WeChat crashing and/or incompatible with Google Pixel 3? Tencent is aware

The name ‘Tencent’ is probably known to you, thanks to the ever-popular battle royale game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds aka PUBG. To tell the truth, the Chinese tech giant is virtually omnipresent. WeChat, a messaging app developed by them, has over 1 billion daily active users!

You can find rich WeChat integrations in the skinned Android forks developed by Chinese phone makers such as OPPO or OnePlus. Matter of fact, the app is widely used outside China as well. Global users can straightaway download it via Google Play Store.

However, the situation is not so simple for the owners of Google Pixel 3. According to the recent reports, they are simply unable to unable to use the app on their phones since last few days due to a massive number of crashes, hangs and/or random slowdowns.

@Google did you guys mess anything up with WeChat since the december patch on Pixel phones? It’s been a horrible experience using wechat since the december patch, frequent crashes with no possible fixes (reinstalling, clearing cache and deleting data).

(Source)

The whole thing has taken an unexpected turn, as the app is reportedly shown as incompatible with the Pixel 3. Besides the newcomers, existing users are also unable to get the app on their phones by traditional means.

@WeChatApp I have a Pixel 3, and WeChat suddenly became incompatible with my phone this week. This is a huge problem for me – I need access to my message history. Can you help?

(Source)

It seems that the V7.0.9 update of WeChat is the actual culprit, as the older versions are apparently working fine.

Wife’s Pixel 3 stop working after updating to WeChat 7.09 last night. My Pixel 3 is not yet updated (7.07), It still works.

I stopped the auto update for the time being.

(Source)

Several WeChat users are reporting about this messy situation across the interweb, and some of them have already uninstalled the app to sideload the older build (e.g. V7.0.8) directly from the official website. The consequence is grave though, as the conversations would be completely lost.

Fortunately a Tencent engineer showed up in the corresponding Google Support discussion thread and explained the situation. They actually had to blacklist Google Pixel 3 due to a ‘FC(fast crash) problem’.

Hey guys

We found FC(fast crash) problem in WeChat 7.0.9 with quite a few Pixel 3 phones, and that’s why we stoped Pixel 3 from installing it for the moment.
Our engineers are working on this issue and we have built a latest version to fix this problem. There are still some tests beforce we release the new version and it will not take a long time.

If you want to get the new apk file immediately or have any question, please contact me via [email protected].
WeChat android developer

The person (Kaede Akatsuki) also urged Pixel 3 owners not to uninstall the existing app as it would irreversibly wipe out the chat history. A more feasible solution for them to enroll in the beta channel.

Those Pixel 3 users who have the Crash problem, please join the BETA plan by the following website and try the latest version:
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.tencent.mm

Note that

1. This BETA version is only for the Pixel 3 users who can not open WeChat.

2. If WeChat works well in your phone, please wait for the next RELEASE version.

3. If you Pixel installed WeChat of old versions (7.0.7, 7.0.5), please DO NOT upgrade to 7.0.9 or this BETA version and wait for our next release version. (If the beta version is tested as stable we will soon release it)

4. As soon as we find that the beta version is stable enough then we will convert it to release. Those who installed beta version will automatically get release version installed.

(Source)

Are you facing such glitches with WeChat on your Pixel 3? Let us know by commenting below.

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