How to Manage Group Chat in WeChat?

Chatting apps like WeChat and WhatsApp are very popular among all age groups. One of the major reasons for this popularity is that you can easily create a private group chat and communicate with people. WeChat allows you to create group chats, add members and do many other things quickly without calling, emails or SMS. In this article, we will explain how to manage group chats in WeChat.

Why Group Chats Are Popular?

If you wonder what people do with group chats, here are some of the examples in WeChat:

• School teachers can create a group for students and parents to send assignments and urgent notifications.
• Students can clarify themselves about classwork and homework.
• Managers can use group chat for communicating and sharing details with team members.
• You can create group chat and send split bill to collect money spent on a team lunch.
• Trainers can use instant groups for the training and sharing material with participants.
• Online sellers can create group and promote affiliate products. Group chats are one of the popular and free resources for marketers to sell products online.

The possibilities are limitless and you can use group chat in WeChat for any other innovative purposes.

How to Create Group Chat in WeChat?

There are two types of group chats possible to in WeChat:

• Normal group chat
• Private group chat

Creating Normal Group Chat

This is the option most people use for creating a new group chat. WeChat allows you or the group admin to create a chat and add contacts without the need of their approval. For example, you can create a new group and add all your team members or colleagues as long as they are in your contact list. On other hand, you can anytime leave the group without notifying any other members in the group.

• Open WeChat app and tap on the + icon on the top right corner.
• Select “New Chat” option and add your contacts as members.
• Tap on “Done” button to create a group.

• After creating a group, tap on three dots icon on the top right corner to manage the group’s settings like assigning a name for the group.
• You can share the group QR code to anyone who is not in your contact list to join the group.

Private Group

The process of creating private group is same like normal group chat.

• First tap on + icon and select “New Chat” option.
• Choose “Join a Private Group”.
• Type four digit password to create a new group. If you know the password for any other group, type here to join that group.

• Tap on “Join group” button to create or join the group.

• You can see the private group on the chat list with a message like below.

Customize Group Chat in WeChat

Go to the group chat and tap on the three dots icon on the top right corner. It will open the settings page and you can see the options. Remember, some options like “Manage Group” will appear only if you are admin of the group. You can customize the followings in group chat:

• Add or delete members by tapping on + or – buttons respectively.
• Set a name for your group and get the QR code.
• Go to “Manage Group” section and enable “Invitation Approval”. With this all members need group owner’s approval before joining the group. When you enable this option, WeChat will automatically disable the QR code for the group.

• You can also transfer the ownership to some other contact under “Manage Group” section.
• Set alias name so that other group members can understand who you are.
• Use custom background for the group chat to visually understand you are using particular group chat.
• Mute group notifications and stick the chat on top.
• Save the group to contacts so that you can get the history when switching the device.
• Clear chat history and delete and leave the group without notifying other members.

Managing Group Notice

• Group owner can set a group notice from the settings page and sent to all group members.

• The message will appear on the chat with a notification as “Set as Group To-Do”.

• You as a group owner can tap on it and “Set as Group To-Do”.

• This will appear as an alert above the text box in the group chat. Group member can tap and mark the message as done to complete the action.

• All group notices will be available under “Group Notice” section of the settings page.
• Though all members can see the notices, only admin and owner can edit the notices.

This group notice function is very useful for cases like teachers can send assignments to all students in the group. Students can read the assignment and mark it as done after completing.

Using Group Chat in WeChat

You can tap on the group name appears in the chat list and start chatting with all group members. Unlike regular chat, tapping on the + icon next to chat text box will show some additional options for group chat.

• Group Call – tap on this option and choose your participants to start a voice call. You can toggle voice and video call and add members anytime during the call. In addition to WeChat call, you can also use Tencent Meeting for cloud conference with up to 300 participants.

• Group Tools – here you can view the recently used and pinned tools by your group admin.
• Group Note – you can send customized message to selected members. They can join group note to continue the conversation with you without disturbing others in the group.
• Group Live – live stream videos like classroom sessions to group members.

Limitations of Group Chat in WeChat

Here are some of the features / limitations of WeChat group chat:

• One of the big problems with WhatsApp is that all participants will know when you leave the group. However, WeChat protects your privacy and you can quietly leave the group without any notification to other members in the group.
• You can add contacts though you are not the group owner as long as the group does not need approval for joining.
• WeChat limits maximum 500 members per group chat.
• The group chat QR code is valid for 7 days. This means, a member needs to join the group before 7 days of the generation of the code.
• You can invite maximum of 7 persons in the group call from the same group chat.

Final Words

As you can see, WeChat offers best in class features for using group chat function. The app has similar interface in iPhone and Android app so that it works similarly across platform. If you are not using group chats in WeChat, try out and you will easily fall in love with the features of the app.