How to include image previews in Telegram bot messages?

Other Questions Telegram bot
1

Hey everyone! I’m working on a PHP Telegram bot and I’m stuck on something. Right now, I’m using the replyWithMessage method to send text responses. Here’s what my code looks like:

$this->replyWithMessage(['text' => $item['description'] . "\n\n" . $link]);

It works fine for text, but I really want to add a picture preview before the message text. Is there a way to do this? Maybe a different method or some extra parameters I need to use?

I’ve looked through the docs but couldn’t find anything clear. Any help would be awesome! Thanks in advance!

2

I’ve been working with Telegram bots for a while now, and I can definitely help you out with this. The replyWithPhoto method is what you’re looking for. It’s pretty straightforward to use:

$this->replyWithPhoto([
    'photo' => $imageUrl,
    'caption' => $item['description'] . "\n\n" . $link
]);

Just replace $imageUrl with the URL of your image. This will send the image as a preview with your description and link as the caption.

One thing to keep in mind: if you’re dealing with local images, you’ll need to use Telegram’s file upload system first. It’s a bit more complex, but definitely doable.

Also, if your caption is longer than 1024 characters, you might run into issues. In that case, you could send the image first, then follow up with a separate text message.

Let me know if you need any more details!

3

I’ve dealt with this exact issue before. The method you’re looking for is replyWithPhoto. It allows you to send an image along with a caption. Here’s a basic example:

$this->replyWithPhoto([
    'photo' => 'URL_TO_YOUR_IMAGE',
    'caption' => $item['description'] . "\n\n" . $link
]);

Replace ‘URL_TO_YOUR_IMAGE’ with the actual URL of your image. This method will send the image as a preview, followed by your caption text. If you need more control over the formatting, you can also use HTML in the caption. Just remember to set the parse_mode to HTML if you do.

Hope this helps you out. Let me know if you run into any issues implementing it.

4

hey man, i had the same problem. try using sendPhoto instead of replyWithMessage. it lets u send an image with text. something like this:

$bot->sendPhoto($chatId, $imageUrl, [‘caption’ => $text]);

works like a charm for me. good luck!