What is wechattweak?

sunnyyoung/wechattweak — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-24

★ 13,680SwiftAudience · generalComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · moderate

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((WeChatTweak))
    What it does
      Show recalled messages
      Block auto-updates
      Multiple accounts
    Installation
      Homebrew
      Patch command
    Integrations
      Alfred
      Raycast
    Audience
      Chinese Mac users
      WeChat power users

mindmap root((WeChatTweak)) What it does Show recalled messages Block auto-updates Multiple accounts Installation Homebrew Patch command Integrations Alfred Raycast Audience Chinese Mac users WeChat power users

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

See messages that another person has recalled or deleted from a WeChat conversation on your Mac.

USE CASE 2

Run two or more WeChat accounts simultaneously in separate windows on a single Mac.

USE CASE 3

Prevent WeChat from automatically updating itself to stay on a version compatible with WeChatTweak.

USE CASE 4

Trigger WeChat actions from Alfred or Raycast without opening the WeChat app manually.

What is it built with?

SwiftmacOSHomebrew

How does it compare?

	sunnyyoung/wechattweak	perfectlysoft/perfect	altstoreio/altstore
Stars	13,680	13,769	13,852
Language	Swift	Swift	Swift
Setup difficulty	moderate	moderate	hard
Complexity	2/5	3/5	3/5
Audience	general	developer	developer

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires Homebrew, you must run a patch command after install, and compatibility depends on your installed WeChat version.

AGPL-3.0: free to use and modify, but any version you distribute must also be released as open source under the same license.

So what is it?

WeChatTweak is a command-line tool for macOS that modifies the behavior of WeChat, the popular Chinese messaging app. It is aimed at users who want a few extra controls that the official WeChat desktop app does not provide out of the box. The main things it does: it stops other people's message recalls from affecting your view (so if someone deletes a message they sent you, you can still see it), it blocks WeChat from automatically updating itself, and it lets you run multiple WeChat accounts at the same time in separate windows on the same Mac. Installation is done through Homebrew, a common package manager for macOS. You run a short install command, then run a patch command to apply the modifications to your existing WeChat installation. The project also includes a command to list which WeChat versions the tool supports. The tool has support for Alfred (a Mac productivity app) and Raycast (a similar launcher), which lets you trigger WeChat actions from those launchers directly. The repository links to a Telegram group for community discussion and a FAQ page for common questions. The README is written mostly in Chinese, and the project is targeted at Chinese-speaking Mac users who use WeChat daily. The code is released under the AGPL-3.0 license, which requires that any modifications you distribute must also be open source.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Write step-by-step instructions for installing WeChatTweak on macOS using Homebrew, including the patch command.

Prompt 2

How do I check which WeChat versions are currently supported by WeChatTweak before patching?

Prompt 3

How do I use WeChatTweak with Raycast to search WeChat contacts or open recent chats?

Prompt 4

How do I uninstall WeChatTweak and restore WeChat to its original unmodified state on macOS?

Frequently asked questions