When comparing Tox vs WeChat, the Slant community recommends Tox for most people. In the question“What are the best cross-platform encrypted messaging apps?” Tox is ranked 7th while WeChat is ranked 26th. The most important reason people chose Tox is:
Tox uses military grade encryption and works completely peer-to-peer.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Privacy focused
Tox uses military grade encryption and works completely peer-to-peer.
Pro Free and open source
The code is licensed under GPL (may change in the future) and is available on GitHub.
Pro Multiple front-ends for multiple platforms available
At the moment there is no official Tox client, but a selection of 32 and 64 clients for Windows, OS X, Linux and Android is available.
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.
Cons
Con Early stages of development
Since Tox is relatively new, it has important features missing (like group video) and requires a proper code review before it can be deemed reliable and ready for everyday use.
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.