When comparing WeChat vs Keybase, the Slant community recommends Keybase for most people. In the question“What are the best cross-platform encrypted messaging apps?” Keybase is ranked 14th while WeChat is ranked 26th. The most important reason people chose Keybase is:
Completely end-to-end encrypted.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
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 E2E encrypted
Completely end-to-end encrypted.
Pro Identity verification
Users can publish proofs of identity (PGP public key, Twitter, Facebook, etc).
Pro FOSS
Free (as in beer) and Open Source Software.
Pro Encrypted file sharing
Securely share files.
Pro Public encrypted filesystem
For sharing files publicly.
Pro 250GB of free team file storage
250GB of free storage for encrypted files in a team.
Pro Public teams
Teams can be public with open access or admin-approved access. Opt-in to list public teams.
Pro Private teams
Teams can be completely private (access granted via admin-approval only, not publicly listed).
Pro Encrypted Git
Encrypted private or team Git repositories with automatic commit signatures.
Pro Blockchain technology
Based on blockchain technology.
Pro Sigchain verification
View/verify the cryptographic signature history of any user.
Pro PGP/GPG support
Encrypt/decrypt any PGP message or file with minimal effort.
Pro Public key encryption
Supports public key encryption.
Pro Private encrypted filesystem
Securely store personal files that only you can access.
Pro Shared private encrypted filesystem
Share files securely and privately with other users, a group of users, or a team.
Pro 250GB of free private file storage
250GB of free storage for privately-encrypted files.
Pro Free static site hosting
Host a public static website for free. Sites are automatically viewable via keybase.pub if an index.html or index.md exist in your public files.
Pro Emoji reactions to limit excessive posts and notifications
Pro E2E encrypted team chat
Teams are E2E encrypted, unlike Slack and other services.
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.
