How to Launch and Use Telegram Mini Apps: WebApp API Integration, Inline Triggers & Multiplayer Collaboration
Mini apps do not have one entrance. They open from a bot's menu button, from a button inside a message, from the attachment menu, from a link somebody sent, and from inside another app's interface.
Knowing which door you came through is worth something, because the door tells you who put it there.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Recognise the ways a mini app can open.
- check_circle Tell one you sought out from one that found you.
- check_circle Close one properly and know what is kept.
- check_circle Get back to one you used before.
However it opens, it is the same thing: a page from the bot's operator, shown inside Telegram.
extension The door tells you the context
Opening one from a bot's own menu means you went there deliberately. Opening one from a button in a message means somebody else put it in front of you — possibly the channel you subscribe to, possibly a stranger in a group, possibly a forwarded message from an account impersonating something.
That distinction is the whole security judgement, because the app itself looks identical either way. A convincing interface inside Telegram feels endorsed by Telegram, and it is not.
Practically, the ones you use regularly are worth reaching through the bot's chat rather than through whatever link surfaced today. That habit costs two seconds and removes the entire class of lookalike attacks.
Four entrances
Same technology, four different levels of confidence.
touch_app Somebody put it there
add Installed into the attachment menu
link A link somebody sent
Reach the ones that matter through the bot's own chat. A link is an entrance anybody can build.
settings Using them
- Open regular ones from the bot's chat Not from a link.
- Check the username before entering anything Against the project's own site.
- Pin the bots you use often So the habit is easy.
- Log out inside the app before closing it Closing is not signing out.
- Review your attachment menu occasionally And remove what you no longer use.
- Never enter a key, seed phrase or login code Into any of them.
This page is how they open. The curriculum step is what they are: a web page given a small amount of information about you, how that identification is verified, and what a developer building one can and cannot reach.
Launching mini apps at a glance
The four entrances and what each implies, closing against signing out, the attachment menu, and checking a username, on one page. Tap to open it at full resolution.
