How to Use Python to Scrape Your WeChat Friend Count and Gender Distribution

Previously we demonstrated using Python web crawlers to fetch WeChat Moments data; now we focus on extracting the total number of WeChat friends and their gender breakdown.

Because direct web scraping of WeChat is impractical, the Python itchat library acts as a bridge to access friend information. Running the script opens a QR code that must be scanned with a mobile device to authorize the session.

After successful login, the program queries the friend list and returns the total count. The screenshot below shows an example where the author has 1,637 friends.

To analyze gender distribution, the script can either define a custom function that extracts the gender field or simply use value_counts() on the gender column. The following image displays the result: 884 male friends, 655 female friends, and about 100 friends with unknown gender.

Thus, with only a few lines of Python code you can retrieve both the friend count and gender ratio from WeChat. Feel free to try it on your own machine.

Reference: https://blog.csdn.net/zhanshirj/article/details/74166303

Next, we will explore how to obtain the province and city distribution of WeChat friends and visualize the results.