How-to · Sending elsewhere
Send a message to Telegram
Give sessions a Telegram bot and a list of chats, so a session can send you a message, photo or file.
You want a session to send you a message, photo or file on Telegram, or to post to a family group.
Turret sends through a single Telegram bot that you make. You save the chats it may send to. A session
names a chat, such as family, and never sees the bot's token or a chat's number.
- Open Telegram and message @BotFather. Send
/newbotand answer its two questions. It replies with a token. - Copy the token.
- On the desktop, open Settings, then the Accounts tab, and pick Telegram. On a phone, open Settings, then the Telegram row.
- Under Bot, press Set token and paste the token. Turret checks it with Telegram.
- Press Save. Turret shows the bot's username.
- To send to a group, add the bot to the group in Telegram.
- To send to yourself, open the bot in Telegram and send it any message.
- Press Add a chat, then Find. Turret lists the chats that messaged the bot.
- Pick the chat. For a group with topics, pick a topic too.
- Type a name for the chat. Sessions type this name to send there.
- Tick Ask before each send if you want to see each message first.
- Press Save chat.
The chat appears under Chats. A session can send to it from now on.
Group topics
Telegram tells the bot a topic's number and not its name. To be sure which number is which, send a message in only the topic you want, then press Find again. A topic appears once a message in it reaches the bot. Pick General to send to the group's main topic.
Ask first
A chat marked Ask first raises a permission card before each send. The card shows the message, photo or file. Nothing goes until you allow it. The card offers no Allow always.
To change a chat's setting, tick or clear its Ask first box. On a phone, tap the chat and use the Ask before each send row. A chat that is not marked sends with no card.
Find shows nothing
Find lists the chats in the messages Telegram is holding for the bot, which it keeps for about a day. With Answering off, Find asks Telegram once, and nothing keeps listening after it answers.
- Send the bot a message, or send a message in the group, then press Find again.
- If another program uses the same bot, it may have taken the message first.
Find can also stop with an error.
| Turret says | What to do |
|---|---|
| Could not reach Telegram. | Check the computer's connection and press Find again. |
| Telegram no longer accepts this bot's token. | Paste a new token, then try again. |
| This bot has a webhook set. | Remove the webhook, or use another bot. |
| Another program is reading this bot's messages right now. | Stop the other program, then press Find again. |
A send fails
A chat whose last send failed shows the reason under it. An example is "The last send failed: the bot is not in this group." The line stays until a send to that chat works. Add the bot back to the group, unblock it in Telegram, or remove the chat and add it again.
When Telegram stops accepting the token, the Bot block says so and every send fails. Press Paste a new token and save a token Telegram accepts. Your saved chats stay in place.
The token on a phone
A phone paired to a computer shows the bot and its chats and lets you change them. It has no token controls. Replace or remove the token in Settings, Accounts, Telegram on the computer. A phone that runs sessions itself keeps its own bot and its own token.
Limits
- Text is 4096 characters, and a longer message goes as several.
- A photo can be 10 MB and a file 50 MB.
- This page is about sessions sending to you. See Talk to sessions from Telegram to start and steer sessions from Telegram.
See Environment variables, and MCP tools for the send tool's own description.