Telegram is about freedom and openness – our code is open for everyone, as is our API. Today we’re making another step towards openness by launching a Bot API and platform for third-party developers to create bots. Bots are simply Telegram accounts operated by software – not people – and they'll often have AI features. They can do anything – teach, play, search, broadcast, remind, connect, integrate with other services, or even pass commands to the Internet of Things. 3.0 update to the Telegram apps makes interacting with bots super-easy. In most cases, you won’t even have to type anything, because bots will provide you with a set of custom buttons.
Here are some sample bots that were built by the platform's beta testers:

• @ImageBot – send this bot a keyword and it’ll provide you with a relevant picture.
• @TriviaBot – test your trivia knowledge or add to groups to compete with friends.
• @PollBot – add this one to group chats to create polls.
• @RateStickerBot – discover and rate new stickers.
• @AlertBot – set a time and this bot will send you a reminder for anything you like.
• @HotOrBot – find friends with this Tinder-like dating bot.
• @GithubBot – track GitHub updates.
• @StoreBot – find new bots and rate them.

Our beta testers needed only a few hours to build these bots – setting up a new bot is a breeze. Just generate a key with @BotFather and use a simple https API to control your bot. If you’re an engineer, check out our Introduction to bots for details. Bots in Telegram will look different from human users: their chat and profile screens have a slightly different UI and they don't have access to all messages by default when added to groups.