This simple tutorial shows how to install WeChat, QQ instant messenger and QQ Music in all current Ubuntu releases.

For those doing business or having friends / family members in China, it’s hard to avoid using these top apps. Thanks to wine and Deepin Linux, they are now easy to install in Linux without native support.

NOTE: The packages I’m going to show you, are NOT verified by, affiliated with, or supported by Tencent.

Method 1: Use Flatpak package

The Flathub repository now include QQ, WeChat, QQ Music as Flatpak packages run in sandbox environment. It can be installed in most Linux on Intel/AMD platform.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open up a terminal window. Then run command to enable flatpak support:

sudo apt install flatpak

Other Linux can follow the official setup guide for Flatpak support.

2. Then, install WeChat by running command:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.tencent.WeChat.flatpakref

Or use the command below to install Linux QQ:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.qq.QQ.flatpakref

For QQ Music, run this command instead:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.qq.QQmusic.flatpakref

If this is the first time you installing a Flatpak app package, then you may need a log out and back in to make app icon visible in start menu (or Gnome app grid).

Uninstall QQ, WeChat, QQ Music Flatpak packages

To uninstall the software packages, use one of the commands below:

• Uninstall QQ Flatpak package:

  flatpak uninstall --delete-data com.qq.QQ

• Uninstall QQ Music Flatpak package:

  flatpak uninstall --delete-data com.qq.QQmusic

• Or uninstall WeChat Flatpak package:

  flatpak uninstall --delete-data com.tencent.WeChat

Method 2: Use Deepin Port

There’s a free open-source project that ported the popular Chinese apps from Deepin Linux repository.

1.) First open terminal from system application launcher. When it opens, run command:

wget -O- https://deepin-wine.i-m.dev/setup.sh | sh

The command will enable 32 bit architecture (if you haven’t already), add apt repository 301 redirect to Deepin repository, set the priority to make your system only install the previous apps from that repository, and add XDG_DATA_DIRS settings for app shortcuts.

Type your user password if asks and hit Enter.

2.) After that, you can either install WeChat, QQ, and so forth via Synaptic Package Manager:

or running apt command in terminal to select install an application as you want:

sudo apt install com.qq.weixin.deepin

Depends on which app you want to install, replace com.qq.weixin.deepin, with one of following packages:

• WeChat: com.qq.weixin.deepin
• QQ IM: com.qq.im.deepin
• Dingding: com.dingtalk.deepin
• Ali Wangwang: com.taobao.wangwang.deepin
• QQ Music: com.qq.music.deepin
• QQ video: com.qq.video.deepin
• iQIYI: com.iqiyi.deepin
• And more.

Once installed, log out and back in to open it from system application launcher and enjoy! Note the first launch may take a few seconds configuring the wine environment.

Clear cache or remove WeChat, QQ IM, etc.

The app data is stored in user’s Documents folder. Remove the relevant sub-folders will clear the app caches.

The Deepin wine platform is located in .deepinwine folder. Since it’s a hidden file folder, you need to press Ctrl+H to show / hide it in your file browser. And you can remove it to clear the Wine configurations.

To remove these China’s top apps, simply run apt remove command in terminal (WeChat in the case):

sudo apt remove --autoremove com.qq.weixin.deepin

To remove the repository configurations added via step 1.), run commands to remove the 3 files one by one:

sudo rm /etc/apt/preferences.d/deepin-wine.i-m.dev.pref

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/deepin-wine.i-m.dev.list

sudo rm /etc/profile.d/deepin-wine.i-m.dev.sh