Telegram


The telegram integration uses Telegram to deliver notifications from Home Assistant to your Telegram application(s).

Setup example

To create your first Telegram bot, follow these steps:

  • Bots are not allowed to contact users. You need to make the first contact from the user for which you want to set up the bot.
  1. Tell Telegram to create a bot for you:

    • In Telegram, open a chat with @BotFather and enter /newbot.
    • Follow the instructions on screen and give your bot a name.
    • BotFather will give you a link to your new bot and an HTTP API token.
      • Store the token somewhere safe.
  2. To get a chat ID, send any message to the GetIDs bot.

    • Then, enter /start.
    • The bot will return your chat ID and the user name.
  3. Create a Telegram bot in Home Assistant:

    • Paste this into your configuration file:

    • Replace the api_key and the allowed_chat_ids with your data.

      # Telegram Bot
      telegram_bot:
        - platform: polling
          api_key: "1117774004:EABQulCACdgkQOTN3hS_5HZwSwxDlekCixr"
          allowed_chat_ids:
            - 44441111
      
  4. Create a notifier:

    • Paste this into your configuration file:

    • Replace the name and the chat_id with your data.

      # Notifier
      notify:
        - platform: telegram
          name: "sarah"
          chat_id: 44441111
      
    • Restart Home Assistant.

  5. From the conversation with BotFather, select the link to open a chat with your new bot.

  6. In the chat with the new bot, enter /start.

  7. Test the service:

    • Go to Developer tools > Services > YAML mode.

    • Paste this into the YAML file:

    • Replace the service and the message with your data.

      service: notify.sarah
      data:
        message: "Yay! A message from Home Assistant."
      
    • Select Call service. You should now get a message.

  8. You can do more with this. Check out the configuration descriptions and examples below.

Methods to retrieve a chat_id

Method 1: You can get your chat_id by sending any message to the GetIDs bot.

Method 2: To retrieve your chat_id you can visit https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_API_TOKEN>/getUpdates or to use $ curl -X GET https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_API_TOKEN>/getUpdates after you have sent the bot a message. Replace <YOUR_API_TOKEN> with your actual token.

The result set will include your chat ID as id in the chat section:

{
	"ok": true,
	"result": [{
		"update_id": 254199982,
		"message": {
			"message_id": 27,
			"from": {
				"id": 123456789,
				"first_name": "YOUR_FIRST_NAME YOUR_NICK_NAME",
				"last_name": "YOUR_LAST_NAME",
				"username": "YOUR_NICK_NAME"
			},
			"chat": {
				"id": 123456789,
				"first_name": "YOUR_FIRST_NAME YOUR_NICK_NAME",
				"last_name": "YOUR_LAST_NAME",
				"username": "YOUR_NICK_NAME",
				"type": "private"
			},
			"date": 1678292650,
			"text": "test"
		}
	}]
}

Method 3: Another way to get your chat ID directly is described below. Start your Python interpreter from the command-line:

$ python3
>>> import telegram
>>> bot = telegram.Bot(token='YOUR_API_TOKEN')
>>> chat_id = bot.getUpdates()[-1].message.chat_id
>>> print(chat_id)
123456789
If you want to add new chat IDs then you will need to disable the active configuration to actually see the result with the IDs, otherwise you may only get empty results array.

Method 4: You can also get the chat ID from the Home Assistant logs. If you have set up the bot already, you can send a message to your bot from an unauthorized ID and you will see an error entry in the log containing the ID.
Open your Home Assistant instance and show your Home Assistant logs.

Configuration

To enable Telegram notifications in your installation, add the following to your configuration.yaml file:

# Example configuration.yaml entry for the Telegram Bot
telegram_bot:
  - platform: polling
    api_key: YOUR_API_KEY
    allowed_chat_ids:
      - CHAT_ID_1 # example: 123456789 for the chat_id of a user
      - CHAT_ID_2 # example: -987654321 for the chat_id of a group
      - CHAT_ID_3

# Example configuration.yaml entry for the notifier
notify:
  - platform: telegram
    name: NOTIFIER_NAME
    chat_id: CHAT_ID_1
    
  # It is possible to add multiple notifiers by using another chat_id
  # the example belows shows an additional notifier which sends messages to the bot which is added to a group
  - platform: telegram
    name: NOTIFIER_NAME_OF_GROUP
    chat_id: CHAT_ID_2

Refer to the platforms mentioned in the Telegram chatbot page for telegram_bot configuration.

Configuration Variables

name string (Optional, default: notify)

Setting the optional parameter name allows multiple notifiers to be created. The notifier will bind to the service notify.NOTIFIER_NAME.

chat_id integer Required

The chat ID of the users or group

To use notifications, please see the getting started with automation page.

Text message

...
action:
  service: notify.NOTIFIER_NAME
  data:
    title: "*Send a message*"
    message: "That's an example that _sends_ a *formatted* message with a custom inline keyboard."
    data:
      inline_keyboard:
        - 'Task 1:/command1, Task 2:/command2'
        - 'Task 3:/command3, Task 4:/command4'

Configuration Variables

title string (Optional)

Will be composed as ‘%title\n%message’.

message string Required

Message text.

keyboard list (Optional)

List of rows of commands, comma-separated, to make a custom keyboard.

inline_keyboard list (Optional)

List of rows of commands, comma-separated, to make a custom inline keyboard with buttons with associated callback data.

Photo support

...
action:
  service: notify.NOTIFIER_NAME
  data:
    title: Send an images
    message: "That's an example that sends an image."
    data:
      photo:
        - url: http://192.168.1.28/camera.jpg
          username: admin
          password: secret
        - file: /tmp/picture.jpg
          caption: Picture Title xy
        - url: http://somebla.ie/video.png
          caption: i.e., for a Title

Configuration Variables

url string Required

A remote path to an image. Either this or the file configuration option is required.

file string Required

A local path to an image. Either this or the url configuration option is required.

caption string (Optional)

The title of the image.

username string (Optional)

Username for a URL which require HTTP authentication.

password string (Optional)

Password for a URL which require HTTP authentication.

authentication string (Optional, default: basic)

Set to ‘digest’ to use HTTP digest authentication.

verify_ssl boolean (Optional, default: true)

Set to false to skip the validation of the server’s SSL certificate.

keyboard list (Optional)

List of rows of commands, comma-separated, to make a custom keyboard.

inline_keyboard list (Optional)

List of rows of commands, comma-separated, to make a custom inline keyboard with buttons with associated callback data.

Since Home Assistant version 0.48 you have to whitelist the source folder of the file you want to include in the notification.

configuration.yaml
...
homeassistant:
  allowlist_external_dirs:
    - /tmp
    - /home/kenji/data

Video support

...
action:
  service: notify.NOTIFIER_NAME
  data:
    title: Send a video
    message: "That's an example that sends a video."
    data:
      video:
        - url: http://192.168.1.28/camera.mp4
          username: admin
          password: secret
        - file: /tmp/video.mp4
          caption: Video Title xy
        - url: http://somebla.ie/video.mp4
          caption: i.e., for a Title

Configuration Variables

url string Required

A remote path to a video. Either this or the file configuration option is required.

file string Required

A local path to a video. Either this or the url configuration option is required.

caption string (Optional)

The title of the video.

username string (Optional)

Username for a URL which require HTTP authentication.

password string (Optional)

Password for a URL which require HTTP authentication.

authentication string (Optional, default: basic)

Set to ‘digest’ to use HTTP digest authentication.

verify_ssl boolean (Optional, default: true)

Set to false to skip the validation of the server’s SSL certificate.

keyboard list (Optional)

List of rows of commands, comma-separated, to make a custom keyboard.

inline_keyboard list (Optional)

List of rows of commands, comma-separated, to make a custom inline keyboard with buttons with associated callback data.

Document support

...
action:
  service: notify.NOTIFIER_NAME
  data:
    title: Send a document
    message: "That's an example that sends a document and a custom keyboard."
    data:
      document:
        file: /tmp/whatever.odf
        caption: Document Title xy
      keyboard:
        - '/command1, /command2'
        - '/command3, /command4'

Configuration Variables

url string Required

A remote path to a document. Either this or the file configuration option is required.

file string Required

A local path to a document. Either this or the url configuration option is required.

caption string (Optional)

The title of the document.

username string (Optional)

Username for a URL which require HTTP authentication.

password string (Optional)

Password for a URL which require HTTP authentication.

authentication string (Optional, default: basic)

Set to ‘digest’ to use HTTP digest authentication.

verify_ssl boolean (Optional, default: true)

Set to false to skip the validation of the server’s SSL certificate.

keyboard list (Optional)

List of rows of commands, comma-separated, to make a custom keyboard.

inline_keyboard list (Optional)

List of rows of commands, comma-separated, to make a custom inline keyboard with buttons with associated callback data.

Location support

...

action:
  service: notify.NOTIFIER_NAME
  data:
    title: Send location
    message: Location updated.
    data:
      location:
        latitude: 32.87336
        longitude: 117.22743

Configuration Variables

latitude float Required

The latitude to send.

longitude float Required

The longitude to send.

keyboard list (Optional)

List of rows of commands, comma-separated, to make a custom keyboard.

inline_keyboard list (Optional)

List of rows of commands, comma-separated, to make a custom inline keyboard with buttons with associated callback data.

Extra data attributes support

...
action:
  service: notify.NOTIFIER_NAME
  data:
    title: "*Send a message*"
    message: |-
      That's an example that sends a message with message_tag, disable_notification and disable_web_page_preview.
      <a href="https://www.home-assistant.io/">HA site</a>
    data:
      parse_mode: html
      message_tag: "example_tag"
      disable_notification: True
      disable_web_page_preview: True

Configuration Variables

parse_mode string (Optional)

Parser for the message text: markdownv2, html or markdown.

disable_notification boolean (Optional, default: false)

True/false to send the message silently. iOS users and web users will not receive a notification. Android users will receive a notification with no sound.

disable_web_page_preview boolean

True/false to display a webpage preview.

message_tag string (Optional)

Tag for sent message.