WePlay

Is WePlay safe?

WePlay is a legitimate game app, but it is a stranger voice-chat app wearing a party-game costume, and it lets in younger teens than most of its peers. We score it 46/100. Players join rooms for Who's the Spy, Space Werewolf, Guess My Drawing or Mic Grab, a singing game, and talk to each other by voice to play. That is fun with friends. With strangers it means a 13-year-old can be in a voice room with adults, and the app can also use location to find nearby players.

Who is behind WePlay?

WEJOY Pte. Ltd., based in Singapore, operates the app and is the data controller under its privacy policy. Chinese trade site Baijing Chuhai reported in December 2022 that WePlay is a board-game and voice platform published outside China by Wepie Network of Wuhan, whose earlier apps include Huiwan. According to that report, WePlay launched in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan in March 2021, then grew in the Middle East and South Korea, and had earned more than $32 million by November 2022.

Wepie also turns up as an early investor in Construct Technology, the company behind Litmatch. The two apps are run separately, but they come from the same corner of China's social-app industry.

The 2024 policy says WePlay works with affiliates and service providers in several countries and may move data abroad. The 2023 version, still linked from the App Store and the US Android listing, named the United States and Singapore as storage locations.

Ages: 13, 16 or 18?

The privacy policy says WePlay is not for children under 13 and that users under 18 confirm they have a parent's consent. Google Play rates it Teen. Apple rates it 16+, and its listing says some content may be rated higher and is managed through in-app controls, naming age assurance and parental controls. Apple also lists frequent mature or suggestive themes, infrequent profanity and loot boxes.

So WePlay is open to younger teens by design, but the rooms are not split by age. One December 2024 App Store review from a young player says "little kids" in the rooms "cuss a lot" and asks for an age limit of 13 or 18. It is one user's account, not a measure of how common that is. The policy's location section says that, with permission, WePlay helps you "find users nearby" and match with nearby players. For a teenager, that is the setting to switch off first.

WePlay publishes no transparency report and no figures on removed accounts or reports to child-safety bodies.

Gold, red packets and loot boxes

On the US App Store, gold costs from $0.99 for 600 to $59.99 for 50,000. "Red packets" of gold are sold in the same price steps, and an automatically renewing VIP subscription is also offered. Google Play flags in-app purchases that include random items. The store description says gold and items have no real-world value, which also means there is nothing to get back if an account is banned.

Treat requests for gold from people you have just met the way you would treat a request for cash.

What WePlay collects

Apple's label lists identifiers used to track you across other companies' apps and websites, plus purchase history, user ID, device ID and product interaction linked to you. Coarse location, phone number, photos, audio and gameplay content are listed as collected but not linked to you.

The July 2024 policy goes further. It covers the content of your messages, clipboard contents when you paste or share, advertising identifiers and a cross-device user ID, and it says advertisers and measurement partners may send WePlay information about what you do on other sites and apps, or buy in physical stores, to match with your account. It lists "advertising and marketing vendors" among the companies it shares data with, while saying it does not sell personal information.

Google Play's form says the app shares no data with third parties. That does not square with the policy or with Apple's tracking declaration. Under our rules, when a label says less than the policy, we score on the policy.

On the positive side, the policy has supplements for US states, Argentina, Brazil, India, South Korea and other countries, plus a separate policy for the EEA, UK and Switzerland, and it explains how to delete an account inside the app.

How to make WePlay safer for a teen

1. Turn off location access for WePlay in the phone's settings, so "nearby" matching cannot work.
2. Use the in-app parental controls Apple's listing mentions, and require purchase approval through Apple or Google family settings.
3. Play in private rooms with friends rather than public rooms with strangers.
4. Agree that no one sends gold, red packets or photos to people they met in a game, and that conversations do not move to other apps.
5. Show your teen how to block and report a player, and keep screenshots if anyone becomes threatening.

How we scored it

Regulatory record (86) is the strongest factor, since we found no fine, order or block, though no major regulator seems to have examined WePlay. Privacy (38) is the weakest, because the policy allows ad tracking and data from advertisers that the Google Play label leaves out. Scams and harmful content (40) reflects voice play with strangers from age 13, a nearby-players feature and paid gold. For a voice-room app aimed at adults, see SUGO; for voice and text chat built around gaming, see Discord.