WeChat might not be very popular in the West where competitors like WhatsApp are the dominant instant messaging service but it’s ridiculously popular in hits home country, China. In an effort to expand its offerings and diversify, the company has decided to enter the fitness tracking market by making the app work alongside popular fitness tracking gadgets like the Fitbit or MiBand.
WeChat, the popular messaging app, just stepped into fitness tracking. WeChat now has an option for people with fitness tracker devices or certain phones that can do motion tracking to share the number of steps they take each day and even compete with their friends. All this is done by adding an account inside the WeChat app called WeChat Sports (search for 微信运动 in Chinese). It’s made by Tencent, the company behind the messaging app. By opting in to WeChat Sports, the app can read motion tracking data from your phone that’s pulled in from gadgets like a Fitbit, Nike Fuel, or a Xiaomi MiBand. If you have a phone that can read your movement, like the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6, you don’t even need a fitness tracker gizmo.