Creating a Telegram bot with a custom start button using Python

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1

Hey everyone! I’m trying to create a basic Telegram bot using the Python-telegram-bot library. Instead of having users type ‘/start’ to begin, I’d like to display a ‘START’ button on the keyboard. Does anyone know how to set this up? I’m new to bot development and could use some guidance on implementing custom buttons. Thanks in advance for any help or code examples you can provide!

2

Creating a custom start button for your Telegram bot is indeed possible. I’ve implemented this in my projects using the InlineKeyboardMarkup instead of ReplyKeyboardMarkup. This approach keeps the interface cleaner.

Here’s a snippet to get you started:

from telegram import InlineKeyboardButton, InlineKeyboardMarkup

keyboard = [[InlineKeyboardButton(‘START’, callback_data=‘start’)]]
reply_markup = InlineKeyboardMarkup(keyboard)
context.bot.send_message(chat_id=update.effective_chat.id, text=‘Welcome! Press START to begin.’, reply_markup=reply_markup)

You’ll need to handle the callback separately. This method gives you more control over the button’s behavior and appearance. Let me know if you need further clarification on implementing the callback handler.

3

I’ve actually tackled this problem in one of my projects recently. Instead of using ReplyKeyboardMarkup or InlineKeyboardMarkup, I found success with a different approach - using BotCommand to set up a custom menu command.

Here’s what worked for me:

from telegram import BotCommand
from telegram.ext import CommandHandler, Updater

def start(update, context):
context.bot.send_message(chat_id=update.effective_chat.id, text=‘Welcome! Bot started.’)

updater = Updater(‘YOUR_BOT_TOKEN’, use_context=True)
updater.bot.set_my_commands([BotCommand(‘start’, ‘Start the bot’)])

updater.dispatcher.add_handler(CommandHandler(‘start’, start))
updater.start_polling()

This creates a persistent menu button that users can tap to start your bot. It’s clean, intuitive, and doesn’t clutter the chat interface. Just remember to replace ‘YOUR_BOT_TOKEN’ with your actual token.

4

hey elizabeths! i’ve done this before. u can use ReplyKeyboardMarkup to create custom buttons. here’s a quick example:

from telegram import ReplyKeyboardMarkup

keyboard = [[KeyboardButton(‘START’)]]
reply_markup = ReplyKeyboardMarkup(keyboard, resize_keyboard=True)
update.message.reply_text(‘Press START’, reply_markup=reply_markup)

hope this helps! lmk if u need more info