Telegram Bot API
Messaging API in Developer tools
Easy to get started with and friendly to develop against, with a powerful bot platform. Expect rough edges once bots need to do more complex things.
9 people recommended Telegram Bot API in Hacker News comments, 2 had mixed feelings and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 11 comments.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- mixed feelings
- 2
- warn against or regret it
- 1
The record
Recommended in 7 of 12 months
In 8 different threads.
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 9 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 8 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 22% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 11 of the 12 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Easy to get started with
“Telegram's bot API is a lot easier to get started with for sure…”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Rust at Scale: An Added Layer of Security for WhatsApp” “Telegram's bot API is literally one of the friendliest APIs (of any kind) I've ever seen.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Claude Code: Channels” “Yeah telegram is so easy to develop with - I was blown away.”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Rust at Scale: An Added Layer of Security for WhatsApp” Powerful, mature bot platform
“I cannot argue that Telegram has by far the most powerful bot platform.”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “Telegram Serverless” “it's nowhere near the maturity of Telegram's Bot API”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “Telegram Serverless” “the bot architecture is second to none”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Claude Code: Channels”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Telegram Bot APIThis page | 9 | 2 | 1 | 90% | 7 | — | — |
| Twilio API | 9 | 5 | 26 | 26% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
11 of the 12 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I cannot argue that Telegram has by far the most powerful bot platform.”
“it's nowhere near the maturity of Telegram's Bot API”
“There's almost always a great quality of life feature opportunities that require minimal effort to implement.”
“Telegram's bot API is actually nicer than Slack's for this since you get more granular message editing.”
“Telegram is also a no-go from a security/data privacy perspective for many use cases.”
“the bot architecture is second to none”
“Telegram's bot API is literally one of the friendliest APIs (of any kind) I've ever seen.”
“With Telegram you send a message via the Bot API and it arrives. 100% deliverability.”
“every time I've tried to use a library I've run into way more problems than just using the telegram API directly”
“Telegram's bot API is a lot easier to get started with for sure…”
“Yeah telegram is so easy to develop with - I was blown away.”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.