Social media lately is being flooded with bots. Simple programs that allow you to interact with other users as if it were another person. These are particularly useful for business accounts that have a massive flow of interaction. With bots it is possible to serve all those users instantly.
At the time it was with YouTube and Facebook, later it was the turn of WhatsApp and now, more recently, Telegram has been incorporated .
In version 3.0 of this application the presence of bots was included and due to the versatility of this instant messaging network, the functions that a bot can perform include from being able to respond to your users to being able to carry out and send automatic surveys.
Despite everything, many users are unaware of what bots are and how they work , so in this article we will explain what bots are, what they are for and how to create a chatbot for Telegram without programs.
What are bots and what can they do?
Bots are robots, in fact that’s where they get their name, that can act autonomously on the internet through a few simple commands.
These bots are software that act automatically to perform mechanical tasks cyclically for an indeterminate time at a speed much faster than a human being could execute.
Bots have been around for a long time. However, in recent years they have become very popular due to the uses that have been assigned to it such as providing customer service to be able to respond to users’ concerns.
In general, bots are used to assist users of a website in real time, in order to solve a problem or generate sales for the company in question.
How to create a bot?
Creating a bot that is capable of automatically answering chats is not a complex procedure. In fact, there are many companies that offer this type of service , in case you need one and do not have the time to schedule it.
Otherwise, it can be done by a programmer who designs a simple command so that the bot can answer user questions.
Steps to create a chatbot for Telegram
First of all, in order to use a chatbot on Telegram, you will need to receive a Telegram Token , that is, a key to be able to validate your operations safely. When you have it, you must make use of it and Google tools to start it up.
Once you have this, the procedure is straightforward. The first thing to do is send, via Telegram, a message to @BotFather in which you will have to write «/ newbot».
Then the bot will ask you what name you are going to assign to your own bot. At this point it is important to note that the name must end with the word bot. If everything is fine and the name is available, @BotFather will verify your bot creation for you.
Once this step is finished, we will have to configure the privacy of our bot. For this we will have to write the command «/ setprivacy» followed by our bot mentioning it by its @.
After this the @Botfather will respond with the possible options that you will have to configure your account. You can choose that your bot only respond to messages that mention it or receive any message.
Program the Telegram bot so that it can reply to messages
After finishing all the previous procedure, we will have our bot; however, it will be a relatively useless bot that will not be able to interact with users as it has not been configured.
It is at this point that many wonder if programming skills are necessary, and the answer is no. With Chatfuel it is possible to configure our bot without programming.
To add Chatfuel we will start a conversation with them. We will have to look for them as if they were a user. We will have to write “new bot” and add the token that Botfather assigned us.
After this, our bot will have Chatfuel installed. We will have access to an administration panel where we can easily configure the bot to send messages, answer questions and republish content
