The interconnection project lasted for one year, WeChat cut off the jump path of Douyin link

On January 10, 2023, several Douyin users told CBN reporters that the Douyin link cannot be directly opened in WeChat, nor can it be copied to complete the jump, and even text extraction must be performed through image OCR recognition. However, the Taobao link in WeChat can still be copied to complete the link jump in Taobao.

The reporter found that if the link from Douyin to WeChat is the full URL in the abbreviated “more information”, it can be opened directly. But in more cases, it is the garbled characters of non-url links, which cannot be directly clicked to jump. Moreover, the link information from Douyin cannot be copied in WeChat, and thus cannot be effectively redirected in Douyin or the browser.

As of press time, neither Tencent nor Douyin responded to this news.

Since the relevant business departments of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held the “Administrative Guidance Meeting on Shielding URL Links” in September 2021, the movement of platforms to break the shield of external links and realize interconnection has been quietly underway. On September 17 of the same year, Tencent issued a statement on the adjustment of the “WeChat External Link Content Management Regulations”, stating that it will implement the first phase of interconnection with “four principles and three measures” under the premise of “safety as the bottom line”. Other platforms jointly explore further interconnection.

The three measures specifically refer to: under the premise of ensuring information security, after users upgrade the latest version of WeChat, they can access external links in one-on-one chat scenarios; , Tencent will continue to develop functions to facilitate users’ independent personalized choices; set up an external link complaint portal, users can report illegal external links, the platform will deal with them in accordance with corresponding rules, and set up credit ratings for the management effectiveness of the platform for external links.

On November 29, 2021, WeChat released the “Updated Statement on the “WeChat External Link Content Management Standards””, announcing further interconnection plans under the guidance of regulatory authorities. External links will be directly accessible in point-to-point chat scenarios, and will be in In the group chat scene, open the direct access function of e-commerce external links on a trial basis.

At that time, a reporter from China Business News found that no matter it was a point-to-point chat scene or a group chat scene, e-commerce external links could not be opened for the time being. Take Taobao as an example. At present, to share products in the WeChat chat interface, you still need to copy the Taobao password , Go to WeChat and paste it to friends. WeChat said that the opening function of e-commerce external links will take effect one after another.

But at that time, Douyin could already be opened directly in WeChat by copying the link. WeChat stated in the “Statement” at the time that the stage adjustments mainly include three points: In the peer-to-peer chat scene, external links will be directly accessible; Open the direct access function of e-commerce external links on a trial basis in the chat scene; follow-up plans to develop an independent selection mode to provide users with external link management functions.

WeChat stated in the “Statement” that it will continue to work with major Internet platforms to promote interconnection plans under the guidance of regulatory authorities, with safety as the bottom line, actively cooperate with other Internet platforms to implement interconnection, and explore smooth use on other platforms. The technical possibilities of WeChat services provide users with a better experience.

After more than a year, judging from the current status of Douyin links in WeChat, this interconnection work has not been successfully realized.