WeChat vs Messenger
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
Messenger
Connect with friends and family through text, audio, and video calls. Share photos, videos, and large files, and express yourself with custom themes and animated content. Features an AI assistant for help and support.
- Text, audio, and video calls
- High-definition photo sharing
- Shared photo albums
- QR code connections
- Large file sharing (up to 100MB)
- Edit and unsend messages
- Disappearing messages
- AI assistant
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Messenger is a free messaging app that helps you connect with anyone, anywhere. Stay in touch with your friends and family, explore your interests with people like you, build your community, and share your vibe beyond words, all in one app. CHAT AND CALL ANYONE, ANYWHERE Find and connect with your friends and family on Facebook and Messenger, no phone number needed. GET INSTANT ANSWERS FROM YOUR AI ASSISTANT* Meta AI is your assistant that can answer any questions, give you advice, help with homework, and more. SEND YOUR PHOTOS IN HIGH DEFINITION Send and receive clearer, crisper picture of your favorite moments with Messenger. CREATE SHARED ALBUMS From a recent summer vacation to your grandma’s 80th birthday, create albums of photos and videos to share, organize and reminisce over important moments in your group chats. EASILY ADD NEW CONNECTIONS WITH QR CODES Connect with people you meet in real life by scanning their Messenger QR code or sharing yours via a link. SHARE LARGE FILES DIRECTLY IN CHAT Whether it’s a Word, PDF, or Excel doc, you can send large files up to 100MB right inside of Messenger. EDIT AND UNSEND MESSAGES Hit send too soon? You can edit the message up to 15 minutes after sending DISAPPEARING MESSAGES Some things aren’t meant to last forever. Choose how long your end-to-end encrypted chats stick around after they’ve been read. COME TOGETHER WITH YOUR COMMUNITIES Meaningfully connect with people like you from your school, neighborhood, and interest groups. GET IN YOUR FAVORITE CREATORS’ INNER CIRCLE Stay in the know with creators by joining their broadcast channels for authentic and casual content. UNLEASH YOUR IMAGINATION W/ META AI* Tap into your go-to creative partner to create, edit, animate images and more. CAPTURE EVERYDAY MOMENTS ON STORIES Highlight moments of your day using photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours in Stories. DROP A NOTE WITH YOUR THOUGHTS Stay connected with your friends by sharing quick updates that disappear after 24 hours. BRING YOUR VIBE TO YOUR CHATS Sometimes words just don’t cut it. Tap into more ways to express yourself with animated stickers, GIFs, reactions and more. SET THE MOOD OF YOUR CHAT WITH THEMES Customize your chat with a large and constantly evolving list of themes featuring popular artists, holidays, and more. *Meta AI is available in select languages and countries only, with more coming soon.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Messenger at 4.7 against WeChat's 3.9. Messenger also leads on review sentiment (66% vs 24%) and ratings volume (14M vs 81K). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. WeChat sells 10 one-off in-app purchases and Messenger sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Messenger holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Messenger has 14M ratings behind it against 81K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 24% of WeChat's written reviews are positive against 66% of Messenger's.
WeChat ships an update every 3 weeks, Messenger weekly. Both last shipped on September 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Messenger | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.9 (81K ratings) | 4.7 (14M ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 24.0% of reviews | 66.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 81K | 14M — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #16 | #9 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 887 MB | 255 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Meta Platforms, Inc. | |
Customer experience
Messenger
User reviews
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
Messenger
From 14M App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 📱 Useful for staying connected with friends and family
- 🗣️ Enables easy communication through text, voice, and video
- 💬 Convenient group chat features
- 🌐 Works across multiple devices and platforms
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
- 🔒 Privacy and security concerns
- 🔄 Unnecessary updates that remove useful features
- 📤 Issues with message delivery and notifications
- 🗂️ Cluttered interface and poor organization of chats
Bugs and requests
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
Messenger
Reported bugs
4 issues- Unable to log in or access account
- Messages failing to send or receive
- Unexpected app crashes and freezes
- Syncing issues between devices
Requested features
4 requests- Add option to delete or unsend messages
- Improve search functionality for chat history
- Introduce customizable notification settings
- Bring back old features like emoji reactions and location sharing
In-app purchases
- WeChat Out Top-Up Card$0.99
- 42 WeBeans$0.99
- WeChat Out Top-Up Card$1.99
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- 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
Messenger
- Avatar Item$0.99
- Avatar Item$1.99
- Avatar Item$2.99
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Avatar Item$3.99
- Avatar Item$4.99
- Avatar Item$6.99
- Avatar Item$7.99
- Avatar Item$8.99
- Avatar Item$9.99
- Avatar Item$10.99






