Developing Telegram Bots for Forums

Forums are a special kind of group that is split into multiple topics. If your bot works in groups, you should verify that it handles forums correctly.

In the picture, forum topics are listed and other chats have shrunk into a small column.

Technical perspective

A forum is simply a group with a special user interface. You can even open a forum in a regular chat view using the forum menu in the official apps.

Let's discuss how topics work technically:

• When a topic is created, a system message "Topic created" appears
• All replies to this message then fall into the topic
• The topic ID is exactly the same as the system message ID
• The General topic is where all other messages go, and its ID equals 1

Usage

If your bot works in groups, you should consider how it will behave when the group is a forum. For example, when a user sends a command, the bot should answer in the same topic, otherwise the response will appear in the General topic.

@dp.message()
async def handle_message(message: types.Message):
    if message.chat.type == ChatType.SUPERGROUP and message.message_thread_id:
        await message.answer('This is a forum!')
    else:
        await message.answer('This is not a forum')

Managing topics

Bots can open, edit, and close topics just like users. Depending on the forum settings this may require special admin rights.