Type @gif followed by a word in any chat and a row of results appears above the keyboard. Tap one and it is sent. The bot was never added to the conversation and nobody else had to agree to it being there.
That is an inline bot: a search box you summon inside the message field. It is the least intrusive way bots work on Telegram, and the one most people never realise exists.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Summon results from a bot in any chat without adding anything to it.
- check_circle Know which of the built-in ones are worth remembering.
- check_circle Say what the bot actually learns about you when you use it.
- check_circle Tell when inline is the right shape and when you want the bot in the chat instead.
Nothing is sent while you type — the results are a preview only you can see until you tap one.
bolt A search box inside the message field
The message box has a second mode. Start what you are typing with an @ and a bot's name and the client stops treating the line as a message: it forwards the rest as a query to that bot and shows you what comes back.
Nothing is committed until you tap a result. Until then the row above the keyboard is private to you, so you can search in the middle of a group conversation without anyone seeing you rummaging.
Several inline bots are built in and need no setup. @gif searches animations and @pic searches images; others cover video, encyclopedia articles and web results. Typing the @ and a letter or two brings up the ones you have used before.
When inline is the right shape
Bots come in three shapes and they suit different jobs. Choosing wrongly is how a group ends up with a bot nobody wanted.
search You want a picture, a clip or a link
forum A group you do not administer
keyboard Something with a back and forth
lock A query you would not want logged
The distinction worth keeping: inline sees your query, a bot in the chat sees the chat.
settings Using one
- Start the message with @ and the bot name In any chat: a private one, a group, a channel you post to.
- Type your query after a space Results appear above the keyboard as you type and update as you refine it.
- Scroll the results They come as cards — a picture, a title, a description — rather than as text.
- Tap the one you want It is sent immediately, as a message from you with a note saying which bot produced it.
- Or clear the line Deleting what you typed sends nothing. Nobody saw the search.
This page is how it looks from the message box. The curriculum step is the other side: how a bot answers an inline query, what a result card can contain, and how caching and rate limits shape what the user experiences.
At a glance
- 1Use inline bots
Type @bot and a query in any chat to send a result.
- 2Useful built-ins
Bots like @gif and @wiki work anywhere.
- 3What it learns
Your query and who you are, not the chat.
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