zhongyi-tong/electronic-wechat

★ 13,867JavaScriptAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · hard

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Desktop WeChat client
      macOS and Linux
    Added features
      Block message recall
      Remove redirect links
      Drag to send photos
    Status
      Archived
      Tencent blocks it
    Tech Stack
      Electron
      JavaScript
      Node.js
    Install
      Homebrew
      npm build

mindmap root((repo)) What it does Desktop WeChat client macOS and Linux Added features Block message recall Remove redirect links Drag to send photos Status Archived Tencent blocks it Tech Stack Electron JavaScript Node.js Install Homebrew npm build

Click or tap to explore — scroll the page freely

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Study how to wrap a web app inside an Electron desktop application as a learning or reference project.

USE CASE 2

Use the codebase as a reference for building your own Electron app that intercepts and modifies web content.

Tech stack

JavaScriptElectronNode.jsnpm

Getting it running

Difficulty · hard Time to first run · 1h+

No longer functional, Tencent actively blocks third-party WeChat clients. Useful for learning or forking only.

In plain English

Electronic WeChat was a desktop application that wrapped WeChat's web interface in a native-feeling app for macOS and Linux. WeChat is a Chinese messaging platform, and for years it did not have an official desktop app for those operating systems. This project filled that gap by using a tool called Electron, which lets developers package websites into standalone desktop apps. The app added several features beyond what the standard WeChat web interface offered. It could block message recall, which prevented other people from deleting messages you had already seen. It showed sticker content properly, supported mentioning people by name in group chats, allowed dragging and dropping photos to send them, and removed redirect links that WeChat normally uses when sharing URLs to external websites. The project is no longer actively developed or maintained. The author notes that when Tencent (the company that makes WeChat) began releasing its own regular desktop updates and actively blocking unofficial third-party clients, continuing to maintain this project stopped being worthwhile. The repository now exists as an archive and a reference for others who want to learn from or build on the code. While it was active, the app could be installed on macOS using Homebrew with a single command, or built from the source code using Node.js and npm. Pre-built downloads were also available on the GitHub releases page. Community members also maintained packages for various Linux distributions. If you are looking for a WeChat desktop client today, this project will not work reliably due to Tencent's blocking of third-party clients and the absence of ongoing maintenance. The official WeChat desktop apps now cover macOS and Windows.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Using the electronic-wechat codebase as a reference, show me how to build an Electron app that wraps an existing website in a BrowserWindow and intercepts network requests to modify page content before it renders.

Prompt 2

How did electronic-wechat implement the block message recall feature in Electron? Show me the pattern I can adapt to intercept and suppress specific DOM events in my own Electron app.

Prompt 3

Write an Electron main process script that loads a web app in a BrowserWindow, injects custom JavaScript at page load, and adds a native menu bar with custom actions.

Open on GitHub → Explain another repo

← zhongyi-tong on gitmyhub — every repo by this author, as a profile.

Verify against the repo before relying on details.