Telegram alerts with a bot

1. In Telegram, open a chat with @BotFather and send /newbot.
2. Choose a display name and a username ending in bot.
3. BotFather replies with a token such as 123456789:AAH…. Keep it secret: it controls the bot.

Use a dedicated bot for FastPing rather than one that other software also uses.

1. Start the conversation the alerts should go to: open a private chat with your bot and send /start, or add the bot to a group, or add it to a channel as an administrator allowed to post messages.
2. Send a message in that chat. In a group, send a command addressed to the bot, such as /start@your_bot, so the bot receives it.
3. Open https://api.telegram.org/bot<token>/getUpdates in your browser, with your token in place of <token>, and find "chat":{"id":…} in the response.

Private chats have positive IDs. Groups and channels have negative IDs; supergroups and channels start with -100. For a public channel you can enter its username instead, such as @example_status.

In the dashboard, open Alert channels, choose the type Telegram, enter the chat ID (or @channelname) and the bot token, click Add channel and then Send test. Alerts arrive as plain messages: the headline (for example Down: Shop), the check's message and a link to the monitor.