Extensive Text Formatting in Telegram Messages
Sometimes you want to decorate text in your messages to highlight important things or reference URLs and users. There is a lot of formatting options in Telegram, so please don't get carried away :) The simpler, the better.
Markup elements in Telegram messages include:
- Bold text
- Italic text
- Underlined text
Strikethrough textMonospaced text- Links
- Spoilers (hidden text, see below)
- User mentions through their ID (see below)
- Block quotation (which can be expandable)
- Custom emoji (which are available only for bots with paid usernames)
A message may contain no more than 100 such markup elements. If you try to send a message with more, the rest will be ignored. In addition to them, a message may contain any number of username mentions. (Note that only five mentions will trigger user notifications; see the User mentions section below for details.)
Bot API allows specifying message markup in HTML or Markdown. Telegram API, on the other hand, does not have this functionality built-in, but Telegram API libraries like Telethon and Pyrogram support similar syntax.
Monospaced text
Monospaced text can be formatted as an inline element (similar to <code> in HTML) or as a block (similar to <pre>).
When sending a monospaced text block, you can specify code language so that Telegram apps will apply syntax highlighting.
Spoilers
A spoiler is text hidden behind an animated cover that users can tap to reveal.
Pictures can be hidden with a spoiler as well, though this is not related to message markup.
User mentions
A mention is clickable text that links to a user profile. To create a mention using Bot API, you can embed a link in the format tg://user?ID=123456789. A username automatically becomes a mention when included in a message.
When a group member is mentioned, they receive a notification. However, if a message contains more than five mentions, only five of those people will receive notifications.
Bot may mention a user through ID only if they participate in the current chat or have turned on linking them while forwarding their messages. Additionally, a bot must have seen the user.
There's an important distinction between username mentions and ID mentions:
- Username mentions are simply text that references a username (e.g., @username). When clicked, the Telegram app looks up information about the username owner.
- ID mentions contain the actual user ID. Recipients receive the user's profile information along with the message, making the mention clickable even if the user later changes their username.