When comparing WeChat vs Hike, the Slant community recommends Hike for most people. In the question“What are the best messaging apps for Android?” Hike is ranked 25th while WeChat is ranked 44th. The most important reason people chose Hike is:
It contains a wallet for money transfer, news update & sports update feature.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Friends can be added by scanning a QR code
WeChat generates a QR code for each user that other can be scanned to add them as a friend.
Pro Can be used as a Walkie Talkie
WeChat has push-to-talk functionality that can be used both one-on-one and in groups.
Pro Large collection of animated stickers
Pro Easy to send voice messages
Users can record a voice message from within the app to then send it to a recipient, who can then play the message from within the app. It is all self contained.
Pro Enables meeting new people
WeChat has a feature that pairs random people for a conversation. It is activated by shaking the phone (requires location sharing to be enabled) and will present a list of people who are doing the same and how far away from you they are.
Another feature for meeting new people is the Friend Radar that will display people in your vicinity that can then be added to your contacts list.
Finally, there is the People Nearby feature which allows you to send and receive greetings from people in your vicinity.
Pro Moments social network is seamlessly incorporated
Pro Flexible creation of chat groups
You can create chat groups for up to 500 people.
Pro Filters for photos
WeChat includes a collections of filters that can be applied to photos to change how they look.
Pro Lots of great features
It contains a wallet for money transfer, news update & sports update feature.
Pro Without data media sharing option within 100m
Pro Great sticker system
A very fast sticker suggestion based on key words typed. This helps to send relevant stickers quickly. Also when we press upon a sticker it opens a quick reply sticker option.
Pro Night-mode
Hike has an app theme & auto night mode(8pm-6am) inside to reduce strain on eye while texting at night.
Pro Has a timeline
It has a timeline(photo + text), which is similar to BBM.
Pro Photo editing feature
It has a selfie edit feature like Instagram, helps with editing selfies for profile photos & photo statuses.
Cons
Con Notifications get muted after inactivity
New message notifications stop getting pushed if the application isn't opened for some extended period of time (seems to be around a week or so)
Con WeChat complies with China's requirements to hand over data
Con Conversations and chat groups aren't ported to new devices
Messages are stored on each device, so shifting to a new device means losing all the previous conversations, as well as an inability to post in previous chat groups until someone else posts there and you're alerted of a new message.
Con User base outside of China is comparatively small
While WeChat has over 400 million users the majority of them are in China. Adoption in other markets has been slow.
Con Security of user information
First of all, this is closed source software. It also lacks-end-to-end encryption. In today's time, irrespective of every other feature, encryption is the most important one. Because without it, rest of the features become risky to use and thus meaningless.