Whether you plan to stay in China for six months or six years, keeping in touch with family and friends back home is key to staying sane and staving off those pangs of homesickness. Gone are the days when you had to buy an expensive phone card and faff around with international dialing codes. Following in the footsteps of the rising popularity of smartphones and the spread of mobile Internet, today a myriad of cheap (or even free) "instant" communication apps such as Skype, WhatsApp and WeChat make it easier than ever to keep in touch.

Thankfully, despite the restrictions of the Great Fire Wall, most of these platforms are available in China, or in the case of WeChat, originated in China. This is not surprising really, since China is on the road to becoming the next smartphone giant (China is expected to account for 26.5% of global smartphone sales this year, compared to 17.8% in the U.S). Just one look at the number of people browsing the web or checking Weibo on the bus or subway will tell you that this is no exaggeration.

Data plans

If you had a smartphone before you came to China, or you have bought one here, then you're half way there, but to really feel the benefit you'll need a data plan. Depending on the type of phone you have, you can choose a plan from one of China's three mobile network operators, China Mobile, China Unicom or China Telecom. All the operators support the iPhone, although China Mobile's unique TD-SCDMA 3G standard means it does not support 3G on the iPhone, only the slower Edge network. Whichever one you choose, data plans come cheap. A basic 66 RMB/month plan from China Unicom gets you 300MB of data, while 50 RMB will get you 500MB of data on China Mobile. China Telecom data plans start from 49 RMB, which gets you 200MB of data (note: you will need to bring your passport to register for a 3G plan). Read on for a breakdown of the most popular mobile messaging apps from China and beyond.

1) WeChat
With over 200 million users (as of September 2012) and a growing international user base, WeChat (or weixin 微信 for Chinese users) is a force to be reckoned with in the mobile messaging world. WeChat integrates a wider range of social elements than other messaging apps, with its "Look Around" and "Drift Bottle" features, designed to find other active users in the vicinity. The English version has Facebook integration, making it easy to find and add your existing contacts. The voice messaging feature, which is extremely popular in China (if our Chinese colleagues are anything to go by) is great for sending messages on the go or if you don't have your hands free. We used WeChat extensively on both iOS and Android and found it to be extremely stable, with messages rarely getting lost or failing to send. The app stands up well to network instability, although messages sometimes take a long time to send over the Edge network.

Available on: iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Symbian
Price: free
Most popular in: China, growing popularity in Asia and beyond
Features: text messaging, group chat, voice messaging, photo sharing, video calling, location-based services

2) WhatsApp
WhatsApp is the granddaddy of cross-platform messaging applications. Earlier this year it reached a new record of 10 billion messages sent in one day (!). On the whole, WhatsApp works well across all platforms, and its popularity means that most of your friends and family will probably already have it installed on their smartphone. Like most apps, it performs best on 3G and messages will often be delayed on slower connections. Handily, WhatsApp automatically scans your address book for other WhatsApp users and adds them to your buddies list. However, some people we spoke to thought this was a bit intrusive, as it reveals that you have WhatsApp to contacts you might not necessarily want to chat with.

Available on: iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Symbian, Blackberry
Price: free on Blackberry and Windows Phone; free 1-year trial then 0.99 USD on Android and Symbian; 0.99 USD on iOS
Most popular in: Europe, U.S.
Features: text messaging, group chat, voice messaging, picture and video sharing, location and contact sharing

3) Kakao Talk
Already hugely popular in its home country, Korean messaging app Kakao Talk now has set its sights on the global market. As of the first half of 2012, it already has 9.2 million international users. Kakao Talk carries the same impressive feature set as WeChat and Whatsapp. However, the thing that sets it apart from these apps is the ability to make free voice calls. When we tested it (on iPhone only), the voice calls worked fairly well on 3G, although in some cases we could not hear our friends on the other end of the call. The text messaging is fairly consistent (note: App StoreReviews suggest iPhone users have been experiencing bugs and crashes with the most recent update). One of the things that has made Kakao Talk so popular in Korea is the "Plus Friend" feature, which allows users to become "friends" with brands and celebrities, including K-Pop stars, in order to access additional content and benefits. Kakao hopes to expand this feature to include more international brands in the future.

Available on: iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Bada
Price: free
Most popular in: South Korea
Features: Free voice calls, text messaging, voice messaging, photo and video sharing, group chat (note: not all platforms support the full range of features. See the official website for more details: http://www.kakao.com/talk/en)

4) Skype
Since it debuted in 2003, Skype has grown to 250 million monthly connected users worldwide (May 2012). It has become an essential tool for both personal and business communication. Skype's main attraction is its free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls, available over Wi-Fi and 3G. It also offers low-cost calls and text messages to international landlines and mobile phones. Skype's pay as you go credit offers calls from 0.23 USD per minute, while texts vary according to destination country. You can also buy monthly plans, which make calls even cheaper. Skype does suffer wildly from network instability, even over Wi-Fi, and calls (video or voice) are wont to drop out. Despite this, it remains the best VoIP service around and it's worth putting up with the occasional pixelated video or robotic sound for a chance to see your loved ones.

Available on: iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Symbian
Price: free (Skype-to-Skype)
Most popular in: Global
Features: instant messaging, voice and video calls, photo sharing (iOS and Android)

5) iMessage
iMessage (now simply called Messages) is Apple's proprietary messaging app. Through it, you can send free text and picture messages to iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and now Mountain Lion OS X users over 3G or Wi-Fi. Messages can be linked to your phone number (for iPhone users) and/or email address. Of all the messaging apps we tested, we found that this one was the most unstable. Messages often take a while to send, even over 3G. The app also relies on the recipient having a data/Wi-Fi connection. However, it is still extremely handy to have it built into your iPhone (or other Apple device).A word of caution: iMessages are automatically set to "Send as SMS" when iMessaging is unavailable. This can be particularly costly if you are iMessaging someone abroad. To disable this function on your iPhone, go to Settings > Messages and uncheck "Send as SMS".  And of course, the app's major disadvantage is that despite the huge popularity of Apple devices, it automatically excludes your friends on other platforms.

Available on: iOS and Mac OS X
Price: free
Most popular in: Global
Features: text messaging, picture messaging

Conclusion

By virtue of their popularity, we found Skype and Whatsapp to be the most useful for keeping in touch with people back at home. WeChat is great for staying in touch with local and foreign friends in China and we think its growing international popularity will make it a strong contender to Whatsapp in the near future.

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Keywords: China WhatsApp review mobile messaging apps China China WeChat review China Skype review China mobile messaging app review