How to create your own custom Telegram bot with python?
date
Mar 27, 2023
URL
slug
how-to-create-your-own-custom-telegram-bot-with-python
status
Published
tags
telegram-bots
python
summary
Step by step guide. From zero to complete bot running and accepting requests on your local computer.
type
Post
In today's world digital socialism is playing a crucial role in our lives. The world is interconnected. You can share your own thoughts and ideas, and this is not something new for you. Human nature – laziness, that's why we, people, love having a ready cup of coffee made for us, dinner at a restaurant rather than home cooked and etc. Same applies for our digital lives.
🚀 What is Telegram?
Simply put – it's a secure end-to-end encrypted social network. You can chat, call, engage in groups and so on. In 2015, Telegram announced its open and free API to allow developers create their own bots just with HTTP calls.
Eager to have your own?
☕️ Let's create yours then
In this blog post, I will show you how to create one easily with only a few steps. All you need is a computer that can run Python code, Telegram account and enthusiasm ❤️. Optionally, you can put a coffee on the side, so you can take sips in the process.
Step 1
Clone (download) the Github repo with Telegram Bot starter template
Step 2
Once you have the template, you will need to create a bot on Telegram's servers and obtain an API key to interact with the bot.
Get your key with BotFather
BotFather is one bot to rule them all. Use it to create new bot accounts and manage your existing bots.
Just type the command /newbot and follow the istructions given by BotFather:
Once done, you will receive a message that looks like this:
Click on the looooong string to copy it automatically and follow the next steps.
Step 3
Open Terminal and change directory to telegram-bot-template. Here you will need to type in some commands into the command line.
Create and activate virtual environment:
Install the requirements:
Step 4
And finally, add the API token you have copied earlier to the file named .env
❗️ Note
Yes, a file without a file name, just (dot)env. More details on this here.
Final touch
Let's run the bot.
As simple as that. You will see debugging and logging information on your terminal if you have set DEBUG=True as the environment variable OR you will see nothing as the script will be up and running, which means your new bot is alive.
Try sending /start command to the bot, and it will respond with the text like:
Bot is running
Well, that's it. You are now the ruler of the freshly and newly created chat bot on Telegram servers, and I am proud of you.
💙 Thanks
Make sure to hit one of the reaction buttons down below to express your emotions.
If you have any questions or ideas, feel free to leave them in the comment box, I will respond as quickly as I can!
Thanks, take care!