Pretending that telegram bot is typing?

Question

How can I make a bot to pretend that it is typing a message?

The following text appears in the chat when the bot pretend to type:

I use the python aiogram framework but a suggestion for the native Telegram API would be also helpful.

Haler

Answer 1

I seriously suggest using the python-telegram-bot library which has an extensive Wiki. The solution for what you want is described in code snippets.

You can manually send the action:

bot.send_chat_action(chat_id=chat_id, action=telegram.ChatAction.TYPING)

Or create a decorator which can then be used on any function you wish to show that action on whilst processing:

from functools import wraps
from telegram import (ChatAction)

def send_typing_action(func):
    """Sends typing action while processing func command."""

    @wraps(func)
    def command_func(update, context, *args, **kwargs):
        context.bot.send_chat_action(chat_id=update.effective_message.chat_id, action=ChatAction.TYPING)
        return func(update, context,  *args, **kwargs)

    return command_func

@send_typing_action
def my_handler(update, context):
    pass # Will send 'typing' action while processing the request.

Glebe

But, "typing" status goes away after few second even if processing the request isn't finished! How to get "typing" for longer time? – Castanets

Yeah, it looks like the /sendChatAction endpoint only lasts for 5 seconds and then stays off until the bot sends a response. In other words, making additional requests doesn't turn the typing indicator back on afaict. – Kisor

Answer 2

On Node Telegraf

ctx.replyWithChatAction('typing')

Pepita

Answer 3

For aiogram module you can use types.Message built in method answer_chat_action.

from aiogram import types

async def answer(message: types.Message):
    await message.answer_chat_action("typing")
    await message.answer("Hi!")
    

Here is another action types such as upload_photo, record_video_note and so on. And here is aiogram documentation.

Behalf

docs.aiogram.dev/en/latest/telegram/types/… link is broken. – Unroot

Answer 4

To make your bot pretend that it is typing less than 5 seconds use code like this:

await bot.send_chat_action(chat_id, 'typing')
await asyncio.sleep(5)
await message.answer(text)

To make your bot pretend that it is typing, and you need to do it longer than 5 seconds, do something like this:

async def keep_typing_while(chat_id, func):
    cancel = { 'cancel': False }

    async def keep_typing():
        while not cancel['cancel']:
            await bot.send_chat_action(chat_id, 'typing')
            await asyncio.sleep(5)

    async def executor():
        await func()
        cancel['cancel'] = True

    await asyncio.gather(
        keep_typing(),
        executor(),
    )

And execute it like this:

answer = {}

async def openai_caller():
    local_answer = await get_openai_completion(user_context.get_messages())
    answer['role'] = local_answer['role']
    answer['content'] = local_answer['content']

await keep_typing_while(message.chat.id, openai_caller)

await message.answer(answer['content'])

Also, instead of

await bot.send_chat_action(chat_id, 'typing')

you can try:

await message.answer_chat_action("typing")

Unroot