Send animation

Use this action to send an animation from your Telegram bot to one or more chats. You can point at a remote URL or a local file, and add a caption.

Using this action from the user interface

If you prefer building automations and scripts visually, Home Assistant walks you through this action step by step. You pick what to target, tweak a few options, and save. No YAML knowledge required.

To send an animation from an automation or a script:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation or script, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. If you’re setting up a new automation, add a trigger in the When section. Scripts don’t need a trigger. They run when something else calls them.
4. In the Then do section, select Add action.
5. From the search box, search for and select Telegram bot: Send animation.
6. Enter the URL or File of the animation and, optionally, a Caption and other options.
7. Choose where to send it.
8. In the Response variable field, enter a name to store the data in, such as animation_message.
9. Select Save.

This action does not use a standard target. Instead, you choose where it sends in one of these ways:

• Select one or more Notify target entities. Each one already points at a specific Telegram bot and chat.
• Provide a Config entry ID together with one or more Chat IDs.
• If you have a single bot and provide neither, the bot’s first chat is used by default.

Options in the UI

Using this action in YAML

If you work directly in YAML, or you want to know exactly what Home Assistant does under the hood, this section has the technical reference. It lists the field names you use in YAML, their types, and which ones are required.

In YAML, refer to this action as telegram_bot.send_animation:

action: telegram_bot.send_animation
data:
  url: http://example.org/path/to/the/animation.gif
  caption: My animation
response_variable: animation_message

Options in YAML

Response data

When the animation is sent, the action returns a chats list. Each item describes one delivered message:

• chat_id: The chat the message was sent to.
• message_id: The ID of the sent message. Use it later to edit or delete the message.
• entity_id: The notify entity that sent the message.

An example response looks like this:

chats:
  - chat_id: 1234567890
    message_id: 100
    entity_id: notify.telegram_bot_chat

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Open Developer tools > Actions, search for this action, fill in the fields, and select Perform action. You see what happens on your actual entitiesAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more] without writing a line of YAML.

Still stuck?

The Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with the action you’re calling and what you expected to happen, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.