Chinese smartphone giants join forces to fight WeChat

They’re teaming up to create a standard format for these apps, allowing them to run on any of their devices. But they also happen to give the companies a joint competitor to battle WeChat.

Quick Apps are very similar to WeChat’s Mini Programs, which are basically apps within an app. Instead of using regular apps across your phone, Mini Programs live inside WeChat itself -- allowing people to order food, call taxis and so much more without ever leaving the messaging app.

But speed isn’t the only reason why Mini Programs are popular. Instead, a big part of it has to do with the ubiquity of WeChat, which has over one billion users.

"Mini Programs are hyper-visible within the operating system of our lives, WeChat. As a result they have quickly been adopted without too much friction," said Thibault Genaitay, a Shanghai-based programmer and head of Le Wagon China coding boot camp.

He said Quick Apps will be available directly through the native search function of the devices, just like how Mini Programs are found through a search bar in WeChat.