven’t bothered to do that. Sorry we couldn’t help but maybe you can figure it out from our suggestions. Let us know what happens, OK?
Thanks for commenting.
1st of all thanks for your replying
in fact i live in Israel and we use the metric system ..
these changes( from kilometer to mile ) occured just after updating wechat
anyway i will try to find some solution according to your comment.
thanks
Good luck! If we can duplicate the problem, we’ll see if there is a solution. All of our devices are in metric. Just a thought, when you download the updates, where is the store? Is it in Israel? You’re in a part of the world where there seems to be substantial amounts of ‘hacking’ these days and we’re wondering if somehow the app itself was hacked or came from a source that was spoofing the normal app store. You’d know better than that but it’s a thought.
I recently got a greeting on wechat under people nearby, I did not accept the request, I did nothing, now its gone, only if I would get a new greeting, the ones I previously had there before, are also there, the ones I done nothing to. How do I get it back without waiting for someone to send me a greeting first?? I am using a iphone 5, with the newest version of wechat, please advise?
Perhaps the person blocked you. If you remember the name, try to find them and add them. If you cannot find them, then they have blocked you. Good luck!
Thanks for commenting.
I don’t look online for anybody! I tried to disable and enable gps, disable and enable wi-fii, close app, clear cache. Nothing works. I can see other people from the lookaround function but they cannot see me! This is happening since the last upgrade to 4.5 both on my iphone 5 and my galaxy s! What else can I do?
Not only do you have to turn GPS on, you also have to allow WeChat or any other app to use Location Services. There is no setting in WeChat for that so you have to go to your device settings, then Privacy then to Location Settings (in iOS, for instance). Make sure that Location Services is turned ON then make sure that any apps you want to have access to this information are turned ON also. Some, like WeChat or Weather, are obvious but others, such as Camera, aren’t. For your own privacy and safety, go through this list and turn OFF anything that doesn’t absolutely have to know your location. Good luck and let us know if this helps.
Thanks for commenting.
it’s already turned on!
sometimes I show up in the look around list, but it lasts for few seconds and then I don’t show up anymore! I don’t understand, with previous version I had no problems…
It’s strange that it’s happening on two different devices. If you show up sometimes but not others, then we can only assume that you’re in a particular spot where the GPS or your service provider’s signal is quite weak. Try from a completely different location and, of course, make sure you’re not blocked by a building, a roof or anything else that prevents your signal from getting out. Alternatively, have a friend stand beside you. If you see them but they don’t see you, we think your device(s) are faulty. You could also try to uninstall the app and reinstall it.
Yes, I can see my friends when I use the look around function but they can’t see me, even if we are in the same place.
Even when I’m in the street! It’s weird because the iphone 5 is new. And anyway they were both working fine before the update 🙁
Just a suggestion, did you download the app from the real app store? You probably did but there is a slim chance that you didn’t or, another slim chance, that the download was either hacked or faulty. Try deleting the app, clearing your cache and downloading it again. Turn your device off and on a couple of times in between deleting the app and downloading/installing it. Also, maybe there is some confusion with another app that uses your GPS. Sign out of similar apps or ones that use your GPS, things like Facebook, for instance. If the signal is being hogged by another app, that would explain your in and out appearances. Let us know what you discover.
i meet a girl by drift botle. she dont want to add me bcoz of personal reason. 1 day she accidently adds me, but fear dat i will add her she block me. now she not replying , did she deleted me or not frm bottle list ? how can i know. nd if yes…how can i find her again ? she block me so how can i add her ? i know her user name n profile pic only 🙁 any chance to meet her again ? we r frm india. plz help me… plzzz.
If you know her user name, just open another account and contact her. If she blocked you once, however, we assume that she will block you again. You can’t contact her on your current account anyway. Why not just move on? Why contact her again if it could get her into trouble? If you do care about her, let her go. Once her situation changes, maybe she will contact you again.
Thanks for commenting.
I just uninstalled my wechat. Can my friends still see my wechat account and can send me message?
As far as WeChat is concerned, you still have an account. Yes,your friends can still see your account and send you messages. These messages will be held for a while, we’re not sure how long, by WeChat and you will receive them when you log in again. If you really don’t want to use your WeChat account and if you want to be invisible, we would suggest two things. Change your WeChat ID and your name. Go to ME on the bottom of any screen. There you can change your ID and name. Once you do that, no one will be able to track you down so, for all intents and purposes, you don’t exist. Lastly, if you have linked any other social media to your WeChat account, make sure you unlink them. Most users have their QQ account linked to WeChat (Weixin) but that may not be the case for you. Good luck! If you have problems, just comment again and we’ll try to help you out.
Thanks for commenting.
I used to video chat with my friend. now when i try, wechat is saying video call cant be completed because your not wechat friends.
what does that mean? i can send her messages…can she still see my messages?
Looks like she deleted you. She probably can still see your messages since you aren’t getting a message from WeChat that says the messages didn’t go through. It seems that this was a one time thing, sorry. Better luck next time.
Thanks for commenting.
What does the Friend Confirmation privacy setting do? When it is on does it mean that you must confirm friend requests or friend confirmation happens automatically? Thanks.
That’s a good question. There are two settings but only one has a description. Reply and Add Friend makes sense. If it is set to ON, when someone messages you and you reply, they are automatically added to your friend list. What does Friend Confirmation do? We’re not sure. We’ll try to figure it out using two different accounts and get back to you. For now, it’s up to you how to have them set. We’ve got both set to OFF. Stay tuned and thanks for commenting.
can we find people from london in wechat im from india??
Sure, as long as there are WeChat users there. We suspect that WeChat is much more popular in countries that are mainly ‘wireless’. We’ve had contacts from Italy, Mexico, Iran, etc. but never from England. If you try to Shake when it is late evening in London, you might have better results. WeChat is still fairly new and may not have been adopted everywhere at this point.
Thanks for commenting.
Hi i have this query regarding shake feature, when i use the shake feature, and receive greetings from people, there is an option of replying back to the greetings, i do not add them as friends bu reply back to the greetings but it seems that they are not able to reply back or something. IN short i just want to know can i strike a conversation with someone through replying to greetings simply, without accepting them?
If your privacy setting ‘Reply and Add Friend’ is set to off, you should be able to continue chatting with that person without adding them. That’s part of it. The other section of this privacy setting has to do with Friend Confirmation. We would suggest turning that off. We think that if it’s set to On, then the other person has to be friends with you before their replies are accepted by WeChat. Try turning both of these settings off and let us know what happens. Thanks for commenting.
oh thank u so much. I am really happy with the quick response,, you resolved my query, I changed my privacy settings. I Appreciate the quick response. thanks a lot
Thanks for the update. We try to answer as quickly as we can.
Hello. I am so much impressed with the way our beloved wechat users issues were fully addressed here. I sincerely hope mine too will be same.
the Problem is I met with a nice friend on shake. after having good time chat, then a message came by that she requested me to add her.I should confirm friend request varification. I dont know how. and i send her message, it thereafter prompts that message sent but rejected by the user. help me out pls.I really dont wanna loose her.
We think she’s changed her mind. If she is rejecting your messages, there is nothing you can do. Leave her alone for a month or so then try again. Good luck!
Thanks for commenting.
i have also experienced this same problem. but in my case she is sending me the the msg but when i try to reply it asks for friend verification.
It seems that she has changed her settings. Have you added her to your contact list? Have you set your privacy to ‘Reply and add friend’? You can’t do much if she has her settings wrong but make sure that your settings are correct. Good luck and thanks for commenting.
if someone have blocked us,why we still see their name on our list?
Because you have not blocked or deleted them.
Thanks for commenting.