I have a Telegram bot that works perfectly for private messages. When someone sends a direct message to my bot, it receives and processes everything correctly. However, I’m having trouble with group chats. The bot doesn’t seem to pick up any messages that users post in group conversations where my bot is a member. I’ve tried looking through the documentation but I’m not sure what settings or API methods I need to use. Is there a specific configuration or different API endpoint I should be using to capture messages from group chats? The bot has been added to the group and appears to be active, but it’s just not receiving the group messages like it does with private ones.
hey stella, sounds like a privacy issue. telegram bots by default only catch commands or @mentions in groups. try messaging @BotFather and use /setprivacy to turn it off for ur bot. after that, it should get all the messages in the group.
Yes, privacy mode is indeed the issue here. I encountered the same problem when I started working with Telegram bots in group settings. It’s intentional on Telegram’s part to prevent bots from reading all messages unless configured otherwise. You can resolve this by using /setprivacy with BotFather, selecting your bot, and choosing ‘Disable’ to turn off privacy mode. I suggest you test this change in a smaller group first before applying it more broadly. While the webhook payload remains consistent for both private and group messages, be sure to account for the chat type in your code, as there might be group-specific conditions to consider.
Yeah, this trips up tons of developers. Privacy mode is definitely what’s blocking you, but heads up on a few things. Once you disable it through BotFather, your bot gets ALL group messages - that’s way more webhook traffic if you’ve got busy groups. Make sure your server can handle it. Also, some group admins won’t want bots that read everything for obvious privacy reasons. Worth asking yourself if you really need all messages or if commands and mentions would work for what you’re building. The change kicks in immediately though, so you’ll see group messages right after you flip the setting.