Chinese-owned platforms are allowed in China: WeChat, Weibo, Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), Xiaohongshu (RedNote), Bilibili, Zhihu and QQ. Nearly every major Western platform is blocked, including Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, Snapchat and Pinterest.
The apps people actually use
- WeChat: messaging, calls, payments, ride-hailing, mini-programs. If you install one app before visiting China, make it this.
- Weibo: a Twitter-style public feed for news and celebrity chatter.
- Douyin: short video, run by ByteDance. TikTok itself doesn't work in mainland China.
- Xiaohongshu (RedNote): Instagram-meets-Pinterest, great for restaurant and travel tips.
- Bilibili: video platform popular for gaming, anime and long-form clips.
- Zhihu: a Quora-style Q&A site.
All of these operate under strict content rules. Freedom House notes that regulators have penalized platforms like Douyin and Weibo for failing to censor enough, and China scored 9 out of 100 in Freedom on the Net 2025, among the lowest in the world.
What's blocked
Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, X, YouTube, Telegram, Signal, Line, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit and Google services, including Gmail and Maps, are all blocked on Chinese networks.
Keeping your US apps working on a trip
The easiest legal route is roaming. A US carrier's international plan, or a travel eSIM that routes data out through Hong Kong or another gateway abroad, puts your traffic outside the firewall, so Instagram and WhatsApp work as usual. Nomad's guide suggests buying the eSIM before you arrive and confirming its routing. Hotel and café Wi-Fi will still be filtered, so keep mobile data on for anything you need.