Send poll

Use this action to send a poll with a question and a set of answer options to one or more chats.

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 a poll 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 poll.
6. Enter the Question and the answer Options and, optionally, other options.
7. Choose where to send it.
8. In the Response variable field, enter a name to store the data in, such as poll_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_poll:

action: telegram_bot.send_poll
data:
  question: What should we have for dinner?
  options:
    - Pizza
    - Pasta
    - Salad
response_variable: poll_message

Options in YAML

Response data

When the poll 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.