Are bots made by Telegram?
No. Almost every bot on Telegram is built by an independent developer using the open Bot API. Telegram maintains the platform the bots run on and a small number of official utilities, but it does not write, review or endorse the bots you find in search.
The official ones
- @BotFather creates and configures bots, and is where every other bot begins.
- @Stickers publishes and manages sticker packs.
- @gif is the inline animation search built into the app.
Everything else, including the large and well-known ones, comes from third parties.
How to tell what you are dealing with
- Open the bot's profile and read the description. A serious project names its developer or links to its source.
- Check where you found it. A bot linked from a project's own website is a very different proposition from one that messaged you first.
- Treat an unsolicited message from a bot as a warning sign. Legitimate bots wait to be started.
What a bot can and cannot see
In a private chat, a bot receives everything you send it, which is unavoidable, since that is how you talk to it. In a group the picture is different: by default a bot only receives messages that are commands addressed to it or replies to its own messages, and not the rest of the conversation. That default can be turned off by the bot's owner, and an administrator bot generally needs broader access to do its job. Before granting administrator rights, it is worth asking what the bot needs them for.