WeChat Search: How to Find People, Accounts and Content

WeChat Search is the search engine built into WeChat. It searches inside the WeChat ecosystem rather than the open web: articles, Official Accounts, Mini Programs, Moments and your chat history. To find a person, use their WeChat ID or phone number instead: tap +, then Add Contacts, and enter it.

Key takeaways

• WeChat Search covers content published inside WeChat, such as articles, Official Accounts, Mini Programs, Moments, music and stickers, not the open web.
• To find a person, tap +, then Add Contacts, and enter their WeChat ID or phone number; each user can turn these options off.
• Group chats are joined through a member’s invitation or a group QR code, which is valid for 7 days.
• Brands are found through their account name, their articles and their Mini Program pages, which WeChat’s crawler indexes.

What Is WeChat Search?

WeChat Search is one of the main WeChat features: the function Tencent built into the app to explore the content published in it. When this article was first published in 2017, the function was new and WeChat had more than 900 million users. Tencent now reports more than 1.4 billion monthly active users for Weixin and WeChat combined.

WeChat Search is not like Google or Baidu. Those search engines index websites, while WeChat Search only covers what has been published inside WeChat. The reverse is also true: Baidu cannot index content from platforms like WeChat, so a brand needs to be visible in both. Our overview of the top Chinese search engines compares Baidu and its competitors.

The order of the results has changed over the years. In 2017, WeChat showed the most recent news about a keyword first, then the mentions of that keyword by your friends, then other articles on the subject.

How to Search on WeChat

1. Open WeChat and tap the search box at the top of the Chats screen, or go to Discover, then Search.
2. Pick a category to narrow the results, such as Official Accounts, then type a name or keywords, as the WeChat Help Center shows for following an Official Account. You can also type your keywords directly.
3. Tap a result to open it: an article, an account to follow, a Mini Program or a Moment.

The Search page lists its categories: Moments, Articles, Official Accounts, Mini Programs, Music, Stickers and Weixin Index. The search box also carries a camera icon, to search with a picture instead of words.

What Can You Search on WeChat?

The results mix several types of content, and you can filter them by category.

Moments

Search the Moments of your contacts. For instance, if one of your contacts posted a Moment located in Shanghai or mentioning Shanghai, typing Shanghai with the Moments filter will find it.

Articles

Search a topic, and WeChat shows the related articles published in the app, sorted by relevance. You can keep filtering and sorting the results to find exactly what you want.

Official Accounts

Search also finds the Official Accounts related to what you are looking for, which makes it a useful way to discover accounts to follow. Select Official Accounts, type the name of the account, tap it, then tap Follow. If you wonder how these accounts work, our guide explains how Subscription and Service Accounts differ and how to register one:

Mini Programs

Mini Programs appear in search results too, with their pages: WeChat indexes them, as the section on WeChat SEO below explains.

Your Chat History

Inside a chat, tap the icon at the top right, then Search Chat History. You can filter past messages by group member, date, media, files, links, music, transactions or Mini Programs. Deleted or expired messages cannot be found.

How to Find Someone on WeChat

To add someone who is not in your contacts yet, use their phone number or WeChat ID, as the WeChat Help Center explains in its article on adding friends by phone number or WeChat ID:

1. Open WeChat and tap + at the top.
2. Select Add Contacts.
3. Enter the phone number or WeChat ID of the person you want to add.
4. When their contact card appears, tap Add to send a friend request.

You can also scan the person’s QR code (see how to scan a WeChat QR code), add friends from your phone’s address book under Contacts, New Friends, Mobile Contacts, or use Friend Radar and People Nearby to add people close to you.

Why Can’t I Find Someone by WeChat ID or Phone Number?

Each user decides how others can find them. By default, anyone who knows your WeChat ID, mobile number or linked email address can add you, but these options can be turned off in Me, Settings, Privacy, Methods for Friending Me. If a search for an ID or a number returns nothing, check it for typos, then ask the person for their QR code.

How to Find WeChat Groups

You join a WeChat group through one of its members. A member can invite you from the group, or share the group QR code, which is valid for 7 days. Group chats can have up to 500 members, and in groups of more than 40 members, people receive an invitation instead of being added directly.

How Brands Get Found in WeChat Search (WeChat SEO)

For a brand, WeChat Search is a channel of its own. Users find your Official Account name, your articles and your Mini Program pages, so each should carry the words your customers type.

For Mini Programs, WeChat publishes a search optimization guide. Its crawler indexes Mini Program pages, and the guide recommends:

• pages that open directly from their address, without depending on a previous page;
• clear, readable page parameters;
• asking users to log in or authorize only when it is necessary;
• a clear title and thumbnail for each page;
• no important content inside web-views, which are not indexed.

WeChat Search only covers WeChat, so it does not replace the optimization of your website: our China SEO services for Baidu and Google handle that side, while our WeChat agency designs and develops the Mini Programs, stores and web apps that people find inside WeChat.

Why Did Tencent Launch WeChat Search?

In 2017, the reason seemed clear: Tencent knew the value of data, and WeChat generated plenty of it. Tencent was also invested in Sogou, then the third largest search engine in China, and completed its merger with Sogou in 2021. Sogou can search content from WeChat.

At the time, WeChat Search looked like a threat to Baidu. People mostly used Baidu to look up a company’s background, and WeChat Search offered a wider view of a company’s reputation and information inside WeChat. Baidu is still the leading search engine in China, but a brand now needs to be found in both places.

What Should You Do Next?

When people look for your brand in WeChat, make sure they find it: an Official Account with a clear name, articles written with your customers’ words, and Mini Program pages that WeChat can index. QPSoftware, a WeChat development agency in Shanghai, designs and develops WeChat Mini Programs, stores and web apps. If you want to learn more about WeChat and Tencent, or to use WeChat for your business, do not hesitate to contact us: we will be glad to help you succeed.

Frequently Asked Questions