Comparison

WeChat vs Messages

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

WeChat

Connect with friends and family through messaging, voice, and video calls. Discover news, local services, and games within the app. Features mobile payment and health tracking capabilities.

Highlights
  • Text, photo, voice, and video messaging
  • Group chats up to 500 members
  • High-quality voice and video calls
  • Real-time location sharing
  • Moments for sharing photos and videos
  • Official Accounts for news and content
  • Mini Programs for third-party services
  • Mobile payment with Weixin Pay
Features
Read full description

WeChat is more than a messaging and social media app – it is a lifestyle for one billion users across the world. Chat and make calls with friends, read news and use local services in Official Accounts and Mini Programs, play games with friends, enjoy mobile payment features with Weixin Pay, and much more. Why do one billion people use WeChat? • MORE WAYS TO CHAT: Message friends using text, photo, voice, video, location sharing, and more. Create group chats with up to 500 members. • VOICE & VIDEO CALLS: High-quality voice and video calls to anywhere in the world. Make group video calls with up to 15 people. • REAL-TIME LOCATION: Not good at explaining directions? Share your real-time location with the tap of a button. • MOMENTS: Never forget your favorite moments. Post photos, videos, and more to share with friends on your personal Moments stream. • STICKER GALLERY: Browse thousands of fun, animated stickers to help express yourself in chats, including stickers with your favorite cartoon and movie characters. • CUSTOM STICKERS: Make chatting more unique with custom stickers and selfie stickers. • OFFICIAL ACCOUNTS: Tons of accounts to follow with original content and news for your reading pleasure. • MINI PROGRAMS: Countless third-party services all within the WeChat app that don't require additional installation, saving you precious phone storage and time. • TOP STORIES: See the latest articles your friends are reading and discover all kinds of interesting content. • GAMES: Have fun and compete with friends in a huge selection of WeChat Mini Games and Tencent Games (available in select regions). • WEIXIN PAY: Enjoy the convenience of world-leading mobile payment features with Weixin Pay and Wallet (available in select regions). • WECHAT OUT: Make calls to mobile phones and landlines around the globe at super low rates (only available in select regions). • WERUN: Use Healthkit and Health app data to sync your step count on WeRun, where you can compete against friends with daily step rankings. Enable WeRun in “Settings” > “General” > “Plug-ins”. • LANGUAGE SUPPORT: Localized in 20+ different languages and can translate friends' messages and Moments posts. • BETTER PRIVACY: Giving you the highest level of control over your privacy, WeChat is certified by TRUSTe - view our privacy policy for more information. • EASY MODE: Clearer and larger text and buttons for better readability.

About

Messages

Communicate with contacts through unlimited texts, photos, videos, and documents. Supports iMessage for Apple devices and RCS, SMS, and MMS for others. Features include message editing, unsending, and scheduling.

Highlights
  • Send unlimited texts, photos, videos, and documents
  • iMessage, RCS, SMS, and MMS support
  • Edit and unsend messages
  • Schedule messages
  • Message effects and stickers
  • Group chat features
  • Messages in iCloud
Features
Read full description

Stay connected to the people and conversations that matter most. Send unlimited texts, photos, videos, documents, and more to any iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, or visionOS device with iMessage, or use it to send RCS, SMS, and MMS messages. Features • Send texts, photos, videos, audio messages, documents, stickers, Memoji, polls, and more to contacts using their phone number or Apple Account. • Send Messages via satellite* to stay connected with friends and family even when you are without cellular or Wi-Fi connection. • Automatically translate incoming texts, including group messages.* • On-device spam detection filters out spam from your conversations list. • Opt-in to screen messages from unknown numbers. • Tapback with any emoji or sticker for a quick reply to express what you think about a message. • Add effects to your messages like animated text effects, full-screen effects, and bubble effects to bring your conversations to life. • Schedule a message to send at a specified time with Send Later. • Your name and photo, or even Memoji, can be shared with your friends. • Edit any message for up to 15 minutes after sending it. Recipients will be able to see a record of edits made to the message. • Unsend any message for up to 2 minutes after sending it. • Mark as unread when you don’t have time to respond but want to be sure to reply to the sender later. • Name a group and add a photo to personalize the group conversation. • Mentions let you direct a message to an individual in a group conversation. • Inline replies let you reply to a specific message and see all related messages in their own view. • Pin conversations to keep up to nine of your favorite message threads at the top of the list. • iMessage apps let you quickly share photos, recently played music, stickers, GIFs, Apple Cash*, and more right from Messages. • Start a Check In with a family member or friend to let them know when you’ve arrived at a destination or set up a Check In for a time duration. • Use Messages in iCloud to keep your entire message history updated and available on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro, even when you set up a brand-new device. • SharePlay via Messages lets you share synchronized activities like movies, music, workouts, games and more while chatting with friends in Messages. • Shared with You shows content sent to you by friends in Messages conversations in a section in Photos, Safari, News*, Music*, Podcasts, or the TV app* • Collaboration lets you invite others to collaborate on a file via Messages and shares activity updates in the thread when someone makes an edit to a shared project. Apple Watch Features • Quickly read and respond to incoming messages. • Use smart replies, dictation, audio messages, stickers, #images*, Memoji, polls, or the QWERTY keyboard (Apple Watch Series 7 or later models). • Automatically translate incoming texts, including group messages.* • Start a Check In with a family member or friend to let them know when you’ve arrived at a destination or set up a Check In for a time duration. • Pin conversations to keep your favorite message threads at the top of the list. • Save photos, audio messages and videos from your messages. • Ask Siri to send a message to your contacts. • Respond to a specific message inline to keep conversations organized. • Send, receive, and request money with Apple Pay*. • Mute or delete conversations. * Not available in all regions.

Screenshots

WeChat4 screens
Messages4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Messages at none against WeChat's 11. Messages also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (45% vs 32%). WeChat's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 9 months) and chart position (#18 vs unranked). On price, rating, ratings volume and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. WeChat sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Messages asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Messages holds the better App Store score, 4.1 against 3.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 81K and 38K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 32% of WeChat's written reviews are positive against 45% of Messages's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

WeChat ships an update every 3 weeks, Messages every 9 months. Both last shipped on October 16, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
WeChat versus Messages: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWeChatMessages
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.9 (81K ratings)4.1 (38K ratings) — better
Positive reviews31.6% of reviews45.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings81K — better38K
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 9 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#18 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS15.010.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size922 MB9 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperWeChatApple Inc.

Customer experience

WeChat

All ratings81,197 ratings
Positive72.4%
Neutral4.6%
Negative22.9%
Written reviews3,814 reviews
Positive31.6%
Neutral7.3%
Negative61.1%

Messages

All ratings38,415 ratings
Positive75.4%
Neutral6.1%
Negative18.5%
Written reviews4,901 reviews
Positive45.5%
Neutral12.5%
Negative42.0%

User reviews

WeChat

From 81K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great all-in-one app
  • 👍 Convenient features like payments and mini-programs
  • 💡 Useful translation and sharing functions
  • 🔒 Secure and private

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Accounts getting blocked for no reason
  • 🔒 Strict security measures and verification requirements
  • 👎 Poor customer support and unresponsive to user issues
  • 🔋 High storage and battery consumption
  • 🤔 Censorship and monitoring concerns

Messages

From 38K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast and reliable messaging
  • 🔒 End-to-end encryption
  • 👍 Seamless integration with Apple devices
  • 💡 Fun features like Memoji and stickers
  • 🤝 Easy group chat management

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
  • 🔍 Limited search functionality
  • 📤 Inability to delete messages for others
  • 🔔 Lack of typing indicators in group chats
  • 📱 Incompatibility with non-Apple devices

Bugs and requests

WeChat

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Frequent app crashes and connectivity issues
  • Syncing problems between devices
  • Incompatibility with newer iOS versions
  • Unreliable voice/video call quality

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add dark mode option
  • Improve chat organization with folders and pinning
  • Allow editing of posted content
  • Provide better translation and language support
  • Simplify account recovery and unblocking process

Messages

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Messages not delivering consistently
  • App crashing or freezing on launch
  • Issues with iCloud sync and message history
  • Problems with location sharing and privacy

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to schedule messages
  • Option to lock specific conversations
  • More customization options for Memoji
  • Improved voice message functionality
  • Expanded reaction/emoji options

In-app purchases

10 purchases

WeChat

One-time10
  • WeChat Out Top-Up Card$0.99
  • 42 WeBeans$0.99
  • WeChat Out Top-Up Card$1.99
Show 7 more
  • 126 WeBeans$2.99
  • WeChat Out Top-Up Card$3.99
  • 350 WeBeans$6.99
  • WeChat Out Top-Up Card$9.99
  • WeChat Out Top-Up Card$14.99
  • 896 WeBeans$19.99
  • 9086 WeBeans$199.99
None

Messages

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is WeChat free?
WeChat is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Messages free?
Messages is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, WeChat or Messages?
Messages is rated higher. WeChat averages 3.9 out of 5 from 81K ratings, while Messages averages 4.1 from 38K ratings.
Do WeChat or Messages have ads?
WeChat shows ads; Messages does not.
Which is updated more often, WeChat or Messages?
WeChat ships an update every 3 weeks, and Messages every 9 months. Most recently, WeChat was updated on October 16, 2026 and Messages on October 16, 2026.

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