The White House's wishes to ban WeChat was blocked hours before it took effect.

A total of 59 applications have been put on the ban list.

And it had to happen just after WeChat announced that it shared info to “comply with applicable laws or regulations”.

With WhatsApp's newly added browser chatting making the news last week, WeChat's trying to take some of that thunder by reminding everybody that it too has web browser chat functionality.

The latest version of WeChat comes with the ability to translate text between you and your new friends from abroad, and lets you keep your conversations private with the latest Groups with Password feature.

WeChat has released "WeChat for Mac" that's available in both English and Chinese for Mac OS X 10.7(Lion) and above. Also, the new Mon-mon sticker is now available for free on the WeChat Sticker Shop in Singapore.

Version 5.1 of the WeChat app sees the introduction of WeChat Games that allows you to find and compete against your neighbors using WeChat's location-based service. Also released is the new StoryCam for WeChat app, which lets you personalize and share any moment with festive watermarks, filters, and real-time location-based information.

StarHub and WeChat have announced the launch of Singapore's first WeChat plan, enabling StarHub Mobile prepaid customers to discover and connect with existing and new friends.

Integrating with BlackBerry Hub for a seamless user experience, the WeChat for BlackBerry 10 allows users to text each other, swap voice messages with its "Hold to Talk" feature, share images, and much more.

WeChat has announced its latest version, which includes the introduction of the Sticker Shop, Hold Together, as well as a revamped Official Accounts UI to make it more convenient for users to group brand accounts into a single category, reducing clutter in chat screens.