How to translate a WeChat article into English

To get copyable English from a public WeChat article, open its link in imread, choose English, then select Copy once translation finishes. For reading inside WeChat, try its article translation option if your app offers it.

Try a public WeChat article. Free, with no imread account required.

Translate an article link in four steps

1. Copy the article's link. It should open the article itself, usually at mp.weixin.qq.com/s/…, rather than a profile, chat, screenshot or mini-program.
2. Open imread and paste the link. Wait for the article title and body to appear. Check that they match the article you wanted, including the beginning and end. Anything missing here will be missing from the translation too. If only a title, author or a few stray words appear, use the fallback below.
3. Open Translate and choose English. On a phone, Translate appears as an icon only. Wait until the status says Translated into English.
4. Select Copy (the copy icon on a phone), then paste into your notes. For plain text, open the arrow next to Copy and choose Copy as text. Check the pasted text before relying on it, and keep the original article link alongside it so you can return to the source.

This workflow is for public Official Account articles, not chats, voice notes or mini-program screens. If you only want to read inside WeChat, look for an article translation option; its label and location can vary by app version.

A real translation example

The sample is a University of Macau article. Here are its original title and the English copied from the reader:

Original: 這就是，澳門大學！

Copied English: This is Macau University!

On November 6, 2026, we tested this public article in Chromium at desktop and phone-sized viewports. We selected English, waited for translation to finish, copied the result and pasted it into the reader's text box to check the English title and body. We did not test physical phones or external notes apps. This is one public article, not a promise that every WeChat link will work.

The English output was useful for following the article, but it was not a polished translation. For example, the translated title said “Macau University,” while the body used “University of Macau.” Use Show original to compare names, numbers and important passages. Do not treat automatic translation as a verified quotation from the publisher.

We also checked five public links found in recent government and university posts on November 6. Three produced substantive English text that we copied and pasted. One returned only a title, an authority name and a feedback label; another returned some prose but did not establish the holiday schedule it was meant to explain. The original pages would not load for comparison, so we could not verify completeness for any of the five. This small convenience sample is not a reliability estimate: check the extracted text before translating it.

What this workflow cannot translate

• Words inside pictures: imread translates extracted article text. A poster or screenshot can remain in Chinese even when the surrounding paragraphs are English. Use an image-translation or OCR tool for that part, then paste that translation into your notes separately and check it against the image. Google Translate's image instructions explain how to translate and copy image text on Android. The steps may differ on iPhone or desktop.
• Private, deleted or restricted content: imread cannot grant access to an article you cannot open, or restore deleted content. It does not bypass a login or verification challenge.
• Chats, voice notes and mini-programs: imread reads web article links; it cannot open chats, voice notes or mini-program screens.

If the article or translation does not load

The link fails: first check whether you can read the article in WeChat or your browser. If you cannot, stop here: imread cannot restore deleted content or grant access. If you can read it, copy a fresh link and retry once. If imread still cannot retrieve it but you can select the article's text yourself, copy it, paste it into the reader and choose English. For pasted text, use Copy directly; there is no format menu. Image-only text needs the separate OCR workflow above.

The text is missing: check whether the article is mostly images. Pasting the URL will not turn those images into editable text.

Translation stops or is unavailable: select Translate again to retry; it may still fail. Until the status says Translated into English, Copy gives you the original Chinese text. Check the pasted result before using it. A finished translation covers only the text imread extracted; it does not prove that every paragraph of the original page was retrieved, and it does not include words inside images. Compare the beginning, end and important passages with the source.

Where does the article text go?

Translation sends article text to Microsoft's Edge translation service. The title and short lines also go to Zhipu's AI models, with Agnes's models as a fallback. This is not an offline translation workflow. Read the privacy details before using it with sensitive material.

Can I keep the formatting?

For an article loaded from a URL, open the arrow next to Copy and choose Copy as Markdown to keep headings, lists and links. This is optional; plain text is enough for readable notes. The web-page-to-Markdown guide explains that format.