WeChat refutes rumors of an upcoming 'seen' function

Popular instant messaging tool WeChat reassured users on Wednesday it wouldn't add a function displaying a "seen" notification, which alerts senders the recipient has read the message.

"Relax, there's no 'if'," the WeChat team said, commenting on a screenshot of Wednesday's hot topics on social media platform Sina Weibo with the hashtag "What if WeChat displays your message has been seen" circled.

The hashtag became a trending topic on Wednesday, as many netizens feared the appearance of such a topic represents WeChat trying to gather some feedback before it rolled out the function, and complained it would make their lives more stressful.

One comment reads: "Many people pretend not to be online and this function will make things so awkward."

"If this function comes out, I'll uninstall it without hesitation," another said.

Zhang Jun, head of public relations at Tencent, WeChat's developer, reposted the initial comment, saying they already had the discussion very early, and although many applications already have the function, they won't do it.

"We believe the 'seen' function will increase the mental burden and social pressure on the receiver, so we have decided not to have it from the very beginning, and we never will," he said.