Introduce

In short, WeChat Channels (微信视频号 or 微信Channels) is essentially a video platform within China’s most popular app. It is just like the TikTok video app but just build-in within Wechat.

This is a new feature within the WeChat ecosystem that allows users, influencers, and brands to create and post short-form content and distribute them through a media feed:

• videos – up to 1 hour in length (from Q2 2021) with a video size of 2GB
• photos – up to 9 pictures in succession

In complementary, further information can be added to the post:

• several hashtags to define topics – feature to improve discoverability within this channels section
• a WeChat Official Account article link – bridge to a Wechat OA
• a location

This point is another way for brands and businesses to reach new audiences with a popular type of content (video form) enhanced by live-streaming and eCommerce functions.

What it looks like in your WeChat?

Login in Your WeChat App -> Tap Discover at the bottom -> Channels

then you can view your favorite WeChat Channels, normally it looks like the below screenshots:

How does it work?

You just need to click on the ‘Discover’ tab in the main navigation bar on WeChat, select the ‘WeChat Channels’ option, and start scrolling through the content feed. 

In the feed, they’ll be able to view content in four separate tabs: 

• The default friends tab shows the most liked videos by a user’s friends
• The following tab, which features WeChat Channel posts from followed accounts 
• The trend tab, which includes popular content from unfollowed accounts
• The location tab, which filters content to a user’s current location

On either feed, users can like a post, comment on it, and follow the publisher’s account if they don’t already. They can also share posts to individual chats, group chats, and their WeChat Moments profile. 

Once shared, a WeChat Channel post is re-posted with a direct ‘go to channel’ link that’ll take users straight to the relevant WeChat Channel. This could be either a personal account or an Official Account, depending on the publisher. 

For businesses, this is one of the main benefits of WeChat Channels, as it gives users a direct way to discover accounts they don’t already follow. This separates it from WeChat Moments, which only lets users view content posted by their friends. 

Users can also search for content under specific hashtags using the WeChat Channels search bar, which is another way they can discover accounts outside of their social circle. 

How to show it in your discovery zone?

Login in your WeChat App ->Tap Me Tab at the bottom -> Settings -> General -> Manage Discover -> Channels -> Show in Discover Tab

How to do marketing within Channels

What can we do?

• Better brand experience with richer and far more engaging content
• Tailored messages for a specific audience aligned with WeChat users who chart their own course.
• Feed less algorithm-driven compared to Duoyin and TikTok: Those users get videos based on ones they liked before, so marketing on those platforms requires a wide target.
• Complete control over the content

To support brands’ strategy, on a WeChat Channels post, you can link to :

• a WeChat article
• a WeChat Mini Program

Case Studies

• Focus on generating awareness and direct engagement with the users rather than hard selling: Prada built their first Channels campaign in March 2020. The campaign, called “Hidden Poems”
• Brand Concept by establishing a brand image

The post What is WeChat Channels appeared first on WeChat Official Agency.

For the first time, we are used to thinking of WeChat as the English name of Weixin (微信). However, Weixin is the version for mainland users, while WeChat is designed for overseas users, and they don’t belong to the same system or servers. Actually, they are actually two separate entities, targeting two different user groups in the way of accessible contents and features. To make it simple, you can see Weixin and WeChat as two different versions of the same app.

We are going to list some key differences:

Regions and Markets

Firstly, Weixin and WeChat target different user groups in different regions. Weixin operates in mainland China while WeChat serves overseas users.

When users go to the App Store and download the app, the version is determined, whether it is the Chinese version or the international one, by your phone number at your first login. You get Weixin if your phone number is based in mainland China (+86). If not, you get the international version, WeChat.

Wallet and the Cards and Offers

As compared to Weixin, WeChat doesn’t have the Wallet and the Cards and Offers functions. And these two functions are normally used by businesses or individuals for mobile payment, sending or receiving coupons or tickets, bounding electronic membership or VIP cards in China mainland. They are the entrance of the money transactions and important tools for brands to provide benefits to their customers.

The Wallet function allows users to complete various kinds of transactions:

• Making QR Code payment.
• Giving Red Packets (红包; red packets are monetary gifts which are given during holidays to friends or relatives in China, and Weixin made this tradition virtual and mobile) to friends and so on.
• Transferring from banks or to friends.
• Purchasing movie tickets.

The Official Accounts

the official WeChat accounts are also different from the official Weixin account.

Since Weixin and WeChat are using different servers, the data of these two versions are stored in two different places.  If you registered your official account through WeChat international version, then your account will not be seen or subscribed by a Weixin mainland user, and due to the strict censorship regulations, the China mainland Weixin users cannot join any campaigns launched by your official account resisted with WeChat international.

Therefore, foreign marketers need to distinguish the two different versions of official accounts.

• There is one way that you can differentiate the two versions by looking at the URLs of the official account backend.
  To register an official account that works for mainland users, you should go to : https://mp.weixin.qq.com/.
  For an official account that targets users outside mainland China, you should go to : https://admin.wechat.com.
• For those targeting mainland users, they need to register an official Weixin account, and then go through the official procedures for activation and verification. By doing so, the account will be searchable and available to potential mainland customers, so they can promote their brands and products to these mainland users.

Others

Other functions also differ relatively slightly between the two apps. For example, the game centers in different regions show different games.

The post WeChat vs Weixin, WeChat not simple English Version of Weixin appeared first on WeChat Official Agency.

WeChat Mini Programs are more and more popular now. Many overseas companies have a plan to develop a mini-program to provide their products or services for Chinese audiences. But wait a moment, before you start to do that you should know what kind of services you can do within the WeChat mini-programs platform. Otherwise, you may be waste your time and money.

Tecent opens different service categories depends on your entity. for example individuals, non-individuals, overseas.

For Overseas Entity

available categories as below:

if you have a Chinese ID, you can try to use it to request a service category for individuals . for individuals, you will have more service categories to select.

For Individuals

The post WeChat Mini Programs Open Service Categories appeared first on WeChat Official Agency.

Five Steps to Register a WeChat Official Account By Yourself.

Step 1: Select Account Type

visite WeChat Official Registration website selects your WeChat Account which you are going to register. Here we should select Service Account. for some countries, Subscription Account maybe still not available. if you are not sure please check the WeChat Registration opened countries.

select Service Account then go to next

Step 2:  Basic Information

You need to prepare an email address which not used before in the WeChat system including WeChat Mini-Program. WeChat system will verify your email address via sending a verification code to your email address. Once email address verification is done, you can type your password and confirm it again then click the Register button to go to the next step to select your favorite account type.

Step 3:  Select your country

select your country from all the opened coutries list

select your country and go to the next

Step 4: Registration Information

this step you need to provide the following information:
Company Name
Company Registration Number
Account Administrator Name
Administrator Mobile Number ( need to be verified via SMS verification code )
Administrator ID Number
Creator Field(optional)
Creator Platform(optional)
Creator Nickname(optional)
Supportive materials (optional): for example upload your register company ID photocopy
Proof link: for example your official website link which including your company information
Once done, you can click the Continue button to go to the next.

Step 5: Setup your official account name

create an easily remember account name is very important, you should take some time to think about it. you must know Tencent company has limited time for your account name modification.

Congratulations! You got your WeChat official account now But wait, you must remember to verify your account within 30 days otherwise you will lose your account.

The post Five Steps to Regsiter a WeChat Official Account By Yourself appeared first on WeChat Official Agency.

What’s WeChat Mini Program Framework (WMPF)

1. Product summary

The Wechat Mini-Program Framework, or WMPF for short, is an operating environment that allows the hardware to run WeChat applets in an environment that is separate from the WeChat client, and currently supports Android devices.

2. Product capabilities

The WeChat applet running on WMPF is the same as the WeChat applet of the mobile client. Through WMPF, developers can enable WeChat platform capabilities to hardware devices. For details, please refer to the “Beta Beta Capability List” at the end of the article.

3. Product advantages

For hardware developers:

• Low development costs: Developers no longer need to invest in high costs to develop or maintain updates to the App, and small programs can be updated online, that is, more ready to use.
• Rich content ecology: WeChat mini-program ecology has a wealth of content services. The hardware can directly run the mini-program content on the existing network to provide users with comprehensive services.

For mini-program developers:

• Cross-terminal operation: Only one development is required to achieve the multi-terminal operation of small programs, and the adaptation cost is low.
• Expand offline scenes: Mini-programs get more traffic from offline scenes and draw users online through offline scenes.

4. The use of scenarios

The WMPF applet hardware framework can be applied to hardware such as Android system tablet computers and large screen devices in various industries, providing low-cost screen interactive solutions. Accessible devices include, but are not limited to:

• Smart retail: cash register / numbering machine / shopping mall navigation screen / vending machine / order tablet / interactive advertising screen, etc …
• Home and Entertainment Equipment: Smart Refrigerator / Children’s Tablet / Treadmill / TV / KTV Jukebox, etc …
• Public services: hospital registration machine / book rental equipment / gallery card machine, etc.
• Office equipment: education tablet / conference terminal / conference projection screen, etc …

5. Access Application

• Step 1: Register for an account at https://wecooper.weixin.qq.com To register an account, please prepare a business license for uploading in advance.
• Step 2: Experience the product Enter “WeChat Mini Program Hardware Framework-Product Usage Guide” Download and test the demo, install the demo on an Android device, and then experience the WMPF ability in your hardware device.
• Step 3: If the activation function needs to be used formally, please click “Apply for activation”. After the approval, you can bind the small program that needs to be officially run on the hardware.
• Step 4: Register the device

Only devices authenticated by the platform can run WMPF.

① Add device-Please add the device type of the hardware framework of the applet you want to go online in “Home-Device Management”.

② Add a model-Add a specific model, and select “Wechat Mini Program Hardware Framework” in the “Access Business Module” item.

③ Register interface-After adding devices and models, you need to configure the public ID AppID in the “Home-Upload Interface”, register the background interface and upload the device ID, and see how to register the deviceId interface .

• Step 5: Development and Implementation Through the following development guidelines in this document, the ability of LauncherAPP to call WMPF is realized.
• Step 6: After completing the development of the bound applet, you need to enter the mobile application AppID (ie, AppID of LauncherAPP) on the “WeChat Mini Program Hardware Framework-Applet Management” page to bind the applet to be run by the hardware device. See how to bind applets。

6.  Development guidelines

Step 1: Run the applet on the target device

According to the APK file provided in the “WeChat Mini Program Hardware Framework”, the developer needs to install the APK to an Android system device. After the installation is successful, the “WeChat Mini Program Hardware Framework” (WMPF) will be applied to the hardware device. The application contains the environment needed by the applet to run and can respond to requests to start the applet. This application is called WMPF Service.

Merchants need to write an application that sends requests. This application is called WMPF Client.

These two parts are all installed in the same device and communicate through our defined Task. A Task can be understood as an API that defines a certain service, such as IPCInvokerTask_ActivateDevice for activating the device and IPCInvokerTask_LaunchWxaApp for starting the applet.

It takes at least four steps to run an applet

① Register the hardware.

② Call IPCInvokerTask_ActivateDevice to activate the device.

③ Call IPCInvokerTask_Authorize to log in.

④ Call IPCInvokerTask_LaunchWxaApp to start the applet.

1. Send device activation request IPCInvokerTask_ActivateDevice:

Note: Get the process and the way ProductId, keyVersion, deviceId and signature Please see registration process hardwareIn order to ensure that the device is legal, you can run the applet when you are not logged in.

The code example is as follows:

WMPFActivateDeviceRequest request = new WMPFActivateDeviceRequest()
request.baseRequest = WMPFBaseRequestHelper.checked()
request.productId = 1
request.keyVersion = 2
request.deviceId = "Your DEVICE ID"
request.signature = "Your SIGNATURE"
WMPFIPCInvoker.invokeAsync(
    request,
    IPCInvokerTask_ActivateDevice.class,
    new IPCInvokeCallback<WMPFActivateDeviceResponse>() {
        @Override
        public void onCallback(WMPFActivateDeviceResponse response) {
            // process result
        
    }
);

2. Send an authorization request to IPCInvokerTask_AuthorizeNoLogin or IPCInvokerTask_Authorize:

Note: For the acquisition process and method of DeviceTicket and Ticket, see the sample code OpenSdkTestUtil.java in WMPF Client Demo

The code example is as follows:

WMPFAuthorizeNoLoginRequest request = new WMPFAuthorizeNoLoginRequest()
request.baseRequest = WMPFBaseRequestHelper.checked()
request.ticket = "Your SDK Ticket"
request.appId = "Your AppId"
request.scope = "snsapi_userinfo,snsapi_runtime_apk"
WMPFIPCInvoker.invokeAsync(
    request,
    IPCInvokerTask_AuthorizeNoLogin.class,
    new IPCInvokeCallback<WMPFAuthorizeNoLoginResponse>() {
        @Override
        public void onCallback(WMPFAuthorizeNoLoginResponse response) {
            // process result
        }
    }
);
WMPFAuthorizeRequest request = WMPFAuthorizeRequest()
request.baseRequest = WMPFBaseRequestHelper.checked()
request.ticket = ticket
request.appId = appId // OpenSDK AppId for App
request.scope = "snsapi_userinfo,snsapi_runtime_apk"
WMPFIPCInvoker.invokeAsync(
    request,
    IPCInvokerTask_Authorize.class,
    new IPCInvokeCallback<WMPFAuthorizeResponse>() {
        @Override
        public void onCallback(WMPFAuthorizeResponse response) {
            // process result
        }
    }
);

3. Send the launch applet request IPCInvokerTask_LaunchWxaApp:

Note: it can only be called successfully if the device is successfully activated

The code example is as follows:

WMPFLaunchWxaAppRequest request = new WMPFLaunchWxaAppRequest()
request.baseRequest = WMPFBaseRequestHelper.checked()
request.appId = "Your AppId"
request.path = "Target Wxa Path"
request.isNoLogin = true

WMPFIPCInvoker.invokeAsync(
    request,
    IPCInvokerTask_LaunchWxaApp.class,
    new IPCInvokeCallback<WMPFLaunchWxaAppResponse>() {
        @Override
        public void onCallback(WMPFLaunchWxaAppResponse response) {
            // process result
        }
    }
);

4. When you do not need to run the applet, you can send a deauthorization request: IPCInvokerTask_Deauthorize:

The code example is as follows:

WMPFDeauthorizeRequest request = new WMPFDeauthorizeRequest()
request.baseRequest = WMPFBaseRequestHelper.checked()

WMPFIPCInvoker.invokeAsync(
    request,
    IPCInvokerTask_Deauthorize.class,
    new IPCInvokeCallback<WMPFDeauthorizeResponse>() {
        @Override
        public void onCallback(WMPFDeauthorizeResponse response) {
            // process result
        }
    }
);

To quickly experience the process of launching the applet, you can install the sample DEMO provided in the attachment and run the applet. However, in a formal environment, you need to write the application that sends the request according to the above process (you can customize the interaction and interface to start the applet as required). For specific implementation, see the code of the sample DEMO.

Step 2: Run the applet on the target device

• The API in the applet hardware framework is the same as the input and output in the WeChat client, and you can use it as described in the applet’s documentation. Some APIs may not be supported yet, such as code scanning / multi-threading. For specific support capabilities, please refer to the appendix “Beta Beta” Edition capability list》
• The development tools are the same as WeChat developer tools.

Step 3: Run the applet on the target device How to debug the applet on the hardware device

• After installing WeChat developer tools, open the project or modify the code, click “Preview” to upload the local code to the WeChat background server to generate a QR code. Developers can send real-time debugging by requesting IPCInvokerTask_LaunchWxaAppByQrCode on the hardware device.
• Specific implementation can refer to the sample DEMO code-remote debugging:

Click for more detailed development guidelines

7. Contact information

We sincerely invite developers to access the applet hardware framework project. For more latest developments, welcome to follow the following public accounts:

For more cooperation information, please contact wecooper@tencent.com

8. WeChat Mini Program Hardware Framework-Beta Beta Capability List

The post WeChat Mini Program Framework(WMPF) Introduce appeared first on WeChat Official Agency.

Today offline hardware is gradually becoming intelligent, but shortness is always there, we are still facing a shortage of good content in it and there is no easy way to resolve the issue, and it is very hard to make a connection between a device and real person. So how to make hardware easily connect with WeChat is the best way to solve the problem. That is why the WeChat group of the Tecent company releases the WeChat Mini Program Framework(WMPF).

• What is the WMPF framework?

WeChat launched the “Wechat Mini-Program Framework” (WMPF), an operating environment that allows hardware to run WeChat mini program without the WeChat client, and currently supports Android devices only.

• What are the advantages?

1) For hardware developers

Developers no longer need to invest in the development and maintenance of the App, and directly bind to the mini-programs on the existing network, they can cover the comprehensive service content on the hardware, and can implement network dynamic updates.

 2) For mini-programs developers

The mini-programs can be run across hardares, which allows the mini-programs to get more traffic for offline scenarios.

• What are the potential scenarios?

Can be used in all kinds of Android system tablet, large screen device and other hardware. Such as

WMPF for Smart Retailer

WMPF for Fitness And Entertainment

WMPF for Office Equipments

The post WeChat Mini Program Framework (WMPF) Released 2020 appeared first on WeChat Official Agency.