Jane Manchun Wong

Last updated

Jane Manchun Wong
黃文津
Selfie of Jane Manchun Wong.jpg
Wong in 2024
Born (1994-04-13) April 13, 1994 (age 31)
British Hong Kong
Education University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (dropped out)
Occupations
Years active2017–present
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 黃文津
Simplified Chinese 黄文津
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Huáng Wénjīn
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Wòhng Màhn jēun
Jyutping Wong4 Man4 zeon1
Website wongmjane.com

Jane Manchun Wong (born April 13, 1994) [2] is a Hong Kong technology blogger and app researcher best known for discovering unreleased features of online services such as Facebook or Instagram. [1] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

In December 2021, Wong was featured on Forbes' 2022 30 Under 30: Social Media list. [6] Between June 2023 and October 2024, she was an employee of Meta, working on Instagram and Threads. [5] [7] [8]

Personal life

Wong is a self-taught coder who grew up in Hong Kong. [4] She developed an interest in security vulnerabilities at a young age. At seven, she circumvented her parents' controls on their computer by replacing Microsoft Windows with Linux to "prove the point". [3] [9]

Wong studied computer science at UMass Dartmouth but left a few months prior to graduating due to medical issues. [1] [10] In June 2023, she relocated to San Francisco to work on Instagram and Threads for Meta [7] [11] before being laid off in October 2024. [8] In December 2024, she stated on Threads that she was joining a new startup as a senior software engineer. [12]

Discoveries

Wong's first notable discovery came in October 2017 when she revealed Facebook was testing a résumé feature. [9] [13]

In 2018, Wong leaked screenshots of Facebook Dating's homepage before its release and also revealed a map feature on Facebook which shows the locations of nearby friends. [1]

On April 18, 2019, she announced Instagram was testing hiding like counts, which was confirmed twelve days later by Adam Mosseri. [4]

Among other discoveries, Wong also revealed LinkedIn's dark mode, Lyft's digital wallet, and Twitter users having an option to hide replies to their tweets. [7] [9]

Wong discovers these features by examining sites' public source code. [14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Shultes, Alli (April 27, 2019). "Jane Manchun Wong: The woman scooping Silicon Valley". BBC . Retrieved April 29, 2025.
  2. ↑ @wongmjane (April 12, 2022). "It's my 28th birthday today!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. 1 2 Soo, Zen (November 26, 2018). "Jane Wong uncovers hidden app features that tech giants like Facebook want to keep secret" . South China Morning Post . Archived from the original on November 26, 2018. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
  4. 1 2 3 Rodriguez, Salvador (October 20, 2019). "Facebook employees turn to rogue hacker from Hong Kong to learn what other teams are building". CNBC . Archived from the original on May 19, 2025. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
  5. 1 2 Soo, Zen (October 17, 2024). "Meta lays off staff at WhatsApp and Instagram to align with 'strategic goals'". WCVB-TV . Archived from the original on June 5, 2025. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
  6. ↑ "Jane Manchun Wong". Forbes . December 1, 2021. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
  7. 1 2 3 "Jane Manchun Wong" . The San Francisco Standard . April 21, 2025. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
  8. 1 2 Duffy, Clare (October 18, 2024). "Meta fires employees for spending food allowances on personal items like acne pads and wine glasses". WABC-TV . Archived from the original on April 29, 2025. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
  9. 1 2 3 Yurieff, Kaya (March 22, 2019). "This 24-year-old finds unreleased features in your favorite apps". CNN Business . Archived from the original on April 14, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
  10. ↑ Basu, Tanya (April 22, 2022). "Spilling Silicon Valley's secrets, one tweet at a time". MIT Technology Review . Retrieved April 29, 2025.
  11. ↑ "Jane Manchun Wong". wongmjane.com. Archived from the original on April 27, 2025. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
  12. ↑ Wong, Jane Manchun (October 24, 2024). "Personal news: I'm joining a startup in Los Angeles as a senior software engineer!". www.threads.com. Retrieved August 30, 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ↑ Cohen, David (October 16, 2017). "Facebook Is Taking Aim at LinkedIn Again By Testing a Résumé Feature" . Adweek . Archived from the original on April 29, 2025. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
  14. ↑ Basu, Tanya (April 22, 2022). "Spilling Silicon Valley's secrets, one tweet at a time". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
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