WeChat Keyboard Adds Offline Mode: Can Download Dictionary for Complete Offline Use

WeChat Keyboard is currently testing a new feature: Offline Mode. When enabled, WeChat Keyboard no longer connects to the internet, cannot use cloud input, does not support voice-to-text, and does not support clipboard sharing across devices, among other limitations.

Under normal circumstances, the biggest advantage of using an input method in offline mode is privacy protection. It prevents the user's input from being uploaded to the cloud. After all, over the past decade, numerous input methods have been exposed for collecting any user input, posing serious privacy issues.

Therefore, the offline mode introduced by WeChat Keyboard might alleviate some users' concerns. However, WeChat Keyboard did not emphasize privacy in its announcement but mentioned that offline mode could improve typing efficiency by eliminating the latency associated with cloud input during online use.

With the dictionary pre-cached, the keyboard can perform word prediction entirely locally. This can indeed improve efficiency for commonly used content, though it might not necessarily enhance efficiency for uncommon inputs.

For users concerned about privacy, there is another approach: after pre-caching the dictionary and enabling offline mode, directly disable WeChat Keyboard's internet access to ensure that input content or usage logs are not uploaded.

For example, LanDianNet has been using Sogou Keyboard with its internet function permanently disabled for daily use, without encountering significant issues. This also avoids the concern of input content being collected and uploaded to the cloud (Note: Internet permissions should not be re-enabled later to prevent local cache information from being uploaded).

Currently, WeChat Keyboard's offline feature is in testing. Interested users need to download and install the WeChat Keyboard TF version. The official WeChat Keyboard website's Android version seems to already support offline functionality.

WeChat Keyboard TF version link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/iSTXkF4K (v1.3.0.565)

WeChat Keyboard Android version: https://weread.qq.com/wetype (v1.3.0)