Today, WeChat officially launched the beta version of its new public platform. We conducted a detailed evaluation in the first instance and summarized the three most noteworthy changes in the new version of WeChat's public platform.
User Interface
The most apparent change in the new version of the WeChat public platform is the modification of the interface layout. The original horizontal navigation bar has disappeared, replaced by a new vertical navigation menu. WeChat claims that this redesign includes improvements to as many as 381 details.
Compared to the previous arrangement of all functions of the WeChat public platform under seven tabs (Home, Real-time Messages, User Management, Data Analysis, Mass Messaging, Material Management, Settings) horizontally, the new WeChat public platform "breaks down" and reorganizes these into four major sections: Functionality, Management, Statistics, and Settings.
Functionality: Mass messaging function, Advanced features
Management: Message management, User management, Material management
Statistics: User analysis, Graphic-text analysis, Message analysis, Interface analysis
Settings: Account information, Official account assistant
From the perspective of long-term users of the public platform, such changes in navigation have obvious advantages. The new layout is more organized, and the collapsible menus allow operators to easily find the required functions. This change effectively improves the operational efficiency of operators: previously, one had to click on a certain tab in the horizontal menu, wait for the page to load, and then search for secondary functions before performing an operation; now, it can be done in one step through the vertical navigation bar.
Interfaces
In addition to the changes in the user interface, the significant functional changes in this version of the WeChat public platform mainly lie in the advanced interfaces opened up to service accounts that have passed WeChat certification. These interfaces include:
Voice Recognition: Through the voice recognition interface, when users send voice messages, the text content recognized from the voice will also be provided.
Customer Service Interface: Through the customer service interface, official accounts can reply to users within 24 hours after the user sends a message.
OAuth2.0 Web Authorization: Through the web authorization interface, official accounts can request user authorization.
Generate Parameterized QR Codes: Through this interface, official accounts can obtain a series of QR codes with different parameters. After users scan and follow the official account, the account can analyze the effectiveness of each QR code based on the parameters.
Obtain User Geolocation: Through this interface, official accounts can obtain the geolocation of users entering the official account session (requires user consent).
Obtain Basic User Information: Through this interface, official accounts can obtain basic user information including avatar, nickname, gender, region based on the encrypted user OpenID.
Obtain Followers List: Through this interface, official accounts can obtain the OpenIDs of all followers.
User Grouping Interface: Through the grouping interface, official accounts can move users between groups or create/modify groups in the backend.
Upload/Download Multimedia Files: Through this interface, official accounts can upload/download multimedia files on the WeChat server when needed.
Annual Review?
We noticed a detail in the account information section, as shown in the figure, the "annual review time" item has been added to the WeChat certification section.
Since its launch, WeChat has gathered a large number of users through various resources under Tencent. On this user base, the launch of the WeChat public platform has attracted a large number of media, merchants, and enterprises. As the saying goes, “a big forest accommodates all kinds of birds.” While attracting a large number of users and operators, WeChat is also continuously increasing its review intensity, such as requiring reviews for mass messages sent by public accounts, etc.
This addition of an "annual review" for public account certification is another manifestation of the WeChat public platform strengthening control over public accounts. Preliminarily guessed, WeChat may conduct an annual "qualification review" for each certified public account in the future. If the review fails, the public account will likely lose its certification status, meaning it will lose its most important mass messaging qualification.
Outlook
The changes in the WeChat public platform affect millions of public accounts and also impact those who follow these public accounts.
For public account operators, this beta test by WeChat represents a change from the outside in. The homepage of the public platform extracts the most critical data and messages, and the functions are displayed on the left side, making the entire layout clearer and more reasonable.
In addition, WeChat has already added the data statistics part that public account operators care about the most, making the public platform's functions increasingly complete, from displaying operational effects to focusing on user experience issues in the interface.
The addition of numerous new interfaces elevates the service capabilities of the public platform. Looking back at our forecast last year, we believe that WeChat, which utilizes crowd-sourced individual efforts and data mining, has the opportunity to become the first user system platform that balances "massiveness" with "accuracy."
At that time, we proposed three basic prerequisites for this platform:
Gathering a massive number of users;
Precise positioning of a massive number of users (data mining);
Crowdsourcing of information maintenance by entities within the ecosystem.
Among these, WeChat has already successfully achieved the goal of "gathering a massive number of users" this year. In the nine new interfaces announced by WeChat, it can be seen that WeChat is gradually improving the second and third points.
The emergence of the new WeChat public platform signifies that the WeChat team's understanding of the public platform continues to evolve, ultimately aiming to transform it into a mature SocialCRM user system.
Cover image courtesy of TNW