WeChat Channels (视频号) Scraper

Scrape WeChat Channels (视频号) content by keyword — search videos (latest or comprehensive ranking), search channel accounts, and fetch full video detail. This is the only WeChat Channels (视频号) scraper on Apify.

Unofficial. This Actor is not affiliated with, authorized, or endorsed by WeChat, Weixin Channels (微信视频号), or Tencent. It is an independent tool that retrieves publicly available data via a third-party API. Use it in compliance with WeChat's terms and all applicable laws; you are responsible for how you use the retrieved data.

What it does

• Video keyword search — give one or more keywords to search 视频号 videos. Choose comprehensive (relevance), latest (newest first), or both. Returns a preview per video: id, title, channel name, like/comment counts. Feed an id into videoIds to get the full-quality media URL + download key.
• Channel/account search — give keywords to find matching WeChat accounts. Returns account name, description and avatar.
• Video detail — give video numeric ids (preferred) or exportIds to fetch full engagement (like / comment / favorite / forward counts), title, region, and the download-ready media URL + decode key.

All three modes can be combined in a single run. Results are de-duplicated by id and capped at maxItems.

Requirements (TikHub API scopes)

This Actor calls the TikHub WeChat Channels v2 API using the TIKHUB_API_KEY secret. Your TikHub API token must have both scopes enabled at user.tikhub.io/dashboard/api:

Mode	Endpoint namespace	Required token scope
Video & account keyword search	/api/v1/wechat_search/	/api/v1/wechat_search/
Video detail	/api/v1/wechat_channels/	/api/v1/wechat_channels/

If the search modes return nothing and the log says the token "is missing the scope", add the wechat_search scope to the token and re-run.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
searchKeywords	string[]	["美食"]	Keywords to search videos. Chinese keywords return the most results.
searchType	enum	comprehensive	comprehensive / latest / both video ranking.
userKeywords	string[]	[]	Keywords to search channel accounts.
videoIds	string[]	[]	Video exportIds (e.g. export/UzFf...) or numeric ids for detail.
maxItems	integer	50	Max total items across all modes.

Example input

{
  "searchKeywords": ["美食", "健身"],
  "searchType": "both",
  "userKeywords": ["美食"],
  "maxItems": 100
}

Output

One dataset item per record. A video-search item is a lightweight preview — feed its id into videoIds for the full media URL + decode key:

{
  "type": "video",
  "id": "14941130915890399732",
  "objectId": "14941130915890399732",
  "exportId": "export/UzFf...",
  "title": "土菜中的农家一碗香 #辣椒炒肉",
  "publishTime": 1780571202,
  "likeCount": 53,
  "commentCount": 7,
  "coverUrl": "https://findermp.video.qq.com/...",
  "author": { "username": "v2_...@finder", "nickname": "湖南最生活" },
  "source": "search:美食:comprehensive"
}

A channel-search item has type: "channel" with username, nickname, description, avatarUrl. A video-detail item (type: "videoDetail", from videoIds) adds the full-quality media URL plus everything you need to actually download it:

{
  "type": "videoDetail",
  "id": "14941130915890399732",
  "title": "6月11日，星期四。#早安中国",
  "likeCount": 9162,
  "commentCount": 96,
  "favCount": 13502,
  "forwardCount": 613858,
  "regionText": "北京",
  "duration": 104,
  "coverUrl": "https://finder.video.qq.com/...",
  "videoUrl": "https://finder.video.qq.com/...&token=...&sign=...",
  "urlToken": "&token=...&sign=...",
  "fileSize": 137459733,
  "decodeKey": 184135693,
  "isEncrypted": true,
  "encryptedByteLength": 131072,
  "author": { "username": "v2_...@finder", "nickname": "人民日报" },
  "source": "videoDetail:14941130915890399732"
}

Downloading the video (the decode key)

The video-detail videoUrl is the full-quality stream. WeChat lightly scrambles only the first encryptedByteLength bytes (131072 = 2¹⁷); the rest is plain. Download videoUrl as-is, then unscramble that leading block with decodeKey to get a playable MP4. isEncrypted tells you whether that step is needed (decodeKey of 0/null means the stream is already plain).

The decodeKey is bound to the exact videoUrl returned in the same response — both the signed URL and the key rotate on every request, so always pair them together.

Notes

• Data is sourced live; WeChat occasionally rate-limits, so the Actor retries transient blocks with exponential backoff.
• IDs are de-duplicated within a run.