WeChat is getting banned: Here are the best messaging app alternatives – CNET

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ByteDance's TikTok and Tencent's WeChat apps will be banned from US app stores starting Sunday, the Trump administration said Friday, as part of the president's campaign to protect American consumers and businesses from "the threats of the Chinese Communist Party," according to a statement from US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

If you've already downloaded WeChat, you can still use the messaging, social media and mobile payment app without penalty, according to a US Justice Department court filing. However, the US servers carrying your data will no longer work, so sending a message or a photo will have to go through one overseas -- meaning it will take a lot longer to send or receive anything. It's not a complete shutdown, but it'll likely make your experience much more frustrating.

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While WeChat isn't a household name in the US, it's a massive social network with more than 1.2 billion monthly active users. Because it's such a widely used app, many Americans use WeChat to keep in touch with friends and family overseas -- particularly in China. People often turn to the app because it gets around pricey international fees for traditional phone calls and text messages.

Until the legal situation is sorted out, here are a few WeChat alternatives that you can switch to for your messaging needs -- many of which have a strong presence internationally. A caveat: Most of these apps, including Facebook Messenger, Line, WhatsApp and Telegram, are banned in China.

Sina Weibo -- China's equivalent to Twitter -- may be the closest you can get to a WeChat replacement in China. You can sign up for an account in the US and several other countries, too. On Weibo, you can post messages publicly or send them privately to other users (though these messages are not encrypted), and livestream videos or post short videos, similar to Instagram Stories.

The Facebook-owned WhatsApp is a chat app that lets you share messages, pictures and videos with others on the platform from your phone or desktop. You can also video chat with up to eight people. A big privacy plus to using WhatsApp is that all messages and calls are end-to-end encrypted, and Facebook says that "no one else can view or listen to your private conversation, not even WhatsApp."

WhatsApp is available in several countries and territories, including the US, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

The Japanese-based messaging app Line offers free messaging, voice and video calls across iPhones, Androids, PCs and Macs. You can also livestream video, post videos and photos to your timeline, add photo filters, search through the daily news and, in some countries, join groups. You can also enable Line's end-to-end encryption feature, called Letter Sealing.

Telegram is a messaging app available on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac, as well as through a web browser. It recently added one-on-one video calls (which are end-to-end encrypted), and plans to roll out group video calling in the coming months. There's also a "secret chat" option for encrypted messages, too.

For more, you can read our explainer about what's been going on with TikTok in the US. You can also check out our list of the best free video chat apps.

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