I ’ve had WeChat on my phone since a vacation to Beijing last year, when friends there essentially ordered me to download it. More than 760 million people use it regularly worldwide; it’s basically how people in China communicate now. It’s actually a lot of trouble not to use WeChat when you’re there, and socially weird, like refusing to wear shoes.

In China, 90 per cent of internet users connect online through a mobile device, and those people on average spend more than a third of their internet time in WeChat. It’s fundamentally a messaging app, but it also serves many of the functions of PayPal, Yelp, Facebook, Uber, Amazon, Expedia, Slack, Spotify,Tinder, and more. People use WeChat to pay rent, locate parking, invest, make a doctor’s appointment, donate to charity. The police in Shenzhen pay rewards through WeChat to people who rat out traffic violators through WeChat.

It’s nothing special to look at, as far as smartphone apps go. The first screen that opens is the chat stream; a menu at the bottom gets you to other areas, like a WeChat wallet and a “moments” stream for Facebook-like posts. Companies, media outlets, celebrities, and brands also open “official accounts” that you can follow to get news and promotions. The design stands out only for its relative simplicity and calm; the online mainstream in China is over populated with weird click-bait and manic GIFs.

Zhang Xiaolong, WeChat’s creator and something of a cult figure in China, has called WeChat a lifestyle. I rolled my eyes when I first heard that. Then I went back to Beijing in April.