WeChat can be good in thousands of ways, but just from the perspective of this problem, I think the biggest benefit of WeChat (and many similar software) is that text messages have almost withdrawn from the stage of history. It was so quiet that many people forgot what people’s communication was like before the emergence of WeChat, thus raising this question.

The craze of text messaging in China started around the turn of the millennium. At that time, prices were not high. In the great capital of Beijing, pancakes with an egg only cost 1.5 yuan, and ten pounds of apples only cost 8 yuan. Ordinary workers working hard in the city only earn 500 or 600 yuan a month.

At that time, mobile phones were considered luxury goods, and the Waveguide S1500 cost less than 2,000 yuan. The Amoi A8 and its 16-chord Turkish March became the exclusive BGM for those who got rich first. For ordinary 20-year-olds at that time, having a mobile phone, making a few calls and sending a few text messages with girls was a pretty cool thing, no less stylish than wearing a big gold chain and wearing a Mink's old sister picks garlic together.

At that time, Shenzhouxing’s long-distance charges were 50 cents per minute, and text messages were 10 cents to 20 cents each. As for QQ? At that time, it was still called OICQ, and the 128kbps ISDN in the Internet cafes was flagship level. Internet cafes in most areas were not called Internet cafes, but computer rooms, because there was no Internet.

With the explosive popularity of mobile phones and the Internet, the price of mobile phones dropped again and again, and finally became a common commodity that everyone could afford. However, the price of text messages remained firm. Until 2007, I’m still buying a couple card to get a monthly subscription for sending text messages. Although text messages costing 10 cents and 20 cents have actually reduced the price in disguise due to the improvement of people's consumption power, the various restrictions of text messages are still a problem in many people's minds. Even if you have thousands of words, they can only be condensed into 70 words. Not even emojis, even saying "haha" may be a luxury.

At that time, MMS messages cost one yuan each, and were only 50 to 100k in size. You could be as charming as you wanted, and even if you compressed it to 50k, it would become hazy and beautiful. Not to mention that it’s not certain whether the other party’s operator or mobile phone supports MMS.

QQ began to notice the booming development of the mobile industry and launched SMS QQ. You send your QQ number and password to Tencent, log in and bind your mobile phone (this paragraph is so old that memory may be biased) to serve Chat with netizens by using the QQ account content. Text messages that already have a 70-character limit can only be used for emergency contact after adding a service account.

Speaking of this, I remembered that text MUDs based on text messages existed back then, sending things like "go left" and "open the treasure chest" to service accounts. Services that use text messages to check emails and subscribe to news have also begun to appear. Compare the QQ mailbox and official account of WeChat today, does it feel a bit familiar?

QQ began to try on the mobile side, launching wapQQ, S60 QQ, java QQ, windows mobile QQ, etc., but none of them achieved great success. Limited by expensive tariffs and network conditions, there are very few users. In the past ten years, the dominance of text messaging has remained unshakable.

In 2008, iPhone 3G was born with the app store. Foreign SMS replacement software has begun to emerge, including whatsapp, talkbox, and line, which have greatly reduced the cost of communication on mobile devices. However, in China, due to national conditions, language and other restrictions, these apps are still used by a small group of people. In 2011, WeChat entered the market and achieved great success (the thousand words of praise that can be seen everywhere are omitted here).

WeChat successfully moved the cheese of mobile operators and sent text messages half-legged into the grave. This is comparable to the emergence of the telephone and fax that killed the telegraph. As for mobile QQ, it is still an afterthought and treats itself as an auxiliary to the desktop client. From this point of view, it does not have much historical significance.

Fifteen years ago, we used letters to make friends, gave us a nice pen name, and let the thin letter carry our thoughts across the country.

Ten years ago, we made friends through text messages, exchanging mobile phone numbers and names, letting the 70 words of one cent or two cents convey our hazy imagination.

Today we use WeChat to make friends, take pictures of QR codes, text, voice, photos and videos and send them whatever we want, and the cost is almost negligible.

I think this is the beauty of WeChat.