How to integrate Telegram with Dialogflow
In this tutorial, I explain how to integrate your Dialogflow bot with the Telegram chat app.
Why I prefer Telegram when creating tutorials
I usually prefer to use Telegram for creating tutorials and demos.
There are a few reasons for this:
- The process of creating the bot inside Telegram is quick since you can do it by sending messages to a designated “BotFather” account
- Telegram has only a single access token, so the integration steps are fewer
- Telegram supports a few rich responses such as buttons
- Hyperlinks in the text response of Dialogflow are automatically converted to clickable links inside the Telegram chat window
- Telegram supports multiple responses per message (for example, the 1-click web demo doesn’t support this)
How to integrate Dialogflow and Telegram
With that said, here are the steps.
Talk to the BotFather
First, you need to talk to BotFather. 🙂
Type /newbot
![](https://botflo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/botfather_telegram_newbot.png)
Choose a name for your bot
![](https://botflo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/telegram_botfather_choosename.png)
Choose a username for your bot
![](https://botflo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/telegram_botfather_username.png)
Copy the access token provided by BotFather
![](https://botflo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/telegram_botfather_copy_access_token.png)
Choose the Telegram integration inside Dialogflow
![](https://botflo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/dialogflow_telegram_tab.png)
Paste the access token and start the bot
![](https://botflo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/telegram_integration_dialogflow_console.png)
And that’s it. Now you can go to Telegram, find your bot (you can search for it by name) and then start a conversation with it.
![](https://botflo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/telegram_start_conversation.png)
About this website
I created this website to provide training and tools for non-programmers who are building Dialogflow chatbots.
I have now changed my focus to Vertex AI Search, which I think is a natural evolution from chatbots.
Note
BotFlo was previously called MiningBusinessData. That is why you see that watermark in many of my previous videos.