Install Wechat on Raspberry Pi #

Wechat #

WeChat is a Chinese multi-purpose instant messaging, social media and mobile payment app developed by Tencent.

It was first released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018, with over 1 billion monthly active users.
WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, video games, sharing of photographs and videos and location sharing.

WeChat Desktop App:

• Run with box86 and wine
• Smooth performance
• Everything from gifs to emojis to images all work

To run: Menu -> Internet -> WeChat
to run in a terminal: WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.config/wechat-prefix wine "$HOME/.config/wechat-prefix/drive_c/Program Files/Tencent/WeChat/WeChat.exe"

Fortunately, Wechat is very easy to install on your Raspberry Pi in just two steps.

1. Install Pi-Apps - the best app installer for Raspberry Pi.
2. Use Pi-Apps to install Wechat.

Compatibility #

For the best chance of this working, we recommend using the latest version of Raspberry Pi OS, which is currently version Bookworm.
Raspberry Pi OS has 32-bit and 64-bit variants, both of which will run on most Raspberry Pi computers, including the Pi 3, Pi 4, and Pi5.
Wechat will only run on PiOS 32-bit. Pi-Apps will not let you install Wechat on PiOS 64-bit.

Install Pi-Apps #

Pi-Apps is a free tool that makes it incredibly easy to install the most useful programs on your Raspberry Pi with just a few clicks.

Open a terminal and run this command to install Pi-Apps:

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Botspot/pi-apps/master/install | bash

Feel free to check out the Pi-Apps source code here: https://github.com/Botspot/pi-apps

Install Wechat #

Now that you have Pi-Apps installed, it is time to install Wechat.
First launch Pi-Apps from your start menu:

Then click on the Internet category, which leads to the Communication category.

Now scroll down to find Wechat in the list.

Just click Install and Pi-Apps will install Wechat for you!

Pi-Apps is a free and open source tool made by Botspot and other contributors. Find out more at https://pi-apps.io