I’m building a Telegram bot that needs to be private and only work for me. I don’t want other people to find it in search results or add it to their group chats. Can I set this up through BotFather settings, or do I need to write code that checks if the person messaging the bot is me? What’s the best way to make sure only I can use my bot?
To ensure your Telegram bot is private and only accessible to you, implement a user ID verification system in your bot’s code. BotFather lacks a specific privacy setting for this, so hardcoding your Telegram user ID is essential. You can retrieve your user ID by messaging @userinfobot. Once you have the ID, add a straightforward check in your message handler to exit if the incoming user ID doesn’t match. This method is effective for both direct messages and group interactions, providing a secure alternative to checking usernames, which can be altered. I’ve successfully used this method for my bots over the past year.
The most reliable approach is combining both code-level restrictions and proper bot configuration. While you cannot make bots completely invisible through BotFather alone, you should disable the “Allow Groups” setting if you only need personal use. However, the real security comes from implementing whitelist validation in your code using your user ID rather than username since usernames can change. I typically add this check at the very beginning of my message handlers before any other processing occurs. Additionally, avoid sharing your bot token anywhere public and consider using environment variables to store both your user ID and bot token. This dual-layer approach has kept my personal automation bots secure for several years without any unauthorized access attempts.
honestly just check the user id in your code - thats what i do. botfather wont help you here but you can grab your id from any bot that shows it and hardcode it into your handlers. works perfectly fine and nobodys gonna randomly stumble across your bot anyway unless you share the link