![]() In the context of social media use, the core functions of WeChat include messaging services with other users and/or sharing photos/videos via the moments function. The multipurpose platform WeChat integrates a variety of services such as messaging, socialization, and mobile payment services, and steadily expands its functionality by integrating new services such as city services allowing users, e.g., to book transportation or to pay for traffic fines in China’s metropolitan areas. WeChat presents a multipurpose smartphone application, going beyond the features offered by its counterpart WhatsApp popular in Western countries. With currently more than one billion monthly active users ( Tencent, 2018), it has become one of the most important applications on smartphones in China. WeChat (, Wēixìn, micro-message) was first released by the Chinese multinational company Tencent Holding Limited in January 2011. The direct comparison of WeChat’s influence on the mentioned variables compared with its competitors Facebook and WhatsApp often used in Western countries will also be of high importance. In the context of the growing popularity and increasing usage times of the app – in particular in Asian countries – future research seems warranted to examine systematically how social media platforms such as WeChat will affect interpersonal communication behavior, well-being, and mental health. The present review summarizes the literature on this topic with a focus on the motives to engage in using the app and potential detrimental effects of excessive use. Although WeChat has become an integral part of everyday life for many users, research has only recently begun to examine the impact of this development on the societal and individual levels. Against this background, the present review aims to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview on the functionality of this application, comparison with other popular applications such as Facebook/WhatsApp and previous research. Despite its enormous number of users in Asia, WeChat is still not well known in Western countries. With currently over one billion monthly active users, the Chinese social media and multipurpose application WeChat (, Wēixìn, micro-message) has become one of the world’s most popular social media platforms. 3School of Information Management, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. ![]() 2neuSCAN Laboratory, The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.1Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany. ![]() ![]() Christian Montag 1,2* Benjamin Becker 2 Chunmei Gan 3* ![]()
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