I’m working on a Telegram bot project and need to set up user verification to control access to certain features. I want to make sure only authorized users can access specific bot commands and data.
I’ve heard about using deep linking for this purpose, but I’m not entirely sure how the whole process works. From what I understand, you can create some kind of authentication flow that connects users to your bot through special links.
I know the basic steps involve creating the bot and setting up webhooks, but I’m confused about the technical implementation. How exactly does the verification process work between the Telegram servers and my bot’s server?
Can someone explain how to properly implement this authentication system? I’m particularly interested in understanding how the webhook communication works and how to store user verification data securely.
Any code examples or step-by-step guidance would be really helpful for getting this authentication system working properly.
I’ve been building Telegram bots for years and Telegram’s built-in auth widget is the way to go. Just drop the login widget on your site, let it handle the OAuth flow, then redirect users back to your bot with a verified token. The widget gives you cryptographically signed user data straight from Telegram - no worries about fake accounts. I store that verified data in my database with an expiration date. When users hit my bot with commands, I just check their Telegram ID against my verified users table. For webhooks, validate the incoming user ID matches your stored verified users. Done. Way easier than rolling your own auth system and you don’t have to mess with token generation since Telegram handles all the crypto stuff.
deep linking’s way too complicated here. just use telegram’s user verification - pull the user id from the message and keep a whitelist in your database. when someone hits /start, check if their id’s in your approved users table. much simpler than messing with jwt tokens or external auth.
To implement user verification in your Telegram bot, consider using JWT tokens combined with database lookups. When a user interacts with your bot for the first time, generate a unique verification token and store their Telegram user ID alongside this token in your database. The webhook setup is straightforward; Telegram will send messages to your specified endpoint, where you can retrieve the user ID and check it against your list of verified users. For the actual verification process, create a web interface that allows users to log in through your existing system, then redirect them back to Telegram with a start parameter that includes their token. A crucial step is to ensure that the user ID matches between the web verification and the Telegram sender; this validation is essential to prevent unauthorized access. Remember to implement token expiration to avoid the risk of old links being reused and apply rate limiting to your webhook endpoint to enhance security.