BotNews

🦀AIAgents and Bot-to-Bot Communication Historically, bot-to-bot interaction was restricted on Telegram to prevent infinite message loops. Starting today, in specific contexts, Bot-to-Bot communication is allowed – unlocking complex agentic flows and AI-powered use cases. Out of the box, this feature will work in groups and via business mode. To start using it, simply enable the Bot-to-Bot Communication Mode for your bot via @BotFather. You can reference the full documentation here.

Bot API 9.6 🦀Managed Bots • Manager bots are used to bootstrap and control other bots on behalf of their owners – easily orchestrating any number of AI agents, Business Accounts and custom tools. • Out of the box, manager bots can prompt users to create a bot in one tap and easily fetch their token to start piloting them. 📊Poll Revolution • Polls now support multiple correct answers, re-issuing votes, hidden results and richly formatted descriptions. • Poll options now have persistent ids and can be shuffled or dynamically added by users. • Bots can now additionally reply to a specific poll option. ✈General • Mini Apps can now natively request users, chats and managed bots in one tap via prepared keyboard buttons. • Expanded support for date and time entities in checklists, quotes and gift texts. • And more, see the full changelog for details: https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#april-3-2026

Bot API 9.5 🗓Date and Time Formatting • Introduced date and time formatting, allowing bots to show a formatted date and time to the user. • Out-of-the-box support for relative times, localized weekdays and more. 👑Custom Member Tags • Introduced support for custom group member tags. • Bots can now detect member tags, assign them, or allow admins to manage them. 📝Message Streaming • With today's update, every bot on Telegram can freely use the message streaming feature. • And more, see the full changelog for details: https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#march-1-2026

Bot API 9.4 🎨Custom Emoji and Buttons • Bots can now use custom emoji in outgoing messages if their owner has Telegram Premium. • Keyboard and inline buttons now support background colors and custom emoji. 💬Private Chat Topics • Bots can now create new topics in 1-on-1 chats. • Via the BotFather Mini App, bot owners can also prevent users from creating or deleting topics. 🤖 Profile Info • Bots can now set and remove their own profile pic. • User profile audios are now visible to bots. 🎁Gifts • Unique gifts now include model rarity information. • Out-of-the-box support for detecting gifts burned after crafting. ✈️General • Bots now handle service messages when a chat owner leaves or ownership changes. • Video objects now include a list of available qualities. • And more, see the full changelog for details: https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#february-9-2026

Bot API 9.3 💪AI Revolution This release comes with new tools and native interfaces to easily integrate modern LLMs and AI features. • Introduced topics in 1-on-1 chats, letting users organize bot chats into easily accessible threads. • Topics in private chats support all send and forward methods, including chat actions. • Out of the box, bots can edit or delete private chat topics, manage pinned messages and more. • Allowed bots to streamlive responses as they're generated. 🎁Gifts • Improved gifts — with support for blockchain, multiple currencies, backgrounds and more. • Bots can now list all gifts owned by users and chats with detailed filtering options. • Added detailed information about the colors tied to a gift or applied to a chat. 👤Profiles and Private Chats • Business bots can now repost stories across accounts they manage. •Copied and forwarded messages can now show effects in private chats. • Bots can now see the rating of users who contact them. ✈General • Allowed bots to hide their main @username if they set an upgraded one via Fragment. • Bots can now restrict channel admins from removing members. • And more, see the full changelog for details: https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#december-31-2025 Happy Holidays from the Telegram Team 🎆

Bot API 9.2 📭Direct Messages in Channels • Introduced Channel Direct Messages Chats, allowing bots to send and detect Direct Messages in channels they manage. • Bots can now identify direct messages chats and their parent channel. • Bots now additionally receive topic metadata for direct messages. ⭐️Suggested Posts • Introduced full support for Suggested Posts in channels, unlocking granular automations via bots with sufficient rights. • Bots can now detect, send, approve and decline suggested posts, with detailed price and date options. • All relevant service messages are supported – including approvals, errors, declines, successful payments and refunds. ☑️Checklists • Bots can now reply directly to individual checklist tasks. 🎁Gifts • Gifts can now expose their publisher chat for attribution. • And more, see the full changelog for details: https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#august-15-2025

🦾Official @BotFather Mini App @BotFather now hosts a native mini app that developers can use to create new bots or manage existing ones in a streamlined interface. The previous flow remains unchanged – the mini app simply offers an alternative way to seamlessly access the same functionality. The mini app is especially useful on mobile devices – allowing you to easily access your bot token, toggle settings or edit your bot in a few taps.

⚠️Notice to Developers Due to a minor internal technical issue that occurred today from 18:10 to 19:35 UTC, certain bots may have been unable to reliably load the list of purchasable Telegram Gifts. We have promptly resolved the issue and apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Bot API 9.1 ☑️Checklists • Introduced support for native checklists. • Out of the box, business bots can create and edit checklists. • Bots can now receive checklists and detect progress via service messages. 🎁Gifts, Stars and More • Improved gifts with details on their last sale and transfer cooldown. • Bots can now easily check their Telegram Star balance. • Mini Apps can now hide the on-screen keyboard. • Unlocked more poll options, allowing up to 12. • And more, see the full changelog for details: https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#july-3-2025

Bot API 9.0 Announcing the largest Bot API update of 2025 (so far😈) 🏪Telegram Business 2.0 • Bots can now fully customize the branding of Business Accounts – managing their name, username, bio and profile pictures. • Introduced support for managing Paid Gifts🎁, including conversions, transfers and upgrades. • Bots can now check ⭐️ Telegram Star balances and transfer Stars from managed businesses. • Bots can now easily mark Business messages as read or delete them. • Added extensive support for managing stories on Business accounts – featuring photos, videos and interactive elements like links, locations, reactions, weather info and even Gifts. • All stories posted by bots can also be edited or deleted. • Introduced granular Business permissions, giving users even finer control over connected bots. 🗃️Mini App Storage • Mini Apps can now store data locally on the user's device. • Sensitive tokens can be safely persisted in a specialized secure storage. 🎁Telegram Gifts • Introduced support for unique Gifts – with detailed model, symbol and backdrop info. • Bots can also check which Gift types are accepted by users and chats. ⭐️Paid Messages • Bots can now track how many Stars users paid to send a message. • This includes out-of-the-box support for paid messages in both groups and business accounts. ⭐️Telegram Premium • Bots can now gift a Telegram Premium subscription paid in Stars. • And more, see the full changelog for details: https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#april-11-2025

Bot API 8.3 Video Improvements • Introduced support for custom covers and start timestamps for videos. • Out of the box, bots can specify a cover and start timestamp when sending, editing and forwarding videos — including in albums and paid media. Gifts and Reactions • Bots can now send gifts🎁 to channels, in addition to regular users. • Added support for transactions with chats. • Bots can now add reactions to most service messages. Similar Bots • A list of similar bots will now appear in bot profiles, helping users discover other bots they may find interesting. • And more, see the full changelog for details: https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#february-12-2025

Verification from Third Parties and Bot API 8.2 With today's update, official Bots and Mini Apps can verify✅ users and chats on behalf of other organizations, assigning them a custom badge and a brief description. This decentralized verification platform proactively prevents spam and misinformation – setting a new safety standard for social platforms 🛡 Additionally, Bot API 8.2 comes with out-of-the-box support for Collectible Gifts🎁 – allowing Bots and Mini Apps to prepay🎁 for Gift Upgrades. Check out the full Bot API 8.2 changelog for more details. Happy Holidays from the Telegram Team 🎆