Forget WeChat: China’s coolest new messaging app changes the game with selfies

The strength of China’s web giants and the diversity of its startups usually means that no one service dominates to the extent that, say, Google or Facebook does in other nations. But that hasn’t been true of messaging apps. To chat with a buddy in China, you use WeChat. There are other apps, but WeChat is the only real show in town, with well over 430 million active users to prove it.

But that’s not stopping local startups from making new messaging apps. One of the newest and definitely the coolest of these is CatchChat. It’s based around selfies – or any kind of photo and video you want to share – with the option of overlaying some text.

CatchChat app

CatchChat’s homepage cheerily admits that it’s “inspired by TapTalk”, and indeed it’s basically a reworking of that app with a more rounded and minimalist interface. Actually, it’s closer to Mirage.

TapTalk first came out in April as a sort of evolution of SnapChat. Mirage rolled out in July, the baby of Yo inventor Moshe Hogeg. CatchChat came out at around the same time as Mirage. Instagram’s Bolt also popped up the same month. It was a summer of shallow social silliness.

See: Want a photo app for showing off the stuff you own? China’s way ahead of you

CatchChat supports both English and Chinese, but its homepage shows only English, suggesting this Chinese startup is hoping for a global audience for its funky but not very original app.

WeChat has morphed into a mobile web empire over the past few years, but CatchChat, in contrast, is an oasis of simplicity. There’s just a shutter button – one tap for a photo, hold down for a video – and a ‘plus’ icon for choosing a friend to message. Plus you can makes groups. And that’s really it. It doesn’t tie in with any social networks to help you find friends, so it’s rather inconvenient.

Who knows if CatchChat will catch on the smartphone-toting urban twenty-somethings in China who want something different and separate from WeChat.