Retrieving sender info from group messages in a Telegram bot

Other Questions Telegram bot
1

I’m stuck with my Telegram bot project. I need to get the sender’s info from messages in group chats. Here’s what I’ve tried:

last_message = bot.getUpdates()[-1].message

This gets the last message object. But I can’t access the ‘from’ attribute because it’s a Python keyword. The ‘chat’ attribute only gives group info, not user details.

Is there a way to get the sender’s User object in group messages? Or any workaround? I’m using the python-telegram-bot library.

I’ve looked through the docs but couldn’t find a solution. Any help would be great!

2

I’ve dealt with this exact problem in my Telegram bot development. The ‘from_user’ attribute is indeed the correct way to access sender information in group messages. Here’s a more robust approach I’ve used:

update = bot.getUpdates()[-1]
if update.message and update.message.from_user:
    sender = update.message.from_user
    sender_info = f'ID: {sender.id}, Name: {sender.first_name}'
    print(sender_info)
else:
    print('No valid sender information available')

This method handles potential None values and provides a fallback. It’s been reliable in my experience, even with large group chats and frequent messages. Remember to implement proper error handling in your production code for stability.

3

I encountered a similar issue when working on a Telegram bot for my community group. The solution I found was to use the ‘from_user’ attribute instead of ‘from’. It’s a bit counterintuitive, but it works like this:

sender = bot.getUpdates()[-1].message.from_user

This gives you access to the sender’s User object, including their ID, username, first name, etc. You can then use these properties like sender.id or sender.username.

One gotcha to watch out for: in some cases, particularly with forwarded messages, ‘from_user’ might be None. It’s good practice to add a check for this in your code.

Hope this helps you move forward with your project!

4

hey there! I had a similar problem with my bot. Try using message.from_user instead of message.from. It should give you all the sender info you need. like this:

sender = update.message.from_user
user_id = sender.id

hope that helps! lemme know if u need anything else :slight_smile: