What Is an Applet?

WeChat Mini Program, referred to as Mini Program, English name Mini Program, is an application that can be used without downloading and installing. It realizes the dream of the application at your fingertips. Users can open the application by scanning or searching.

WeChat Mini Program

On January 11, 2016,

On December 27, 2018, Tencent released the "Tencent White Paper on Privacy Protection", advocating the concept of "science and technology for good, data for good" privacy protection concept. In the mini-program's "Terms of Service" and "Operational Specifications", there are separate chapters on "User Personal Information Protection" and "User Privacy and Data Specifications".

WeChat Mini Programs give users more control over product function design. On the setting page of the applet, the user is provided with a data permission switch. Once the user is authorized and then turned off, the applet needs to re-authorize when the user data is used again to provide users with more convenient data control. Users can also see the privacy data protection tips and complaint entrance on the profile page of the applet.

Applets adhere to the "necessary + reasonable" principle in collecting and obtaining user data. Necessary means that the developer can obtain the user's consent and authorization only when there is a scenario in which the user's data needs to be obtained in the specific business of the applet; reasonably, the scope of the developer's access to data should not exceed what is required for the specific scenario data range. For example, a small program that provides takeaway services may need to obtain data such as phone numbers and addresses, but it is not necessary to obtain data such as gender and age. Otherwise, the platform will consider that the collection of user data by the small program violates the "necessary and reasonable" principle. Process this type of applet. ^[11]

Q: What is an applet? What kind of function does it have?

A: An applet is an application that can be used without downloading and installing. It realizes the dream of an application "at your fingertips". Users can open the application by scanning or searching. It also embodies the concept of "use when you run out", and users do not need to worry about whether to install too many applications. Apps will be ubiquitous and ready to use, without the need to install and uninstall. For developers, the threshold for applet development is relatively low and less difficult than APP, which can meet simple basic applications, and is suitable for the offline conversion of life service offline shops and non-rigid low-frequency applications. The applet can implement seven functions such as message notification, offline scanning, and public account association. Among them, through the association of public numbers, users can realize mutual jump between public numbers and applets. Because there is no entry for the applet. ^[14]

Q: Can the applet communicate with existing apps?

A: Applets can use WeChat joint login to communicate with the user's existing App background user data, but they will not support direct jumps between applets and apps.

Q: WeChat already has a subscription number, service number, and enterprise number. What is the difference between these three programs?

A: The applet, subscription number, service number, and enterprise number are parallel systems.

Q: It is said that the launch of mini-programs means that WeChat should be an application distribution market. Is this true?

A: WeChat launched mini-programs, not to be an application distribution market, but to provide an open platform for some high-quality services.