The API call works fine and returns ok:true in the response. However, when I check the chat, the GIF appears as a static image instead of playing the animation. Users only see a frozen frame from the GIF.
What’s the correct way to send animated GIFs so they actually move in the chat? Should I be using a different API method instead of sendPhoto? Any help would be appreciated!
u should really use sendAnimation instead of sendPhoto. the bot API treats gifs sent that way as real animations, not just a still image. just update your url and it should work perfectly. hope this helps!
sendPhoto only works with static images - that’s why your GIF turns into a single frame. I hit this same problem when I built my first bot last year. Just switch to sendAnimation and it’ll work right away. Keep your URL the same, just change sendPhoto to sendAnimation in the endpoint. The API treats GIFs differently with this method and keeps all the animation frames. Just make sure your GIF host is solid - some services compress animations and they’ll look crappy in Telegram.
This happens all the time with Telegram’s Bot API. sendPhoto only works for static images - that’s why your GIF turns into a single frame. I ran into this exact issue with my notification bot. Just swap sendPhoto for sendAnimation in your API endpoint and you’re good to go. Your URL structure looks fine. sendAnimation keeps all the frames intact so your GIF will actually move in the chat. Just heads up - Telegram caps animations at 50MB, so you might need to compress bigger files first.