Chinese social media giant Wechat has temporarily suspended new user registrations as Beijing ramps up its crackdown on domestic tech firms.

The messaging platform, which is owned by Tencent, said it was upgrading its security technology “to align with relevant laws and registrations”.

“During this time, registration of new Weixin [Wechat] personal and official accounts has been temporarily suspended. Registration services will be restored after the upgrade is complete, which is expected in early August,” the company said in a statement.

It comes as Chinese regulators tighten rules around privacy and data security as part of a wider clampdown on some of its biggest profit-making companies.

The country is preparing a Personal Information Protection Law that will force tech platforms to impose stricter measures to ensure secure storage of user data.

China has already targeted major tech companies including ride-hailing app Didi, which saw its market valuation almost halve after authorities ramped up the pressure.

The probe, which is focused on alleged data security flaws, came just days after the Chinese company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

The shifting regulatory pressures have sparked major paper losses for investors such as Softbank’s Vision Fund and Uber.

Earlier the Android WeChat 8.0.9 beta version was launched! 

Let’s take a look at what new features have been updated.

Enter from the WeChat internal test entrance, you will see the content of this update, but as far as I know, there are far more than these 3 items, let’s download and install first, and then start to experience the new features.

After listening to the default ringtones of WeChat calls for so many years, now it is finally possible to customize it.

Open WeChat’s “Settings”-“New Message Notification”-“Incoming Call Ringtones”-“Change Ringtones”, select your favourite song as the new WeChat call ringtone.

In addition, we can also set exclusive ringtones for friends individually, click “Add” WeChat friends, and then select a song. In the future, you don’t need to look at the phone to listen to the sound directly, and you will know which friend is calling.

WeChat 8.0.9 supports multi-device login. Currently, the devices that can log in at the same time are mobile phones, computers, tablets, and watches. Among them, the mobile phone is the main device, which can control other devices online/offline and can also transfer files to each other.

When someone calls a WeChat call, the caller ID becomes a banner; when you make a call to a friend, you can also check the ringtone set by the other party; when you make a voice call, you can turn off the microphone and speaker in advance to avoid embarrassment on special occasions.

Songs that are usually found to be nice can also be set to “WeChat status”. Currently, only songs on the music can be deducted. After the setting is successful, you or your friends can check your WeChat status and play music in the background.

We can also add a video background to the WeChat status, and use “Go to Play Album” to make your photos into special effects videos. There are many beautiful templates in it, and the button “make the same style” is supported.

Long press on the WeChat chat message can be quoted. If you want to quote pictures and videos, when you send a message, a thumbnail will be displayed below. Click to view pictures and videos. The previous version is not supported.

(Source: weibo