Who needs Skype? Free voice & video chat app now in UAE

How about having an app that allows communicating, keeping in touch with others, meeting new people and having fun, and all this just a click away?

Whether it is the desire of creating their own profile, sharing pictures and moments, or engaging in live chats over audio and video with friends all over the world, people in UAE can now enjoy these innovative features in one integrated mobile social app, WeChat, for free.

The all-round mobile social communication application is available for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Symbian and Window Phone operation systems and available in 18 languages including Arabic.

Developed by Hong Kong-listed company, Tencent, WeChat provides users with the opportunity to connect with friends, family and others in a free and revolutionary way thanks to features such as voice chatting, texting, video chat, groupchat, Moments (Social), Look around, Shake, and many other creative functions.

It is free and easy to download, install and use. Users can log in to WeChat with their Facebook accounts or sign up with their phone numbers.

People are now using several apps to access the diverse spectrum of social communication and content sharing platforms. WeChat provides them with one single access to all these features and much more, giving users a totally unique experience when getting in touch with others.

“We’re excited that WeChat is now available in UAE, and users can begin exploring the many features it offers,” said Poshu Yeung, Vice President, International Business Group at Tencent.

“Over the last couple weeks, we did a soft launch of WeChat in iOS App Store and WeChat has already become the most downloaded mobile social application. We have seen 200 per cent increase in application download in a month. We are thrilled by the market reaction and believe it is the right time to have a formal introduction of WeChat in UAE.”

With WeChat, communication will no longer have to be limited to texting. Voice and video are the new way to go and WeChat provides all that and more in an easy-to-use way. Thanks to its “Hold to Talk” feature, anyone can easily send voice messages by just pushing a button. Furthermore, its intuitive voice chat capability makes it simple to talk with the press and speak function through which several contacts can arrange a voice conversation.

However, WeChat goes beyond conversation – it is also a full social network, called Moments, where people can stay connected and share content such as photos, status updates and location with anyone in the world. Its Shake feature connects anyone shaking a WeChat equipped mobile device at the same time, and the Look Around option searches for contacts nearby who are interested in meeting new people.

Users can even ‘travel’ further and use the unique Drift Bottle option, which allows them to put a message in a bottle, throw it to the sea and wait to see who picks it up from anywhere in the world.

Mobile messaging also gets an added feature, with free, animated emoticons. But WeChat takes the personalisation further, allowing users to fully customise their own emoticons with any image of their choice for total freedom. On top of that, users can still keep in touch from their PCs, since WeChat is also available to be used online from computers.

The mobile industry is in constant development, where mobile penetration is already over 100% in four of the world’s six regions.  As innovations appear and new smartphones and tablets come out in the market, consumers show a clear preference for enjoying their devices and engaging with content via apps rather than the mobile web, with text messaging coming clearly as the foremost activity with 90.5 per cent of people engaged in it.

This is followed by photo-taking, e-mailing and access to weather forecasts. The top 5 activity ranking is completed by access to social networks, with over 65 per cent of users interested in getting in touch with others through this type of apps and sites.

The UAE ICT sector is one of the advanced markets in the Arab World. As of March 2013, the number of active mobile subscriptions in the UAE was 14,321,169, with 173.7 mobile subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.

WeChat has proved its value globally as it has topped the charts as most downloaded app in a number of markets including India, Malaysia, Mexico and The Philippines. The mobile world is here and in order to make the most of it, the new, revolutionary way to connect has already arrived.

MUST READ:

Etisalat slashes minimum recharge to Dh10

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.