Mark another big name app as dropping support for Windows Phone. This time, it’s WeChat with its 700m users, the largest and most popular app in China used for everything from messaging to banking.
Another day, another big name leaving the Windows Store on mobile. It’s par for the course at this point as Windows 10 Mobile is all but dead and therefore not much of a surprise that WeChat, the largest and most popular app in China, is leaving Windows Phone and taking with it its 700 million strong user base.
Tencent, the company behind WeChat, had already indicated its irritation at Microsoft’s lack of effort in the mobile market and had refrained from building an app on Windows 10 Mobile. Users on older devices running Windows Phone can see still the WeChat app in the store, but trying to use it produces an error message saying Windows Phone is not supported and, adding insult to injury, asks them to switch to Android or iOS.
Offering services ranging from messaging to banking, WeChat is an integral part of online life in China and its loss is certain to shatter any expectations Microsoft may have had of, at the very least, retaining its current standing in the Chinese mobile industry. The company does still have an app for Windows 10 on the desktop so China may not yet be entirely out of Microsoft’s grasp but it’s certainly looking like it.
Source: Windows Area via MSPoweruser
