WeChat undermines Apple with home screen for ‘instant apps’

WeChat, China’s top messaging app, has escalated its war on the app stores by creating a home page for its instant apps.

After yesterday’s update to the social media powerhouse, the new page is accessible when you pull down from the messages inbox:

Photo credit: A Twitter video posted by Matthew Brennan (@mbrennanchina)

It gives easy access to the instant apps you’ve used before plus a search bar for finding new ones, as seen within my own WeChat account:

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

Just like with the apps on your home screen, WeChat lets you drag and trash instant apps, like I’m doing here with Burger King’s app (because “Veganuary”):

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

WeChat rolled out its controversial instant apps, which don’t need to be downloaded and only function within the popular social media app, in late 2016.

It then followed up with instant games a year later.

At the last count, developers, including major firms like McDonalds, Didi, and Mobike, had created 1 million WeChat instant apps – close to half the number that’s in Apple’s App Store.