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Create a Telegram bot

Telegram has the shortest setup of the three platforms. One chat with BotFather produces the single token Aside needs.

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Before you start

  • You need a Telegram account.
  • Aside must be running on your device for the bot to respond.

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Create the bot

  1. Open t.me/BotFather or search @BotFather in Telegram.
  2. Send /newbot.
  3. Choose a display name, then a username ending in bot.
  4. Copy the token from BotFather’s confirmation message. It looks like 123456789:AAExampleBotToken.
  5. In BotFather, open /mybots, select the bot, and open Bot Settings.
  6. Enable Allow Groups? so the bot can be added to group chats.
  7. Open Group Privacy and choose Turn off so Aside receives group messages.
If the bot was already in a group when you changed Group Privacy, remove and add it again before testing.

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Connect it to Aside

In Settings > Channels, choose Telegram, pick Manual, and paste the token. The connection shows as connected on the Channels page within a few seconds.

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Test it

Open a chat with your bot and send a message. Aside-created connections pair the setup account when Telegram exposes its user ID. Approve other senders’ requests in the connection’s Pairing tab.In groups, add the bot as a member and mention it by username. A forum topic becomes active on its first mention; later messages in that topic continue the same conversation without another mention. Turning off Require mentions in threads lets the first unmentioned topic message activate it instead, while non-topic group messages still require a mention. Earlier messages from paired people in the same group or topic are supplied as context when it activates. Forum topics map to separate Aside conversations, while direct messages always reach the bot.

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Troubleshooting