I’m developing a Telegram bot and wondering if there’s a way to automatically detect the user’s timezone. The Message object’s date field only offers a UNIX timestamp, leaving no direct information about the locale. I aim to send scheduled messages at a consistent daily time for each subscriber without requiring them to manually specify their timezone. Is there an alternative method available within the Telegram API to achieve this?
In my experience building Telegram bots, there is no built-in way to automatically detect a user’s timezone through the Telegram API. I ended up incorporating an initial configuration step during which users are prompted to either share their geo location or manually select their timezone from a menu. While sharing location data can provide a more accurate timezone via external geolocation services, the manual method is simplest in terms of privacy and user understanding. This approach has helped me ensure that my bot can schedule messages at the intended local times for various users.
Based on my experience developing Telegram bots, automatic timezone detection through the API is not available, and trying to infer it from available data is typically unreliable. A practical workaround that I implemented involves a one-time prompt asking users to share their location or confirm their local time. I then use this information to calculate the appropriate offset for future scheduling. This method is effective and does not compromise user experience, though it may require additional data handling procedures for proper timezone management.
i used a tiny webpage redirect so users could put in their local time. no perfect magic in telegram, so i stored that info for scheduling. a bit of extra hassle, but it worked for me
My experience with this problem taught me that you have to rely on external methods to capture a user’s timezone. One approach that worked well involved launching a short web page during the onboarding process. Here, JavaScript is used to read the browser’s timezone settings and send this data back to your bot server. Although this solution requires an extra step compared to a fully automated detection, it effectively gathers precise timezone details without significant inconvenience to the user, making it a practical choice.