One thing about Wechat that I haven't seen anyone in the West talking about is its mini-app capability. It's basically turned into a platform for developers to make really lightweight applications on top of....so practically every restaurant in China (even Kfc and mcdonalds) uses it for in-restaurant ordering and payment. It's even supplanted dedicated e-commerce apps, so stores like Uniqlo have built their e-commerce/online shopping with it. So a lot of its growth has been organic third-party driven. Will twitter/X be able to replicate this?
Another thing is that wechat's only been able to do all this because online payments in China is a duopoly, wechat/alibaba have basically split the market. I'm not sure that the social media/DM functions in wechat have anything to do with its success, since Alibaba/alipay have half the chinese market for online payments an e-commerce without having had the SM/DM functions.
you stole my idea :<< i started doing this like 2 months ago when i switched carriers, i was too lazy to make a backup and fully switch phones so i set it up like new, kept only essential apps, black wallpaper + color filters in settings on, and i carry that with me throughout the day while my fun phone has all fun apps (yt, [[im not looking for that stupid unicode character]] X, snap). great article though🤝
Hey! Don’t know if you’re still doing this, but if you pick up the cPhone™ and you don’t want to put it down, try installing one or two mildly addicting apps on your new phone and delete it from your old phone.
for me that’s the generic mobile game from voodoo that i install whenever i see a funny ad and snapchat (or insert your #3 or #4 used social media).
when you remember to use those apps(and you will), your first instinct will be to just search it on your cPhone unconsciously before realizing and switching phones. it helps keep me present and realize that some kale would be nice.
that’s it, i hope it made sense (it’s 2am)
***if you struggle with self-control sometimes, you can also pair this with apps like screenzen(iOS) to put a few different restrictions on the mildly addictive apps so you can’t use them even if you really wanted to ***
I have been doing something like this the last 1-2 months or so.
I leave my iPhone and laptop at home during the day (office computer becomes my “kale phone”), can use “cocaine phone” intensely before I leave and when I get back.
Works like a charm. It’s amazing how easily I can think about the task at hand without the vague question in the back of my head about whether it might be ok to check my phone for a second.
Question - what do you do about sim cards? Do you change it from one phone to the other or do you have two separate sim cards?
Hey, i got a separate talk/text sim card (~$100 a year). And gave number to family.
One thing about Wechat that I haven't seen anyone in the West talking about is its mini-app capability. It's basically turned into a platform for developers to make really lightweight applications on top of....so practically every restaurant in China (even Kfc and mcdonalds) uses it for in-restaurant ordering and payment. It's even supplanted dedicated e-commerce apps, so stores like Uniqlo have built their e-commerce/online shopping with it. So a lot of its growth has been organic third-party driven. Will twitter/X be able to replicate this?
Another thing is that wechat's only been able to do all this because online payments in China is a duopoly, wechat/alibaba have basically split the market. I'm not sure that the social media/DM functions in wechat have anything to do with its success, since Alibaba/alipay have half the chinese market for online payments an e-commerce without having had the SM/DM functions.
Thanks for the read!
All great points, especially the online payments duopoly situation. That’s a huge difference.
“Why don’t you put a time restriction on the apps?
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHA.“
fuck you
hahaha That’s me too!
you stole my idea :<< i started doing this like 2 months ago when i switched carriers, i was too lazy to make a backup and fully switch phones so i set it up like new, kept only essential apps, black wallpaper + color filters in settings on, and i carry that with me throughout the day while my fun phone has all fun apps (yt, [[im not looking for that stupid unicode character]] X, snap). great article though🤝
We got to the same place! Im actually gonna turn color filter to b/w now too.
Appreciate the read 🙏
Hey! Don’t know if you’re still doing this, but if you pick up the cPhone™ and you don’t want to put it down, try installing one or two mildly addicting apps on your new phone and delete it from your old phone.
for me that’s the generic mobile game from voodoo that i install whenever i see a funny ad and snapchat (or insert your #3 or #4 used social media).
when you remember to use those apps(and you will), your first instinct will be to just search it on your cPhone unconsciously before realizing and switching phones. it helps keep me present and realize that some kale would be nice.
that’s it, i hope it made sense (it’s 2am)
***if you struggle with self-control sometimes, you can also pair this with apps like screenzen(iOS) to put a few different restrictions on the mildly addictive apps so you can’t use them even if you really wanted to ***
I have been doing something like this the last 1-2 months or so.
I leave my iPhone and laptop at home during the day (office computer becomes my “kale phone”), can use “cocaine phone” intensely before I leave and when I get back.
Ah that’s also a great ideas. How have you liked it?
Works like a charm. It’s amazing how easily I can think about the task at hand without the vague question in the back of my head about whether it might be ok to check my phone for a second.