Many people had found a safe place to live but needed financial assistance to buy food or repair their houses. De facto it wasn’t a real bot, it was a human customer support system of sorts.Īs the war dragged on, people’s demands became more and more similar. This was good enough in the early days because every person’s situation was individual and complex, and needed immediate human attendance. This meant that all members of our team were able to access the chats with the bot and work on getting people what they need. In Eastern Europe, Telegram is the most-used messenger (these guys have good taste!), and I’m part of a network of volunteers and NGOs who are helping civilians who are affected by the war get access to basic stuff like food, medical supplies, and psychological support.Ī Telegram bot would serve as a lifeline for affected individuals, and would help us streamline our work so that the things they need arrive as fast as possible.Īt the beginning of the war, we had set up a very basic Telegram bot which integrates with a backend customer support system. The reason why I wanted to build a Telegram bot was, to put it simply, the war in Ukraine. And it’s independent, without the vibes of a big tech behemoth like Meta. Telegram is basically like WhatsApp but two years ahead in terms of development. It’s nice to use, you can participate in large chat groups, privacy is pretty well ensured, you can follow people’s public channels, and - best of all - it has incredible support for GIFs and silly gimmicks. I have a few messengers on my devices, but my favorite one is definitely Telegram. Some people use WhatsApp or Signal, some use Twitter DMs or LinkedIn messages, others again use Instagram or TikTok.Ī few friends of mine have zero social media, but even they use good old SMS.

I don’t remember the last time I encountered a person who uses zero messaging services. Python + Telegram = a winning combination! Image by author

Create telegram bot tutorial