Implementing a WeChat Message Anti‑Recall Feature Using Python and itchat

The article explains how to create a WeChat anti‑recall tool by leveraging Python's standard libraries (os, re, time, platform) and the third‑party itchat module to intercept messages from the web version of WeChat, cache them, and forward any withdrawn content to the user's own filehelper.

First, install the required library:

pip install itchat

Import the necessary modules:

import re
import os
import time
import itchat
import platform
from itchat.content import *

Define a handler to process incoming messages of various types (text, picture, video, location, sharing, etc.) and store their details in a dictionary:

msg_info = {}
face_package = None

@itchat.msg_register([TEXT, PICTURE, FRIENDS, CARD, MAP, SHARING, RECORDING, ATTACHMENT, VIDEO], isFriendChat=True, isMpChat=True)
def handle_rsg(msg):
    global face_package
    msg_time_receive = time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", time.localtime())
    try:
        msg_from = itchat.search_friends(userName=msg['FromUserName'])['NickName']
    except:
        msg_from = 'WeChat Official Accounts'
    msg_time_send = msg['CreateTime']
    msg_id = msg['MsgId']
    msg_content = None
    msg_link = None
    if msg['Type'] in ('Text', 'Friends'):
        msg_content = msg['Text']
    elif msg['Type'] in ('Attachment', 'Video', 'Picture', 'Recording'):
        msg_content = msg['FileName']
    elif msg['Type'] == 'Map':
        x, y, location = re.search("<location x=\"(.*?)\" y=\"(.*?)\".*label=\"(.*?)\".*", msg['OriContent']).group(1,2,3)
        msg_content = f"纬度:{x} 经度:{y}" if location is None else f"{location}"
    elif msg['Type'] == 'Sharing':
        msg_content = msg['Text']
        msg_link = msg['Url']
    msg_info.update({msg_id:{"msg_from":msg_from,"msg_time_send":msg_time_send,"msg_time_receive":msg_time_receive,"msg_type":msg['Type'],"msg_content":msg_content,"msg_link":msg_link}})
    face_package = msg_content

Set up a monitor to detect recall notifications, retrieve the original message from the cache, and send it back via the filehelper account, handling both text and media types appropriately:

@itchat.msg_register(NOTE, isFriendChat=True, isGroupChat=True, isMpChat=True)
def monitor(msg):
    if '撤回了一条消息' in msg['Content']:
        recall_msg_id = re.search("<msgid>(.*?)</msgid>", msg['Content']).group(1)
        recall_msg = msg_info.get(recall_msg_id)
        if len(recall_msg_id) < 11:
            itchat.send_file(face_package, toUserName='filehelper')
        else:
            msg_prime = f"---{recall_msg.get('msg_from')} 撤回了一条消息---\n"
            msg_prime += f"消息类型：{recall_msg.get('msg_type')}\n"
            msg_prime += f"时间：{recall_msg.get('msg_time_receive')}\n"
            msg_prime += f"内容：{recall_msg.get('msg_content')}\n"
            if recall_msg['msg_type'] == 'Sharing':
                msg_prime += f"链接：{recall_msg.get('msg_link')}\n"
            itchat.send_msg(msg_prime, toUserName='filehelper')
            if recall_msg['msg_type'] in ('Attachment','Video','Picture','Recording'):
                file = f"@fil@{recall_msg['msg_content']}"
                itchat.send(msg=file, toUserName='filehelper')
                os.remove(recall_msg['msg_content'])
        msg_info.pop(recall_msg_id, None)

Finally, run the script with platform‑specific login options and start the itchat event loop:

if __name__ == '__main__':
    if platform.platform()[:7] == 'Windows':
        itchat.auto_login(enableCmdQR=False, hotReload=True)
    else:
        itchat.auto_login(enableCmdQR=True, hotReload=True)
    itchat.run()