News Reporter | Song Jianan
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s Moments search feature, WeChat is rolling out another handy update.
On June 11, according to the WeChat team, you can now “send images together” in chats. When you send three or more images or videos, you’ll see an option to “Combine Display after sending.” Once sent, these items can be expanded or collapsed with a single tap, letting you switch between views effortlessly. Plus, you can save all combined content in one go or forward it to other friends.
For users, the biggest change is that multiple images now take up just one message slot, effectively preventing the screen from being flooded with endless photos one after another—a real lifesaver in busy chats.
The experience for recipients also gets a major upgrade. Tap the “Expand” button on the card to see everything at once, then swipe left or right to quickly preview all images or videos without opening each one individually. When you’re done, just hit “Collapse.” Even better, the “Save All” feature eliminates the hassle of saving or forwarding each file separately.
Tencent Customer Service told us that to use this feature, you should update WeChat to the latest version. The feature for HarmonyOS clients is still in development.
When it comes to image limits, Tencent Customer Service confirmed that WeChat allows sending up to 99 images at once. As for videos, the chat currently supports clips from 15 seconds to 60 seconds, or you can select videos up to 5 minutes long from your phone’s gallery. If a video exceeds 5 minutes, the system will compress it automatically. For larger videos, it’s best to send them as files: tap the 【+】button on the right side of the chat box, go to 【File】, and choose the video from your phone’s album. You can also try compressing the video before sending, but the final result depends on the actual display.
We noticed that combined sends can include both images and videos. If you want to send higher-quality “originals,” just check the appropriate option.
Explaining the purpose behind this feature, Tencent Customer Service told us, “The Combine Display feature aims to boost communication efficiency in group settings by displaying multiple images in a single message bubble. It allows for quick swipe-through viewing or ungrouping into individual messages. This design is perfect for scenarios where you need to show a series of images, like sharing event group photos or product galleries.”
However, this feature doesn’t include a “missed view” notification yet. Tencent Customer Service advises users to double-check the images they want to share before sending. Also, the combined display is currently only available on iOS and Android clients; it’s not supported on the desktop version of WeChat yet. So, when you send multiple images or videos combined on your phone, they’ll still show up as individual files on your computer.
The rollout of this feature on mobile targets a common pain point users have long complained about. In group chats or one-on-one conversations, bulk sending of travel photos, work screenshots, product details, etc., often leads to “image bombing”—important messages get buried, and scrolling through history becomes a mess of scattered files, killing efficiency. The combine display effectively solves this, making chats cleaner and info sharing smoother.
Beyond preventing clutter, the combine display opens up new ways to share socially. For example, users can bundle event photos, travel vlogs, product reviews, and more into a single “mini-collection.” Some users have even gotten creative with outfit collages or fun image slideshows.
It’s worth noting that with the added convenience and efficiency of sending images, WeChat storage might fill up faster. Users should keep an eye on their WeChat storage usage and clean out unneeded images and videos regularly. WeChat previously mentioned that the same image, video, or file shared across multiple chats doesn’t take up extra storage space.
Regarding whether forwarding the same file multiple times duplicates storage, WeChat explained that in chat scenarios, sending the same file to multiple friends doesn’t double the storage. WeChat uses a technology called “hard links,” typically provided by the phone’s system, which ensures the same file’s underlying storage is shared across instances rather than duplicated.
Beyond chat improvements, WeChat officially launched the Moments search feature on June 10. Previously, finding a post from years ago meant endlessly scrolling down the page—a tedious and time-consuming task. The old search only matched keywords roughly, bringing up irrelevant results and making retrieval inefficient.
The latest update adds a dedicated magnifying glass icon at the top right of the Moments homepage. Tap it, type a keyword, and you can search through your own and your friends’ Moments posts, including text, captions, links, and even comments. For instance, search for “beach trip,” select a specific friend from summer 2025, and quickly locate related posts. Additionally, the Moments album now supports zooming in and out by year, month, or day, making it as intuitive as browsing your phone’s photo gallery to find old content.
Tencent Customer Service noted that if you haven’t updated to the latest version, the Moments search feature might not work. They recommend updating WeChat to iOS 8.0.71 or the corresponding Android version. WeChat will continue to optimize feature coverage in future updates.
