How to Install WeChat Desktop App in Ubuntu 16.04 & Higher

WeChat is one of the most popular Chinese social media (instant messaging and payment services) mobile application developed by Tencent.

For desktop computers, there’s an open-source project, electronic-wechat, allows you to run WeChat on Linux, Mac OS.

The application features:

• Modern UI and all features from Web WeChat.
• Block message recall.
• Stickers showing support.
• Share subscribed passages on Weibo, Qzone, Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, and email.
• Mention users in a group chat.
• Drag and drop to send photos.
• Behaves like a native app, based on dozens of optimization.
• Removes URL link redirects and takes you directly to blocked websites.
• Press Esc to hide application windows.

The app is available via Snappy store for all Linux distributions. For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, and higher, do following steps to install it:

1. Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching it from app launcher. When it opens, run command to install snapd daemon and snapd-xdg-open if you don’t already have them installed:

sudo apt install snapd snapd-xdg-open

Type in your password (no visual feedback while typing due to security reason) and hit Enter.

2. Then install the wechat app via command:

sudo snap install electronic-wechat

Once installed, launch the desktop app from your app launcher and enjoy!

Uninstall:

To remove the app, run following command in a terminal window:

sudo snap remove electronic-wechat