WeChat joins messenger arms race with major revamp of Android app

Cross-platform messaging apps are all the rage these days in the tech world. While **WhatsApp has been bought over by Facebook** for a whopping $19 billion and the relatively unknown **Telegram** has been pushed into the limelight thanks to the takeover, and now app heavyweight Tencent has revamped its WeChat Android app completely.   WeChat has seen a complete UI change, showing off a whole new Holo-inspired look. The app previously looked like a port of the iOS version of WeChat, looking slightly off on Android phones. Months after the app was officially launched in India, the Holo update is out and it might please quite a few users, as it makes navigation much easier. [caption id=“attachment_219037” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  The Android app gets an update[/caption]   The menu bar is now placed on the top of the screen to give you easier access to the features. Chats, the landing tab, will show you all your existing conversations, the Contacts tab will bring up a list of people you talk to. The Discover tab of WeChat will contain all the other features like Moments, Scan QR Code, Shake, People Nearby, Drift Bottle, Games and Sticker Shop. That’s a lot of options to stick into that one tab but the app now looks a lot **less cluttered** thanks to this.   There’s a new Friend Radar feature that’s quite like the older Look Around feature and helps you connect with people using WeChat in your vicinity. WeChat also has a feature to easily share real-time locations with friends where you will be able to send a map with your location to a friend. Like WhatsApp, you will now also have a photo album feature for group chats, helping you see all pictures you’ve shared with your friends in one place. [caption id=“attachment_219036” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  New features and more stickers[/caption] The search feature on WeChat also caters to a wider purpose now, with you being able to search through contacts and chats with the option. The app is also betting heavy on localised stickers being adopted with the likes of “Angry Aunty” and “Master Blaster” being available. Some other features fit into the revamped app include special mentions for group chat, enhanced video and audio and LinkedIn account display on WeChat.   You can grab hold of the updated WeChat app on the Google Play Store.