WeChat (Chinese: 微信; pinyin: Wēixìn (audio speaker iconlisten); lit. 'micro-message') is a Chinese multi-purpose instant messaging, social media and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018,[2][3] with over 1 billion monthly active users.[4][5][6] WeChat has been described as China's "app for everything" and a "super app" because of its wide range of functions.[7] WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, video games, sharing of photographs and videos and location sharing.
