In this tutorial, I will explain how to add a Telegram bot to your Telegram group. Once you add it, you can use it to auto-reply to messages in your group.
This process just takes 2 simple steps!
Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
Step 1: Add your Telegram Bot to your Group
The first step is to add a Telegram Bot to the group.
In Telegram, go to your Telegram group and click on the top bar:
Click on Add:
And fill in the name of your Telegram group bot:
Step 2: Make your Bot Administrator of the Group
The next step is to make your bot an admin of the Telegram group.
After you’ve added your bot, you can just click on Edit in your Telegram Group settings:
Choose for Administrators:
And click on Add Admin:
Select your Telegram Bot:
And then give it all the rights and click on Done:
Now, your Telegram Bot automatically replies to messages in your Telegram group!
What if your Telegram bot only responds when someone mentions it?
If your Telegram bot only responds when someone mentions it, you need to change the Group privacy settings of the bot. When you do that, the bot will respond to all messages in the group.
This is a common issue for many people learning how to add bots to a Telegram group for the first time.
To change the privacy settings, search for “Botfather” in Telegram. Then, start a conversation with him:
And then type in the command /mybots and select your Telegram Bot:
Click on Bot Settings:
And select Group Privacy:
And then click on Turn off to disable the privacy mode of your bot:
Now, go back to your Telegram group and send a message (don’t mention the bot!). Your Telegram Bot should reply to that message.
What if your Telegram Bot doesn’t reply to any messages?
If your Telegram doesn’t reply to any messages, there are four things that you can do:
- Check if the bot has access to messages
- Check if the Telegram bot allows groups
- Check if your chatbot platform allows groups
- Check for logs in your chatbot platform
Let’s tackle these one-by-one.
Check if the bot has access to messages
The first thing you can do is check if the bot has access to messages.
To do this, go to your Telegram group and look at the Members:
Here, you see that the bot doesn’t have access to messages.
If this is the case, you want to disable the Group privacy settings.
To do that, go to the Botfather and select your bot. Then, click on Bot Settings:
Click on Group Privacy:
And select Turn Off:
Once you do that, you will see that your Telegram bot has access to messages in the group:
Check if the Telegram bot allows group
The next thing you could check is whether the Telegram bot allows groups.
To do this, please go to the Botfather and select your bot. Then, click on Bot settings:
Select Allow Groups?:
Here, you want to ensure that groups are currently enabled:
If that is not the case, enable this setting.
Check if your chatbot platform allows groups
Some chatbot platforms don’t allow Telegram groups. For example, with Manychat, you can create a Telegram bot, but you cannot add it to a group.
If your bot isn’t replying to group messages after this tutorial, you should check if your bot platform allows Telegram groups.
Check for logs in your chatbot platform
The last thing you can check are the logs of your chatbot platform.
Some chatbot platforms give logs that information about things going wrong with your chatbot.
So if your chatbot platform has logs, be sure to check them out and analyze whether there are any issues.
Now It’s Your Turn
And that’s how you add a Telegram chatbot to your Telegram group.
Now I have a question for you:
Do you already use Telegram Bots in your Groups? And if not, why not?
Let me know by leaving a comment below!
Learn more about Telegram bots
Frequently Asked Questions
How to add a Telegram group bot to a Telegram group?
Learning how to add a bot to a Telegram group is easy. You can do it in two simple steps:
Can Telegram bots join groups?
Yes, you can have a Telegram Bot join group via link. Telegram Bots can be invited by the admin of the group. Once they join, they can auto-reply to messages and commands in the Telegram group.
How to use bot commands in Telegram group?
You can use commands to trigger specific messages or actions in your bot. Your Telegram group bot can auto-reply to a command you type. This is based on the settings you set for your bot.
How to find bot in Telegram group?
You can find a bot in a Teelgram group by searching for the username. If the username contains “bot” at the end, the user is a bot.
Can you add bots to a group chat in Telegram?
Yes! You can add bots to a group chat in two simple steps:
What if my Telegram bot has no access to messages in Telegram?
If your Telegram bot has no access to messages in a group, you should change the group privacy settings of the bot.
You can do this in 5 simple steps:
- Go to the @Botfather in Telegram
- Type in the command /mybots and select your Telegram Bot
- Click on Bot Settings
- Select Group Privacy
- And then click on Turn off to disable the privacy mode of your bot.
Can I use Telegram Bot for group management?
Yes, you can use a Telegram group bot for your Telegram group. It can welcome new users, answer questions, and kick rule-breakers.
What’s the benefit of using Telegram Bots for groups?
You can use Telegram bots for groups to automate tasks. These can include welcoming new users, answering questions, and moderating rule-breakers.
How do I add a welcome bot in a Telegram group?
You can add a welcome bot to your Telegram Group in 5 simple steps:
- Create your Telegram welcome bot with a chatbot platform, such as Botpress or Sendpulse
- Connect your bot to Telegram by talking to the @BotFather
- Add the Telegram Bot to your group
- Make the Bot administrator of the group
Hi,
Thanks for information it was very helpful. Please help me how I can add bots to telegram chennel.
Thanks
Hey Raphael! Currently, there is not a way to add a bot to a Telegram channel, other than manually coding it…
Hi,
How to add a bot to a public telegram channel by manually coding it?
Hey Prabhat! I personally don’t have any experience with manually coding this, so I honestly do not know. I would just try a Google search and maybe you can find anything!
Is there a way to create a bot and send messages from a group which you are not the owner to your own group?
No, that is not possible. The bot needs to be the admin of the group.
Hi,
Is this possible to filter chat messages from a telegram group and only get notifications when a certain word matches in the chat for the group?
Hey Vin! Yes, you can. In the second chapter of my Telegram Chatbots guide, I explain on how you can do this.
HI! I created a bot with Activechat but when I put it in the group he doesn’t respond to messages or words that should trigger him. He does it in private chat though. I’ve done everything you said in the video but that still does not work. Help!!
Hey Chloe! Good question! This probably is because of ActiveChat itself, they do not provide that functionality with their platform. If I were you, I should contact ActiveChat and ask whether you can do this with their platform.
Hi.
How can I add like and dislike on my subject as a comment
Hey Emmanuel! What do you mean with a like and dislike? And I think as a comment you mean the message someone sends in a Telegram group?
Hi,
Almost same as Chloe above, no response in group but appears in the bot. Of course I’ve followed the steps. How to debug?
Thx.
Hey Paul! This is because with ActiveChat you cannot use Telegram chatbots in groups, they don’t provide that functionality with their platform.
Confused. Isn’t that tutorial teach us use in telegram group?
I’m with you. i follow exactly as in the tutorial but the bot did not respond in the group chat but appears in the bot. is this something to do with setting or functionality? @Joren your tutorial seems to work tho. any insight will be appreciated.
Hey Sai! Did you use ActiveChat to create your chatbot? If that’s the case, you cannot add your Telegram bot to a group, because ActiveChat does not provide that functionality. If you want a chatbot builder that is able to do this, I would recommend using Xenioo.
I’ve added @language_translator_bot to a private and made it an admin so that it can reply when I mention it.
Now I want it to respond to all messages. But when I talk to the BotFather and /setprivacy, he tells me “You don’t have any bots yet. Use the /newbot command to create a new bot first.”
I don’t want to create a new bot, I just want the existing bot to respond within my group.
What to do?
When you go to the Botfather and type “/mybots”, what do you get?
Great post!! Thanks for sharing this with us. Keep up!
Thank you, Jonathan!
Hi, I’m struggling with some thing. I use telegram bot cooperating with home assistant. HA sends me via telegram bot some notifications. But it can also work opposite way. I can set up HA receiving message from telegram bot (for example “/something”) to trigger some action. The first trouble is that Google Assistant can’t send a message on telegram to telegram bot, because it’s not possible to set telegram number for the telegram bot as common telegram user. So I tried to use IFTTT and created New group and also New channel in telegram and added my bot to those places (set bot as administrator). Well, I can say to Google assistent something and IFTTT succesfully sends set up text to both places – telegram group and telegram chat group as well. But it’s not enought. If I forward message from “New group” (or “New chat”) manualy to the telegram bot than everything works perfekt. So I have to solve resending messages from “New groups” or “New chat” to my bot automatically. But I don’t know how. Can you help me? Thank’s a lot Jarda
Wow, seems like an awesome setup you’ve thought out. Could you tell me which chatbot builder you used to create the integration between Google Assistant and Telegram? And what is IFTTT?
Thanks for helping us Sir. I have a problem. How can i share my personal Bot so that everyone can receive bot messagges? I create a group with bot admin permission, but not worked for me.
Thanks in advance
Hey Alex! What is exactly not working? And with what chatbot builder did you create your Telegram chatbot?
Hi, thanks for the awesome article!
I’m using @BardeenBot from Bardeen. Would I need to disable privacy settings so it can see all messages in group?
Hey Murali! Yes, you should do that!
Am having issues of adding bot as my admin 😔😔 when ever I click the make bot admin their response is “sorry you are not allowed to do this. Please I need help
Hey Emeke! Are you sure that you are the admin of the bot?
Hi
How i can add a bot who can let members send messages after they add 5 people to the group
Can someone help me
As far as my knowledge goes, this is currently not possible.
How to read a message in a Telegram channel using Telegraf?
Hello
I’m in a simple project, my bot checks what was posted on a telegram channel, I need to get the information and pass it on to other users, this tutorial works with groups, but it didn’t work for my channel.
How to give the bot permission to read channel messages?
Hey Jefté! I currently do not know any chatbot platform that can read messages from a Telegram channel and send it inside a Telegram group. One way you could try is by doing it via Make (formerly known as Integromat).
I have created an AI bot with botfather by integrating it with Activechat AI, I have getting the response fine as per the skills I have configured when I join bot 1to1. But as soon as I am adding it to my group as admin, it is not responding on its own, neither responding even while mentioning its username, any suggesting, please?
Hey Neha! Unfortunately, it is not possible to add a Telegram Bot (created with ActiveChat) to a Telegram Group. ActiveChat does not provide this feature.
Hi there, I created my chatbot using Xenioo and its working perfectly for my group chat to private messages I followed all your tutorials on creating chatbot from xenioo and it was excellent. The only thing that I’ve realized is that, its creating too much information’s , no filters when it comes to privacy from my users in the group chat. I wonder if there’s a way that my chat bot could automate a direct private message to the new users once they’ve joined my group chat? also figuring out how can my returning visitors/users can access My chatbot to be redirected as the private message once they enter the group chat. would love to hear more from you! thank you Bigtime!
Hey Jane! Unfortunately, this is not possible with Xenioo (or any other chatbot platform I have seen). Telegram Bots mainly work in the group themselves and it is not possible to send a private message if someone enters the group. It is only possible to send a message in the group when someone enters the group.
It’s possible, rose bot does that, idk how and what platform they using but I have noticed this in several groups.
They have copyright material so bot sends them that material only in DM,even if they give command to rose bot in group.
That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I like manychat, but i can’t add a but to a channel, do you know one similar like manychat that can add a bot to a channel?
Hey Pieter! Yes, Manychat currently does not allow this feature. You can try to do it with Xenioo (https://chatimize.com/reviews/xenioo). I have used them in the past for Telegram Bots in Groups.
Thanks for sharing
Thank you!
Hey!
Do you know how I can add a bot to reply or communicate only within a certain topics folder? It would make the mainchat less clutterly and I have seen some accounts doing like that.
Thanks!
Hey! What do you mean by “a certain topics folder”?
Great tutorial! Clear steps and helpful tips for setting up Telegram bots in groups. Thanks for sharing
Thanks Saira! I’m glad you like it.