Many thanks to everyone who submitted bots for our Bot Contest! We have collected a lot of requests.

New applications are no longer accepted – this stage of the contest is over. We will continue awarding creators of great bots this year. Have fun using and building bots in 2018!

Don't miss TDLib, our new library that makes creating custom Telegram clients a breeze.

Telegram Database Library takes care of all network implementation details, encryption and local data storage, so that developers can dedicate more time to design, responsive interfaces and beautiful animations.

More about TDLib on our blog:
https://telegram.org/blog/tdlib

Documentation:
https://core.telegram.org/tdlib/docs/
Code on GitHub:
https://github.com/tdlib/td

Bot API v.4.0 is here!

- Support for Telegram Passport
- Edit attached media in messages
- Add thumbnails to media and documents
- And more

Full changelog:
https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#july-26-2018

Bot API v.4.1 is here to support Telegram Passport v.1.1

- Support for translated versions of documents
- Support for new errors returned to users

Full changelog:
https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#august-27-2018

Telegram Passport changelog:
https://core.telegram.org/passport#recent-changes

The Bot API is currently experiencing issues, sorry about that. Back soon!

All good now, sorry for the interruption. 👍

Bot API 4.2 is here: Native Telegram polls, pinned messages in basic groups and more.

Full changelog:
https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#april-14-2019

Introducing Bot API 4.3: Seamless Telegram Login for web services and more.

Full changelog:
https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#may-31-2019

Bot API 4.4 has arrived.

- Added support for animated stickers.
- Added support for default permissions in any groups.
- Added support for descriptions and invite links in basic groups.
- All webhook requests from the Bot API are now coming from the subnets 149.154.160.0/20 and 91.108.4.0/22. Update your configuration if you control inbound access with a firewall.
- The next Bot API update (v.4.5) will allow nested MessageEntity objects, make sure your code can correctly handle such entities.

Full changelog:
https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#july-29-2019

Bot API 4.5 is here right before 2020:

- New MarkdownV2 that supports new entity types (underline and strikethrough) and nested entities.
- New and Nested Entities in incoming messages and captions.
- Added support for custom titles in groups.
- Added new slow_mode_delay field in Chat object.

Full changelog:
https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#December-31-2019

Bot API 4.6 is here to support Polls 2.0.

• Create bots like our demo @QuizBot.
• Send new types of polls: non-anonymous, with multiple answers, and quiz-style.
• Send polls to private chats with users.
• Get updates about changes of user answers in non-anonymous polls that were sent by your bot.
• And more.

Full change log:
https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#January-23-2020

Please note that the Bot API only accepts incoming TLS 1.2 connections (or higher). Kindly update your bot if it was using the outdated TLS 1.0 or TLS 1.1 protocol.

Bot API 4.7 is here!

• Supported sending and viewing the new 🎲 throws.
• Added methods to get and set the list of commands for your bot, bypassing @BotFather.
• Added methods for working with animated stickers in user-owned sticker sets.

Full change log:
https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#march-30-2020

Bot API 4.8 is live.

• Supported explanations in polls for Quizzes 2.0.
• Supported timed polls that close automatically at a predetermined moment. Use the new open_period and close_date fields.
• Supported new 🎯 animation for the Dice minigame.

Full change log:
https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#april-24-2020

Bot API 4.9 is ready for you.

• Added the via_bot field to show through which bot a message was sent.
• Supported video thumbnails for inline GIF and MPEG4 animations.
• Supported the 🏀 animation for dice (in addition to 🎲 and 🎯).

Full change log:
https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#june-4-2020

Introducing Bot API 5.0

• Run your own Bot API server.
• Transfer Bot ownership to another account.
• New options for Webhooks.
• New method copyMessage to send a copy of any message.
• Support for Live Locations, including the latest changes.
• Support for Multiple Pinned Messages
• Support for File Albums
• Support for Anonymous Admins.
• Support for ⚽️ and 🎰 animated emoji.
• And much more, read the full changelog here:

https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#November-4-2020

Bot API 5.1

• Added updates about member status changes in chats: my_chat_member and chat_member
• Support for improved invite links
• Basic info about voice chats
• And more, read the full changelog here:

https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#march-9-2021

Warning: After one of the upcoming Bot API updates, some user identifiers will become bigger than 2^31 - 1 and it will be no longer possible to store them in a signed 32-bit integer type. User identifiers will have up to 52 significant bits, so a 64-bit integer or double-precision float type would still be safe for storing them. Please make sure that your code can correctly handle such user identifiers.

Clarification: some user identifiers, but not all will become bigger than 2^31 - 1.

Bot API 5.2

• Added support for Payments 2.0, including inline mode for invoices.
• Added the field chat_type to the class InlineQuery.
• And more, see the full changelog for details.

https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog#april-26-2021

Bot API 5.3

Personalized Commands
• Bots can now show commands that change to fit specific situations – like a user’s language, chat type, or admin status.
• A new Menu button now appears in chats with bots, making commands easier to see and send.

Custom Placeholders
• Bots can display a custom placeholder in the input field. See our latest blog for more on the bot menu and placeholders.

• And more, see the full changelog for details:

https://core.telegram.org/bots/api#june-25-2021