Why I don’t like starting Telegram bots
Telegram bots are useful mini-apps and notification tools. But they are also a one-way communication channel that users have very little control over.
These days, almost every halfway decent startup seems to want a Telegram mini app. On the one hand, it is convenient: you don’t need to install anything else, and everything stays inside Telegram, which many of us use every day anyway. On the other hand, it opens a communication channel you do not really control.
What happens when you tap /start in a bot? You give that bot permission to message you about anything, at any time. That means it can send not only the things you actually want from it, but also promotions and company news — which, let’s be honest, almost nobody reads.
With a channel, it is clear. Lost interest? Tap “Leave,” and that’s it — the channel will not bother you anymore. With a bot, it does not work that way. Yes, there are recommendations that the /stop command should be handled so that a user who sends it no longer receives messages from the bot. But they are only recommendations. How many people actually follow them?
Even if you delete the chat with a bot, it can still keep sending messages. The obvious way out seems to be blocking the bot. That sounds acceptable enough, but what if you still need the bot sometimes and simply do not want to hear from it the rest of the time? Blocking and unblocking it again and again can get old quickly.
That’s why I only start bots as a last resort. The problem is not that every bot will necessarily spam you. Most probably will not. The problem is that after a single tap on /start, control over future communication passes to the bot owner. A one-time interest in a product turns into a permanent communication channel, and the user has no convenient way to revoke that permission.