Most Chinese WeChat users run both their work and personal lives on the highly popular app. While some are comfortable with that, others find it a burden mixing constant notifications for both work in play, resulting in what’s been dubbed ‘WeChat fatigue’.
Chinese internet giant Tencent has long been developing a new enterprise version for its popular social networking app in an attempt to solve this problem. The new app, named Enterpriese WeChat, was finally released yesterday following a one month of beta test.
Unlike WeChat which is a social networking service, ‘Enterprise WeChat’ is positioned as a collaboration and productivity tool that adopts a similar interface to WeChat, enabling users to pick up the service quickly.
Enterprise users can register using either a Tencent enterprise email, WeChat enterprise service account, or uploading company details including name and operation licenses.
Users can synchronize the company’s contacts with one click or search for colleagues more easily. The app provides multiple communication channels ranging from VoIP calls and emails to voice messages. Features also include message receipts, alerts and bookmarks.To help users find a work-life balance, users can even block messages outside of work hours.
The service will be free throughout iOS, Android, Mac and Windows versions, according to the company. A slew of Chinese companies have been tapping the new territory of business collaboration and operation services. Alibaba launched Dingtalk in 2014 to attract business clients. Other startups involved in this field include Teambition, Mingdao, Fxiaoke.
Image credit: Tencent