WeChat quietly launches new traffic channel for internal testing

Recently, WeChat has quietly made some changes. If you take a screenshot of a mini-program page and forward the image to WeChat friends or group chats, a new function button will be added in the lower right corner when you view the image to jump to the mini-program corresponding to the image. The new function of WeChat's internal test this time is very targeted. What do you think about this?

Recently, WeChat has quietly started a small-scale internal test of a new feature that allows users to directly jump to mini-programs from pictures.

Specifically, if you take a screenshot of the mini program page and forward the image to WeChat friends or group chats, including the "File Transfer Assistant", when you or the other party clicks on the large image to view it, a new function button will be added in the lower right corner to jump to the mini program corresponding to the image.

This new function button icon is the logo of the mini program, and a prompt message "Enter XXX mini program" will pop up. Click it to jump to the mini program page corresponding to the picture.

Although some enthusiastic group members have indicated that many mini-program screenshots have added this feature, the new feature is actually still in the small-scale beta testing stage and has not yet been popularized.

Sister Jam has tested multiple mini-programs, but as of this writing, she has only experienced the new feature on Luckin’s ordering mini-program page. Even with the same phone and the same version of WeChat accounts, you may not be able to experience this feature; even with the same mini-program, different pages may not have this jump button.

If any lucky person has experienced this new feature, please let us know in the comments section~

The above are all situations that have not been tested internally. Although the functions are small, the trends they represent are still worth talking about.

WeChat has been developing for 12 years and has reached the stage where it will be constantly judged whether it can still make a living. Its monetization ability and traffic activation capabilities are direct indicators of its vitality.

For users, WeChat needs to constantly create a platform environment with active traffic in order to avoid being abandoned; for Tencent, WeChat must maintain its strategic position as a "cash cow".

Therefore, in recent times, WeChat has been determined to connect the logic of traffic across the entire ecosystem and deepen the connections between various components.

If this new feature is promoted in the future, I think it may have the following impacts:

For C-end users, convenience has definitely been improved.

Especially in the current era of the grass-roots economy, sometimes you are attracted by a picture but cannot directly access the link to view details or make a purchase. The new jump function can solve this problem to a certain extent.

For B-side merchants, under the same grass-planting economic background, new functions can also extend more gameplay and user operation methods.

Compared with the intuitiveness and attractiveness of pictures, mini programs sometimes seem too heavy, and under the marketing bombardment in recent years, the advertising labels of mini programs have become more prominent, which has caused users to be more vigilant. Therefore, the probability of users clicking on a picture may be higher than the probability of clicking on a mini program.

The promotion of new functions is equivalent to giving pictures the ability to carry links , which can reach users more intuitively, provide more room in daily user operations and community operations, and may also lead to higher user conversions.

At a time when QR code traffic diversion has become increasingly restricted, giving images more ability to guide the jump function may be able to compensate for traffic to a certain extent. Of course, it is not ruled out that it is precisely because it may become a traffic diversion tool that it is still only being tested in a small range.

In addition, the timing of the feature may not be accidental. We boldly speculate that this feature that is beneficial to e-commerce may also pave the way for the subsequent Double Eleven. After all, WeChat ads can directly jump to Taobao Tmall, so jumping within the ecosystem is not a big deal.

In the book "Guide to Omni-Area Business Innovation" published last month, Tencent defined o-area integration as the "third traffic migration."

In this category, Tencent particularly emphasizes that consumers can "freely choose transaction channels and forms": more touchpoints can be identified and recorded in different offline and online scenarios. Brands can use different tools to convert offline store traffic and public domain traffic into digital brand private domain traffic, achieve repeated touch, and then guide consumers to trade directly on mini programs or e-commerce platforms, or return to offline stores to complete transactions and experience services.

Tencent believes that omni-domain is more of a return to value, that is, brands abandon their simple reliance on traffic and return to the essence of business (providing goods and services to consumers).

Tencent said that "full-domain integration" is the third traffic migration

It can be said that whether it is the several updates we have reported recently or this jump function, they actually illustrate Tencent’s intention to create a super ecosystem and allow traffic to form a natural flow cycle, ultimately pointing to monetization.

This cycle requires the platform, users, content, tools and other parts to work together. Therefore, the public account started with information flow, and now encourages more content forms and quantities, as well as continuously creating more tools for users, all for this purpose.

This trend will only increase in the future, and we can foresee that there will be a series of updates, both large and small, aimed at traffic circulation.

Based on this understanding, the platform builds the bridge and we walk the road. We might as well make good use of every updated tool. While the traffic of the big ecosystem is circulating, we can seize the opportunity to make our small ecosystem active and connect the account systems at hand as much as possible to get a share of the pie in today's fast-paced world.

Author: Chen Chumu

Source public account: Weiguojiang (ID: wjam123456), focusing on the forefront of new media and insights into new consumer fields.