Call Me Maybe: Leaked Photos Show WeChat Earphones for Easier Voice Messaging

Click to enlarge!

Looking like a cross between Apple’s iconic, minimalist earphones and the blood-red buds from Beats Audio, these leaked photos suggest that the huge Chinese-made messaging app WeChat is about to get its own chat-oriented earphones. That large “push” button will send voice messages to friends on the WeChat app – or “Weixin” as it’s called in Chinese – thanks to hidden support for them in the current v4.2 of the smash-hit chat app.

Tested out by Chinese tech blog 24beta who has verified that the red earphones and voice messaging work nicely on an iPhone via the earphones’ mic, they come in a Weixin branded (faux?) leather case. The little gadgets – which, if official, will be made by Tencent (HKG:0700), the local web giant that runs WeChat – seem to have been strategically leaked to a few different blogs, but there’s no indication of how much a pair will cost.

In addition to the push-to-chat function, the little black control box has volume up and down keys, plus a ‘next track’ one for jumping to the next song. Hopefully those music audio features will also support various Android phones and music apps.

Check out more images of the WeChat earphones below.

[Source 24beta – article in Chinese; top photo from Flickr user Jason5Ng32]