We wed on wechat

Some days, the beeping of incoming messages gets overwhelming, but technology does facilitate quick communication at little cost. Tiffany Tan writes.

I resisted as long as I could, but two months ago, I finally threw up my hands and became one of WeChat's 400 million users worldwide. For almost a year prior, I'd gotten used to receiving quizzical looks from both locals and foreigners whenever I told them I didn't use China's most popular messaging app.

Last summer, out of curiosity, I actually installed it on my mobile device. Five minutes after signing up, I was inundated with around 40 "friend requests", some from people I'd already removed from my phonebook. I quickly closed the app and de-registered my account.