Hi- my spouse lives and works in China (I am in USA) and we struggle to have back up messaging apps in case the fire wall blocks what we currently use. We’ve been through so many this year, I can’t even remember them all.
Currently we are using ICQ and iMessage / FaceTime. Those are the only two that I’ve been able to find recently that we can communicate with.
Are there any messaging / call apps that work between China and USA besides those two? Preferably without a VPN?
Posts flaired as “Serious” are for people seeking responses that are made in good faith and will be moderated more heavily than other threads. Off-topic and deliberately unhelpful responses are not allowed, will be removed without warning, and may result in punitive action.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Just use iMessage and facetime.
WeChat works great. I use it every day with my wife who is in China now.
Refusal to use VPN is very scary and unacceptable in China. For any reason.
如果你一定要拒绝使用翻墙软件，那我强烈建议你在两周以内买张机票离开中国。但是，如果你想询问使用翻墙软件的经验并且保证不会声称听不懂或学不会，那我倒是很乐意帮忙。
hi, 12 years here in china, best choice is to use vpn, dont use free vpn because china has blocked all of it even some good vpn, i suggest u use astrill vpn, it is the only vpn that i found that china cant block and fast, also u can use wechat to communicate without vpn
I recommend getting a VPN, just for privacy’s sake. Then you’ll be able to use WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. just the same as anywhere else.
Yeah and I’m sorry dude but if you don’t have an iPhone at this point, how can you even function as an American 
When I try to sign up for it, it says I need to have the QR code scanned by someone who already has WeChat. My spouse isn’t very tech savvy and doesn’t know how to help me - and I don’t know how to do that / what to do with it.
I suggest using Dingtalk (called dingding in China). It installs easily without any vouching by friends etc. They have voice/video/text. To install outside China: https://www.dingtalk.com/en
Available as app, also works on Mac/Windows etc.
If your partner has an email, you can send the qr code to the email, they can open it on a computer and scan with the cellphone (there are other, less convoluted ways to do that, of course, but this seems to me the easiest one for non tech savvy people)
This is a great idea - thank you!!