If you are using QQ, the Chinese social media platform, on a PC and want multi-language capability, or at least a language other than Chinese, your days are numbered. The PC program was last updated in 2014 and has been slowly degrading in functionality. There is no foreseeable new version planned. The best you can do is to learn more Chinese and install the Chinese version, or use the Android international version on an Andriod smartphone.
QQ continues to be very popular in China, with 850 million active monthly users. This is more than double Twitter’s numbers, but not as much as Facebook’s 2.6 billion monthly active users, while WeChat has 1.2 billion active monthly users. I don’t know if these numbers are legit, but there are enough people for you to converse with.
I have been using the QQ international version for PC for a long time, which I supplement with an Android smartphone (QQ Chinese version, Android). Writing and editing articles of length on a smartphone is quite difficult and I would rather do this on a personal computer with a full keyboard.
The QQ international version for PC is quite old, and last updated in 2014. Many functions now do not work. These functions include:
- start screen for internet news
- translation services
- sending images by hitting the image icon and then selecting
- drag and drop images from a directory
The person to person messaging continues to work, but without any way to send images, this is quite limited. QQ International for PC has a good UI interface and is easy to use. I am sad that it was allowed to wither away. Foreigners who do not have a solid grasp of Chinese but wish to talk with Chinese people will need to move to WeChat, a much larger and more security invasive ecosystem. This is unfortunate, because QQ does a great job of messaging and video chat. Asking people to move to WeChat when they do not want the extra features is a waste. Here are the download options for QQ.
QQ, Chinese social media versions, 2020 June. The QQ international PC version was last updated in 2014 and no longer functions well. You need to learn more Chinese and move to the QQ Chinese PC version, or the QQ Android Chinese or international version.
The alternative to QQ international for PC is to move to the QQ Chinese version. You need to learn more Chinese, but because it is the version all of China uses, it has been regularly updated. Installation is easy and it works well so far. As for Android, I found that the QQ international Android version was buggy and stopped working. I switched to the QQ Chinese Android version, the one used in domestic China, and it is much better. Again, you need to spend some time learning the Chinese functions.
A new option is QQ for linux, new for 2020 April. Again this version is available only in the Chinese version. I have not downloaded nor tried it, because I prefer to separate my linux PC from my isolated small Windows PC, which I run QQ.
QQ, like all Chinese social media, is prone to political meeting events and dates. Coming up to an important political event, some options, such as the ability to send images, might simply stop working. The function is not disabled, but the receiver does not receive the image. After the event passes the functionality is again enabled. This is true for QQ’s PC and smartphone apps, as well as the browser-based QQ internet space QQ空间 , or wall. This is a Chinese-run ecosystem, so runs on Chinese political rules.
