Adding Friends, Groups & Official Accounts on WeChat

WeChat's contact system doesn't work quite like WhatsApp, Instagram, or anything else you're used to. There's no address book upload that silently connects you to everyone, contact requests are one-directional until accepted, and a lot of the app's most useful content lives behind "Official Accounts" rather than in a normal feed. This guide walks through all of it, plus the privacy settings worth adjusting before you start adding people.

Setting your WeChat ID first

Before anyone can add you, give yourself a findable identity. Your WeChat ID is a unique handle you choose once — unlike your display name, it can't be changed freely afterwards, so pick something you're happy keeping. Set it under Me > Profile > WeChat ID.

Your display name (the name people actually see) is separate and changeable, so you can use your real name or a nickname without affecting how people find you.

The four ways to add someone

1By WeChat ID. Contacts > New Friends > Search, then type their exact WeChat ID, phone number, or QQ number. Exact match only — there's no fuzzy name search for ordinary users, which is why the ID matters.
2By QR code. Find yours under Me > tap your name > My QR Code. The other person scans it with WeChat's built-in scanner. This is by far the most common way people add each other in person — at a meeting, a shop counter, a conference badge.
3From a group chat. Tap any member's avatar in a group you're both in, then Add to Contacts. This is the easiest path when you share a group but not an ID.
4From a business card. A mutual contact can send you someone's contact card inside a chat, which you tap to add.

Contact requests are not mutual. When you add someone, they see a request with whatever greeting you attach — and they may simply never accept it. There is no notification telling you that you've been ignored, so don't read silence as a technical failure. Write a real greeting ("Hi, we met at the Shenzhen trade show") and your acceptance rate goes up enormously, because an unexplained stranger request is the most commonly ignored message on the platform.

Privacy settings to set before you add anyone

WeChat is more locked-down by default than Western apps, but a few settings are worth reviewing early because they're awkward to change your mind about later:

Friend permissions (Settings > Privacy > Friend Permissions) — decide whether people need your approval to add you, and whether they can find you by phone number.
Moments visibility — who can see your posts, and whether strangers can see the last ten. Many new users leave this wide open without realising.
Show my Moments to new friends — off by default in some versions, which is why people think your profile is empty.
Add me by phone number / WeChat ID / QR — three separate toggles. If nobody can find you, it's usually one of these switched off.

Group chats

Groups are where most of the day-to-day activity in China actually happens — work coordination, neighbourhood notices, event logistics. To create one, tap the + in the top-right of the chat list, choose New Chat, and select the contacts you want. WeChat creates the group immediately once you pick the first members.

A few things that are genuinely different from other apps:

Group QR codes. Every group has a QR code (Group > ... > Group QR Code) that others can scan to join. This is how groups spread quickly — and why group invites are a common spam vector.
Member limits and gating. Small groups are unrestricted. As a group grows past certain thresholds, WeChat imposes extra conditions on joining — historically requiring members to have a linked bank card — and joining may need admin approval.
Announcements and mute. Group > ... > Group Announcement for pinned notices, and Mute Notifications is a necessity in any active group.
You can be added without consent. Anyone can add you to a group, which is why Settings > Privacy > Group Chats is worth checking. It won't stop it entirely, but combined with muting it keeps the noise manageable.

Official Accounts: where the useful content lives

An Official Account is WeChat's equivalent of a publisher page — a company, news outlet, airline, university, or government body posting articles and notices. Following one puts its posts into a dedicated Subscriptions area rather than your chat list.

To follow one, search its name under Contacts > Official Accounts > +, or scan its QR code. They matter practically: booking a train ticket, ordering from many restaurants, checking in for a flight, and paying utility bills frequently happens through an Official Account or a Mini Program, not a website.

A note on language: many Official Accounts publish only in Chinese. WeChat's built-in translation (long-press a message > Translate) covers chat messages and helps a lot, but it won't translate everything inside a Mini Program.

Mini Programs in one paragraph

Mini Programs are lightweight apps that run inside WeChat without installation — everything from bike-sharing to hospital bookings to product catalogues. There's no app-store step: you open them from a chat, a QR code, or a search. They're one of the main reasons WeChat is hard to avoid in China, and you'll meet one within your first week.

Friend requests from strangers with no context, invitations to "investment groups", and accounts offering to help you "verify" or "unblock" things are the three most common scams aimed at new users. As a rule: anyone who contacts you first and quickly moves toward money, codes, or your account details is not a friend request.

If you're still stuck on the verification step that comes before any of this, start with friend verification. And before you start adding people, it's worth spending two minutes on account security.

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