Recently, some iOS users have discovered that the unread voice message prompts on WeChat have changed from red to light gray. This change only affects some iOS users who have updated to WeChat 8.0.71 and above. Android users are not affected. In response, Tencent customer service responded that this is a grayscale test of the "unread mode" function on the iOS side. It is a staged design and not a final solution.
However, the gray mark is visually similar to the read status, and users need to be close to the screen to distinguish it, resulting in a large number of missed message cases, including missed work notifications, delayed communication with relatives and friends, and other social embarrassments. Some users believe that red prompts have formed long-term behavioral inertia, and sudden changes cause cognitive burden.
Other users mistakenly believed that this move was a precursor to the “read receipt” function, but Tencent clearly refused to launch the message read function.
Tencent customer service said that it will optimize the display effect based on feedback and may gradually restore the red mark. It also recommends that users check the unread status setting. Users can turn on the unread message aggregation function, double-click the "WeChat" label at the bottom to pop up a half-screen interface to display unread conversations in a centralized manner, or set strong reminders for important contacts to avoid missing them.