A Telegram Bot is a programme that behaves like a normal chat partner with additional functions. It performs predefined tasks independently and without the user’s involvement. The term bot is derived from the term for robot.

A Telegram bot can basically do everything a human chat partner does. Automatically or on request, it can send you the following information:

• Text messages
• Images
• Videos
• Files of any other kind

An important function of a Telegram bot is the possibility to execute commands in a Telegram chat, which then directly trigger actions or request information. For example, it is possible to send the bot the command “/help” or “/help”, which then outputs the commands possible for this bot in the chat as text feedback. This could be the following command list:

• /start
• /help
• /profile
• /aboutus
• /setting

Telegram stores all data, i.e. all chats and also the bots, encrypted in the cloud. An external backup of the Telegram data is therefore not absolutely necessary and the entire personal settings are available to the logged-in users across platforms at any time and everywhere. However, the sensitive data and commands that the bot then accesses externally can be available outside the cloud, e.g. on local company-owned servers in their own databases.

Normal Telegram bots are not private. Anyone can find and use them. However, Telegram bots can also only be made accessible to certain users if a separate communication channel with the bot is set up. This channel is a “private” group with the bot, to which only you, users approved by you and the actual bot belong. In this way, the Telegram Bot can only be used by the user group controlled by you.

Many of us admire the Internet of Things (IoT) and this is where a Telegram Bot comes in. It can, in environments defined by you, comfortably inform and react. Telegram can not only enable communication between people, but with a Telegram Bot, it can also enable communication between people and programmable machines. We can thus forward messages to multiple devices with one click or receive them from you.

If one considers the Telegram Bot in the context of the data source, the actual data usually remains on the local servers of the data source. The bot accesses the required data sets there and then prepares them for message output as requested on the end device. As listed in 'Where does the Messenger live?', only the actual programme structure is permanently located in the cloud on the Telegram servers.

The actual Telegram bot application with the relevant data is stored on its own computers and databases. Here, the application security depends on the administrator of the local PC environment on site. The Telegram Bot only delivers the message outputs defined in the application to the respective end devices. Only these message outputs are then located in the Telegram Cloud.

All messages and thus also the communication with a bot are secured via client-server/server-client encryption. In the Telegram Cloud, this data is also divided among a number of servers and stored there in encrypted form.

In the injection moulding industry, for example, a Telegram bot can send an automated message to a smartphone when the level of plastic granulate required for the production of injection moulded products falls below a certain level. In this way, it is possible to react ahead of time with a reorder or additional delivery and there is no downtime due to a shortage of material.

Effective fault or alarm reporting systems with smartphone connection can be configured via bot. For this purpose, fault messages that are managed, generated and stored in an SQL database, for example, are sent to the logged-in Telegram clients via the bot. The OPC Router can also offer commands to the clients so that fault message acknowledgements and comment functions can be designed. With the Telegram Plug-ins access to the SQL data, the Telegram user can also be offered queries, for example to access detailed data on fault messages.

If the functionality of production machines reaches certain predefined threshold values, a Telegram bot could automatically generate maintenance recommendations and send them to the respective machine operators. In this way, maintenance-related failures can be avoided and downtimes can be effectively planned in advance.