BotNews

2024-03-31 21:01:57 Bot API 7.2

Telegram Business
• Bots can now manage private chats of Telegram Business subscribers who connect them to their account – check out BusinessConnection.
• Connected bots will receive updates about new messages, message edits and deletions in business chats they manage.
• Added the parameter business_connection_id to most send methods – to send messages on behalf of business users.
• Bots can now see business account details, such as their intro, opening hours and location.

Request Names, Usernames and Photos
• Bots can now request names, usernames and photos via new fields in the KeyboardButtonRequestUsers class.
• Likewise, bots can now use KeyboardButtonRequestChat to request chats' titles, usernames and photos.

Stickers
• Introduced support for mixed-format sticker packs.
• Regular sticker sets now support up to 120 stickers.
• Bots can now upload WEBM stickers using sendSticker.
• Simplified sticker replacement via the new replaceStickerInSet method.

General
• Mini Apps now support biometric authentication.
• The Chat class may now contain the user's birthday and personal channel.

• And more, see the full changelog for details:

https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#march-31-2024

Note: We have updated our Terms of Service for Telegram Bot Developers, kindly check out the latest version here. Open / Comment

2024-02-16 15:14:35 Bot API 7.1

Custom Emoji
• Bots can now get the custom emoji sticker set chosen by a group and use any custom emoji from it.

Boosts
• Added support for boost_added service messages, about new boosts added to the chat.
• Added the field sender_boost_count to the class Message, counting boosts added by the sender that are active on the message send date.

Stories
• Bots can now check if admins have the rights to post, edit and delete stories in supergroups.
• Added the field reply_to_story to the class Message.

• And more, see the full changelog for details:

https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#february-16-2024 Open / Comment

2023-12-29 13:26:31 Bot API 7.0

Announcing our biggest Bot API update yet!

Reactions
• Introducing full reaction support for bots.
• Bots can now react to messages with setMessageReaction.
• Message reactions now generate updates for bots.
• Added the available_reactions field to the class Chat.

Replies 2.0
• Bots can now reply to messages in other chats or topics.
• Added the ExternalReplyInfo class, to track replies across chats.
• The new class ReplyParameters replaces individual reply options in all relevant methods and lets bots quote parts of any message.
• The new field quote of the class Message lets bots detect incoming quoted text.

Link Preview Customization
• Bots can now set a custom URL to generate link previews in outgoing messages.
• Added support for custom size and position of link previews.
• Added the class LinkPreviewOptions to support these new options.

Batch Actions
• Bots can now delete multiple messages in a single request via deleteMessages.
• Bots can now forward or copy multiple messages in a single request via the respective forwardMessages and copyMessages methods.

Boosts & Giveaways
• Added support for Giveaway messages, allowing bots to detect their creation and completion.
• Added updates about chat boost changes via the new classes ChatBoostUpdated and ChatBoostRemoved.
• Bots can now see if a boost came from a premium sub, a gift code, or a giveaway, as well as check all active user boosts via getUserChatBoosts.

General
• Blockquotes are now supported in MarkdownV2 and HTML parse modes.
• Web Apps won't close when calling openTelegramLink.
• Web Apps can now toggle the visibility and on-click behavior of the Settings Button.
• Bots can now request multiple users, see KeyboardButtonRequestUsers.
• The class Chat has new fields holding profile and background colors, custom emoji, and more.


• And a great deal more. See the full changelog for details:

https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#december-29-2023

Happy Holidays from the Telegram Team Open / Comment

2023-09-22 16:59:59 Bot API 6.9

Mini Apps
• Added support for free Cloud Storage, hosted by Telegram.
• Mini Apps can now set any header color with setHeaderColor.
• Added the requestContact method, to ask the user's phone number.
• Added the requestWriteAccess method, to obtain permission to text the user.

Stories
• Bots can now assign the can_post_stories, can_edit_stories and can_delete_stories privileges to other admins.
• Added the respective fields to ChatMemberAdministrator, ChatAdministratorRights and parameters promoteChatMember.

• And more, see the full changelog for details:

https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#september-22-2023 Open / Comment

2023-08-18 19:39:39 Bot API 6.8

• Bots can now detect forwarded stories via an empty Story object in the new story field of the Message class.
• Added support for chat voters in non-anonymous Polls via the new field voter_chat in PollAnswer.
• Added the field emoji_status_expiration_date to the Chat class.

• And more, see the full changelog for details:

https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#august-18-2023 Open / Comment

2023-04-27 20:17:21 New payment provider added:

• Chapa

More about bot payments:
https://core.telegram.org/bots/payments Open / Comment

2023-04-21 14:33:28 Bot API 6.7

Unlimited Web Apps
• Web Apps can now be launched from any chat – to play multiplayer games, work together in groups or create content on the fly.
• Launch Web Apps with inline query results or direct links.

Collectible Usernames & Custom Emoji
• Collectible usernames can be upgraded and assigned to bots – including usernames that don't end in -bot.
• Bots that are using collectible usernames can now send Custom Emoji via HTML and MarkdownV2.

Bot Profile
• Users can now edit bots directly from their Telegram profile, including setting a new name, description or animated profile photos.
• Introduced support for localized bot names that are shown based on the user's language.

General
• InlineKeyboardButton can now be used to switch to inline mode in any chosen chat for a given type.
• The ChatMemberUpdated class now distinguishes joins coming from Shared Folder invite links.

• And more, see the full changelog for details:

https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#april-21-2023 Open / Comment

2023-03-09 20:40:42 Bot API 6.6

Localized Descriptions
• Bots now support localized descriptions that are shown based on the user's language.
• Added the methods setMyDescription and setMyShortDescription to set the bot's localized description and short description.
• Added the methods getMyDescription and getMyShortDescription to obtain the bot's description or short description for a given language.

Stickers and Emoji
• Bots can now create custom emoji sticker sets with createNewStickerSet.
• Added support for adaptive custom emoji colors via the needs_repainting parameter in the createNewStickerSet method.
• Added the ability to specify search keywords for stickers added to sticker sets.
• Improved editing options for sticker sets, including changing the title, deleting a pack, editing emoji lists and more.

https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#march-9-2023

Note: Mentions of thumb across all methods and classes have been updated to thumbnail. Open / Comment

2023-02-17 17:35:54 New payment providers added:

• bill_line
• Freedom Pay
• PayBox.money

More about bot payments:
https://core.telegram.org/bots/payments Open / Comment

2023-02-03 22:04:39 Bot API 6.5

Chat and User Selection
• Bots can now show a friendly interface that can be used to select any channel, group or user.
• Added the KeyboardButtonRequestUser and KeyboardButtonRequestChat keyboard buttons for private chats.
• Added support for "user_shared" and "chat_shared" service messages, which hold the identifiers of users and chats shared via the buttons.

Improved Permissions
• Added support for granular media permissions by replacing can_send_media_messages in ChatMemberRestricted and ChatPermissions with several separate fields for the respective media type.
• Added the parameter use_independent_chat_permissions to the methods restrictChatMember and setChatPermissions.


• Added the field user_chat_id to the class ChatJoinRequest.

• And more, see the full changelog for details:

https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#february-3-2023 Open / Comment