上周中國下載次數最多的app榜單上，不是以往的游戲或短視頻應用，而是新的即時通訊軟件——子彈短信。這款app令人吃驚地登上下載排行榜首，意味著國民通訊軟件微信遇到了罕見的挑戰。

子彈短信起名源于快捷，這款app擅長即時語音通信，即用一連串短音頻進行溝通。這種模式在西方尚未流行，但在中國是常態。

2012年，上線不久的微信讓語音通信流行起來，但限制一直比較多。比如，微信上的語音信息只能整段播放。如果接收方沒聽清楚語音末尾某個關鍵詞，就得從頭再聽一遍。另外，發語音后如果忘了某個重要細節，想搜索已發送信息或者查看已發送內容很困難。

子彈短信聰明地解決了這兩個難題。首先，用戶可以拖拽音頻文件進度條，從任何一點重新播放。這項改進其實很簡單，微信卻一直沒有實現，讓人有點意外（就連Facebook的WhatsApp都有音頻短信拖拽播放功能，而且WhatsApp是在微信之后才推出語音功能）。

子彈短信解決第二個問題的辦法更出色，同樣算不上多獨特。軟件能將語音短信同步轉換成文字短信同時發出，從而為對話留下了可見記錄。實現該功能的是中國人工智能翻譯公司科大訊飛。去年，《麻省理工科技評論》（MIT Technology Review）將科大訊飛譽為中國“最聰明的公司”。微信也有將語音轉換成文字的功能，但用戶必須逐條選擇點擊轉換。子彈短信簡化了操作，整體而言用戶體驗更好，而這可能正是人們對子彈短信主要投資人——錘子科技的期望。

錘子科技（英文為Smartisan，由“smart（聰明）”和“artisan（工匠）”兩個單詞組合而成）成立于2012年，創始人羅永浩曾在紐交所上市公司新東方擔任英語教師。羅永浩因為講課風格幽默讓成為網絡紅人，2011年在西門子北京總部外砸西門子冰箱而出名。當時羅永浩認為西門子冰箱有設計缺陷，所以砸冰箱維權。

如今錘子科技造的是智能手機，不是冰箱。手機銷量或許有點慘淡，僅占2017年中國智能手機市場的1%，但聚集了一批熱情的追隨者。今年5月，2.3萬粉絲云集鳥巢，也就是2008年北京奧運會主體育場，參加錘子科技堅果R1手機發布會，門票最貴的達140美元。羅永浩邀請吉尼斯世界紀錄大全到場見證盛會，吉尼斯紀錄稱之為迄今為止“觀眾人數最多的科技產品發布會”。

羅永浩明確表示，子彈短信并不是要擊敗騰訊。他在微博上寫道：“子彈短信沒有挑戰微信，而是做一個在意溝通效率的人群的細分領域而已”。但8月20日上線的子彈短信已經開始多元化布局，業務擴展到即時通信以外。

子彈短信app還有新聞推送功能——子彈新聞，設計上類似估值數十億美元的新聞推薦引擎今日頭條。子彈新聞把騰訊作為新聞源之一，毫不意外騰訊表示反對。羅永浩還暗示，子彈短信很快就會接入支付寶，也就是騰訊在移動支付領域的主要對手。

不過，支付寶還沒有表示將和子彈短信正式合作。阿里巴巴旗下負責管理支付寶的螞蟻金服也只是說：“支付寶歡迎所有具備資質的公司將支付寶接入其產品和服務中。”螞蟻金服未表示支付寶將接入子彈短信，而此舉可能是對付微信最有效的手段。

由于子彈短信內部不具備多種業務生態系統，不太可能分流微信的用戶。新app的賣點完全基于用戶體驗，而用戶體驗很容易模仿。目前來看，子彈短信只是一次示警，刺激微信改善語音短信服務體驗，或許還提供了明確的方向。（財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審校：夏林

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This week, China’s most downloaded app wasn’t a game or a short-video app like normal but a new messaging service called Bullet. The app’s startling assent to the top marks a rare challenge to Tencent’s WeChat—China’s go-to choice for messaging.

Bullet, so called for the swiftness of its service, specializes in instant voice messaging, whereby users communicate through a rally of short audio clips. That method hasn’t caught on in the West, but in China, it’s the norm.

WeChat popularized that style of communication during its early days, in 2012, but its system has always been comparably limited. For one, WeChat only allows voice messages to be played in full, so if a listener misses a vital word towards the end of a clip, they have to start over from the beginning. Also, sending audio files makes it harder to scan through previous messages and check what’s already been said, in case you’ve forgotten an important detail.

Bullet has smartly solved both of these problems. Firstly, it allows users to scrub through audio files and start playback at any point—a simple enough fix that it’s surprising WeChat hasn’t introduced this function itself. (Scrubbing through voice messages is even a feature on Facebook-owned WhatsApp, which introduced voice messages after WeChat did.)

Bullet’s second solution is more impressive, but also not inimitable. The app instantly transcribes audio into a text message and sends the text along with the voice clip, leaving a visible record of the conversation. That magic is powered by iFlyTek, a local AI translation wizard that MIT Technology Review ranked as the “smartest company” in China last year.

WeChat has a transcription feature, too, but the user has to choose to transcribe each message. Bullet has streamlined the process and generally provides a greater user experience, which is something you would expect of the messaging app’s key investor, Smartisan.

Smartisan (a portmanteau of “smart” and “artisan”) was founded in 2012 by Luo Yonghao, a former English teacher at New York-listed New Oriental. Luo gathered popularity online for his humorous classes, but he gained notoriety in 2011 for smashing Siemens refrigerators outside of the German brand’s Beijing headquarters. The demonstration was a protest of what Luo believed was Siemens’ shoddy design.

But Smartisan doesn’t make fridges, it makes smartphones. Sales might be slight—accounting for just 1% of the Chinese smartphone market in 2017—but the company has an ardent following. In May this year, 23,000 fans flocked to the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, home of the 2008 Summer Olympics, to attend the launch of the phone maker’s R1 model, paying up to $140 for entry. According to Guinness World Records, which Luo had invited to witness the spectacle, it was the “largest audience for a technology product launch” to date.

Luo has stated that Bullet is not an attempt to topple Tencent. Writing on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, Luo said, “We are not challenging WeChat. We are creating a niche product for people who care about the efficiency of communication.” But Bullet, which was launched on August 20, has already diversified its service beyond messaging.

The app runs a news feed, which is similar in design to that of multi-billion-dollar news aggregator, Toutiao. The newsfeed featured content skimmed from Tencent News until, unsurprisingly, Tencent told Bullet to stop. Luo has also hinted that the app will soon include payment services provided by Alipay, Tencent’s arch-rival in the mobile payments war.

But Alipay hasn’t suggested it would form an official partnership with Bullet. Ant Financial, the Alibaba affiliate that manages Alipay, has simply said, “Alipay welcomes all eligible businesses to incorporate Alipay solutions into their products and services.” It hasn’t suggested Bullet will feature within the Alipay app, where it would be the most effective as a weapon against WeChat.

Without a rich ecosystem of services to pad it out, Bullet’s app is unlikely to divert followers away from WeChat. The upstart’s key selling points are all based on user experience, which can be easily emulated. For now, Bullet is just a shot across the bow, providing WeChat with an incentive—and perhaps a guide—to improve its own audio messaging service.