I can confirm it's not loading in China :D

What is wrong with them?

They don't work very well. Well, let's put it this way, many tend to be great until they become popular enough to attract the attention of the net nannies. Once that happens, they are doomed.

Have to say, I'm new to wechat. Loaded it before coming to UK on a work trip, and also on my wife's phone. Although we Skype everyday, I love that my daughter leaves me a wechat message telling me what she's up to! It somehow is 'more special'...

however, other than a way to send free texts (which are really cheap anyway), I don't really see it as a day to day tool.

tb

I use whatsapp and it is a lifeline for me as an expat.... messages with ex-China friends, groups of friends, very convenient for coordinating meet-ups, sharing news and just keeping up with friends & family. I use it to communicate with my ex-China colleagues too, esp with EU/US off hours, in place of back/forth emails.

I have wechat but the BB interface stinks so I stay logged in on the ipad instead. The 'Moments' function is nice to see what colleagues are up to in a non-work setting, also group chat.

Few outside China realize it, but Tencent is in the process of making an end zone run with Wechat on a global scale. It has quietly become the 5th most popular app in the world, and has just recently entered the meta-app game with its latest release. All of the ad houses here are now scrambling to get their clients well positioned on Wechat... and have all but forgotten about Sina Weibo.

^^^
And NSA-proof - for the time being...LOL

Ok, I downloaded WeChat here in the U.S. figuring I might want to use it to communicate while in China later this month. A few of my friends there use it so I figured I would see what the fuss is about. However, it's requiring my phone number to sign up. Will this work for me in China if I provide a U.S. phone number? Why does it even need my phone number? I was only planning on using the app while on wifi.

Any advice is appreciated. I've never used an app like Whatsapp or Viber while traveling internationally so I'm not sure if I really understand all these apps. But I don't plan on using my iphone other than on wifi to avoid international data rates.

Whatsapp also requires your phone number, as much as I'm aware ;)

WeChat will send you a confirmation code to your phone (doesn't cost anything)

Yes, it will work in China, as long as you've data connection (be it roaming, a local sim card (yes, the phone number doesn't matter latter, you just register/get the code with your current phone number now) or Wifi.

wechat and whatsapp both use phone numbers as account ID and the purpose is it allows connections via your phone address book. That way you could communicate with you contacts right away via wechat/whatsapp instead of via text messaging, no need to ask if someone has an acct and what their ID might me.

Not exactly.....

Whatsapp requires phone number to sign up. If and when you swap to another number, which occurs often when I travel, they give you option [not sure if option or requirement, can't remember???] to switch to new number. If that occurs, then folks that ping your original number have to wait for you to swap back to original sim card AND update back to original number.

Wechat requires phone number to sign up but also gives you option to choose a unique ID. Once you're logged on, you can remain signed-in with just the unique ID. It also gives you option to assign/associate an email address. You can give the ID out and if you swap sim cards, folks can still get you with the correct ID. I have weChat set up on two different iPhones, each with unique mobile numbers but both using the same weChat ID.

Whatsapp does search your address book but weChat does not.

At least that's how it works for me. Also, with whatsapp, the other side always knows the mobile number they're pinging. Whereas with weChat, your mobile number can be hidden.

Touringguy: you can also consider another app -- line.

WeChat definitely does search the address book on mine. Although it might be disabled through settings so check that if you want to play with it.

On Android WeChat even integrates with the phone address book which is very neat.

Indeed. I prefer WeChat's synchronisation over several devices way more than Whatsapp. There are some things which I still prefer on Whatsapp over WeChat (i hate it that you can't prepare messages while offline, that will be sent automatically later, something Whatsapp can do for years..), but I've noticed that I've started to use WeChat more frequently recently..

There's no reason to switch to your new number when you travel. I keep my whatsapp logged in on my home mobile number even though I use my smartphone exclusively on my Beijing mobile number. As long as your 'home' mobile account is still yours, it doesn't need to tie in with the active data account you might be on.

Thanks for heads ups, was not aware of that. Not sure why it asked me to switch, will take a look next trip out.

I'm using iPhone so maybe I either inadvertently disabled or not enabled it?