WeChat suddenly announced that after May 20, the mini program will shut down a much-criticized service

According to CNMO Mobile China, the WeChat Open Community recently issued an official announcement stating that in order to optimize the user experience, the platform will stop providing "Mini Program Open APP Technical Service" after May 20.

As for the reason why WeChat suddenly announced the closure of this service, it was because the official recently received a large number of user complaints. These WeChat users said that when using the mini program, the normal use process would be blocked and directed to jump to the APP.

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I have a deep understanding of this. Usually, when I use the mini program to watch videos normally, I am prompted to jump back to the APP after operating the page; and when I browse product reviews, I am also guided to open the APP.

These operations have indeed greatly affected consumers' experience of using mini-programs, which is contrary to the original intention of WeChat mini-programs to provide such technical services.

According to the author's understanding, when WeChat developed mini-programs, it originally hoped to provide WeChat users with a better user experience through developers, so it provided technical services for opening the APP.

But now it seems that the relevant developers did not follow WeChat's idea. In this regard, the WeChat Mini Program official believes that this is actually the developer abusing the interface capabilities and restricting users from using the Mini Program normally.

Therefore, the official WeChat Mini Program finally decided to shut down the "Mini Program Open APP Technical Service" after May 20.

The closure of this much-criticized service is undoubtedly a good thing for consumers, but for APP developers, it is equivalent to losing a major source of traffic.

As for WeChat officials, I think it is a win-win situation. Shutting down a service not only saves them from the need for technical maintenance of the service, but also helps them gain support from WeChat users. It is simply the best of both worlds.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to shutting down the "Mini Program Open APP Technical Service", WeChat will also launch an elderly-friendly version.

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Some time ago, the official announced the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Implementation of Special Actions to Make Internet Applications Adaptable to the Elderly and Accessible".

According to the notice, major Internet companies need to complete aging-friendly transformation before September 30, and WeChat is on the first batch of transformation list.

According to the requirements put forward for Internet companies in the notice, the elderly-friendly version of WeChat will remove advertising plug-ins, and no random or temporary advertisements will appear.

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In addition, the elderly-friendly version of WeChat will also support the 10-minute transaction cancellation function as required, which will help maintain the property and privacy security of the elderly.

Overall, the elderly-friendly version of WeChat is greener and more practical, but in order to retain young users, the elderly-friendly version is likely to castrate diverse functions and only retain basic functions such as chat and Moments.

If it were you, would you be willing to use an elderly-friendly version of WeChat?