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The Ultimate Telegram Bot Tutorial

The Ultimate Telegram Bot Tutorial

Launched in 2013, Telegram remains one of the most notable and popular cloud-based, multi-platform messenger services available. Among one of the platform’s biggest features is its support of chatbots, which are available in single-person or group chats. Telegram was among the first messenger platforms to make chatbots mainstream. Today the platform continues to offer features that make Telegram bots unique. This Telegram bot tutorial explains everything you need to know about chatbots on the platform: their features, how they work, how to create Telegram bots and more.

 

Telegram Bot Example Use Cases

Telegram bots enhance chat conversations. Often fulfilling a specific task that users can call up while conversing with the bot or with each other. There’s really no end to the things Telegram bots can do:

  • Pull data from external services like Google Maps, Wikipedia and more (like Otouto)
  • Provide media-rich experiences by pulling from YouTube or Spotify (Spoty Bot)
  • Discover content relevant to users’ interests
  • Invoice and accept payments
  • Provide general work tools (Online Tools Bot)
  • …And more!

To get just a taste of the wide variety of Telegram bot commands and use cases, check out some of our favorite bots on the platform.

What Makes Telegram Bot Commands Unique?

At first glance, it might not be obvious to see what Telegram bots offer that chatbots on other platforms don’t. The main difference in Telegram bots is how users interact with them. For example, the platform allows Telegram bot development teams to create unique keyboards for any message. This is similar to button responses available on other platforms, but allows for a little more freedom. To use a Telegram bot example, CalcuBot replaces the keyboard with a calculator interface (buttons for numbers and operations) to simplify the user experience.

Another unique feature of Telegram bot commands is the ability to make inline queries. This allows users to call up information from a chatbot without having to open a conversation with it or inviting it to a group that. They simply type the inline bot’s username followed immediately by a query. You can find out more about inline Telegram bot development here.

Chatbots on Telegram also allow for easy invoicing and payments. This is another feature that isn’t totally unique. For example, Facebook Messenger, supports payments via PayPal. But Telegram offers a little more flexibility and heightened presentation. Telegram bot development allows for making sophisticated invoices in chat that contain a photo of the product, a product description and an offer to pay. From there, users can input shipping info to complete their purchase. Supported payment systems include credit card, Apple Pay and Android Pay.

How Do Telegram Bots Work?

Unlike a regular Telegram account, chatbots don’t require a connected phone number. This makes them easy to setup and allows a botmaker to create multiple chatbots for the platform. Users interact with chatbots on Telegram by having a conversation with them, by inviting them to group chats or through in-line queries from any chat or channel.

The way responses are delivered is simple. First, the user writes a query, which is sent to the bot’s software servers. Along the way, Telegram seamlessly encrypts messages sent through the platform. Once the query is received, the bot returns an answer via Telegram’s Bot API, which allows it to connect with users.

Quick Telegram Bot Tutorial: How to Create Telegram Bots

Telegram bot development is easy to begin. In fact, in a brilliant example of what chatbots can achieve, Telegram offers a bot that helps users begin Telegram bot development. By chatting with the BotFather, botmakers can easily set up a new bot account and generate an API token for it.

Of course, that’s only the start with Telegram bot development. After setting up an account, you’ll need to set up a server to power your bot. It’s recommended that you use webhooks to issue faster Telegram bot commands. Programming and training your bot need not be a difficult task; the platform offers a significant library of community-made Telegram bot example code that you can freely use to create Telegram bots from scratch.

If Telegram bot development seems too complicated for you, don’t despair! You can create Telegram bots with ease and without coding knowledge with a handful of botmaking tools and platforms. Click To Tweet Manybot, for example, lets you quickly create Telegram bots and in a simple, step-by-step process and Telegram bot tutorial.

Do you have a bot? Sign up for Botanalytics for free to enjoy our rocking features!