Category Archives: QQ Instant Messaging

Computers, QQ Instant Messaging, Social Networking, WeChat, Weixin

Weixan/WeChat – Shake your way to new friends

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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!

 

 

QQ Instant Messaging

QQ

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Interested in exploring how the other half lives? Why not check out QQ? I’ve been using it for over four years and I love it. What is it? Read on.

QQ is the most popular instant messaging application in the world. At this moment, when it’s 1:30 AM in China, there are over 80 million users online. At other times, holidays and festivals usually, I’ve seen the number as high as 120 million or more. Seeing as how there are over 500 million Internet users in China, it’s easy to see that a good portion of them use QQ.

Besides being popular, QQ offers many features and benefits that make MSN and Yahoo pale in comparison. Instant translation, for instance, is a very useful feature for me. I can carry on rudimentary conversations with anyone in China that has an interest in chatting with me. I can share photos,videos and files instantaneously. I can stream videos in my chat window and my chat partner and I can share the experience in real time.

If you’re interested in Karaoke, QQ offers QMusic for free. There is a search feature included. Just search for a song, any song, it doesn’t have to be in Chinese, and QQ Music will play it. If someone has uploaded the lyrics to this song, they will scroll across the bottom of your screen. If the words don’t sync with the music, you can slow them down or speed them up to match the tune. I use it all the time.

If you are single, there are literally millions of possible matches out there for you. Each QQ profile has a Qzone which allows you to upload photos, maintain a log (blog) and decorate your space as you see fit. Other users can search for you and check you out, depending on your privacy settings. While Chinese people might be conservative, they are not shy. Complete strangers will add you, sometimes just for the thrill of talking to a foreigner.

Knowledge of Chinese is not required to use QQ. If you download the QQ International version from here: http://download.imqq.com/download.shtml and set up an account, you’ll see the translation settings on the left side of the text entry pane. Using the ‘Search Contacts’ link at the bottom of the main window, you can choose the ‘advanced’ setting and find users who match your desired demographics. It makes a difference if you try to translate your words for other users. Don’t insist on English or you won’t get anywhere.

China has an ancient and very interesting culture. Don’t head into this with any preconceptions that Chinese people are less important or less significant than you are. While Europeans were living in huts, the Chinese were building multi-story skyscrapers. The Chinese culture is fascinating to study and thrilling to be a part of. Some of their festivals are thousands of years old, with their origins lost in the mists of time, part fact and part myth. When you consider the fact that no culture has survived as long as that of China’s, and some have lasted a long time, you’ll perhaps understand why it’s important to get to know about China and its people.

QQ is a good jumping off point, in my opinion. Don’t download QQ from anywhere else but the official QQ site. I have both versions, the Chinese and the International version, simply because the Chinese edition offers a few more features than the International one.

Your knowledge of English will help you find new friends. I started out by helping my QQ friends with their English and many have accepted me into their lives. There is no age limit to QQ and you’ll find grandmothers and grandfathers keeping track of their relatives who might be spread all over the world. While many users access the Internet with cell phones, the chat speed isn’t affected and many of the new phones accept video feed from webcams. If you thought China was behind the times, you’re in for a big surprise.

Thanks for reading! Comments are welcome.