Help:IoTForIndiaBoT

Why Telegram?

Telegram (TG) is a messaging app built for speed and security, it’s super-fast, simple and free. You can use TG on all your devices at the same time — your messages sync seamlessly across your phones, tablets or computers (PC & Mac). With TG you can send messages, photos, videos and files of any type (doc, zip, mp4, etc.) each of large sizes (250MB+), as well as create groups for up to 100,000+ people or channels like our @IoTForIndia for broadcasting to almost unlimited ( a million users ?) audiences. Once you have the TG app, you can write to your phone contacts and find people by their usernames. TG is like SMS and email combined!.

Telgram is similar to WhatsApp but has more features. Here is a link to IoTForIndia Channe. This is a web view and will work on your Laptop or PC too. The Channel is an RSS style curated service. We also operate WhatsApp style ‘by invitation only’ discussion groups. The UI in this document is based on Windows Desktop version as of Aug 2018. For more details visit the Telegram FAQ

1 The left frame is Contact list.Will show Users, Bots, Groups and Channels. App menu lets you add a new contact or create a group
2 The middle frame is messages history or timeline.There is a search icon to search messages. Profile icon shows details of selected contact. User or Bot? You can make voice calls on TG like in WhatsApp (WA)
3 The bottom frame is to create new message, add attachment and icons or stickers

For a gentle introduction see IoTForum Welcome Email

IoTForum on TG

We have an “official “ @TiEIoTForum account on Telegram for servicing the private groups. You can communicate with us there.

• loT4l_Advisorsstartups  : Private and closed Telegram Group: for subscribing members of IoTForum.
• IoT4IndiaStartups : Private ‘by Invite’ group open only to IoT Startups listed in IoT Directory. To apply to be listed in the directory, use this Link https://tinyurl.com/IoTDirectory .
• IoTForIndiaGroup Public WhatsApp style group. Anyone can join. Intended for TiE IoTForum and IoTforIndia topics. Public You can join by searching for them in TG Contacts by username or clicking this LINK.

However, the key reason why we use TG is because of its BOTS. We have created a few Bots ourselves to serve our community on TG! More on Bots below..

What is a BOT?

A Telegram bot is an application hosted on a server that uses Telegram bot API to connect to Telegram Messenger clients. Bots in Telegram have a global unique username just like public Channels and Groups. The bot @Iot4i is a global name for the working bot.

• BOTS can not read your phone as they operate on the server not your phone.
• BOTS are restricted and can not message you as an individual unless they are replying to a message you sent them.
• BOTS can act like a "user" in a group and they can read and reply to messages posted in a TG Group.

The bot connects to users using text messages and custom keyboards. The BOT will replace the standard keyboard with buttons which are the expected options. When you press the button that text is sent from your device to the BOT. This reduces spelling errors..

You initiate a conversation with a command to the bot. In TG commands begin with / some commands for IoTForum TG groups are

Commands

Informational

• /start First and once only when the user registers the BOT as a contact (explained later)
• /help information on overall usage of bots
• /info about overall
• /tnc Terms and Conditions.

Enquires

• /topic Search past or future announcements, events, awards company or product
• /list select from 1500+ startups by 60+ City, 10+ Vertical, 12+ Horizonatal , 14+Services and 12+ Offerings

Posting to Website

• all Posts are queued for review by human editors before being published on the website
• /news Smart posting of news. BoT extracts text and images from webpage and creates post
• /company to profile your Startup or Consultancy
• /product your product "advertisement"
• /skill your freelancing skills or consultancy profile
• /celebration let us know your achievements
• /event publish a forthcoming IoT event anywhere in the world or webinars
• /invite asking applications to a challenge, award, pitching or survey
• /post Heavy Duty super set of all previous commands. Gives more fine-grained control.

Under beta

• /register to allow 2 way interaction with us.
• /vote to express likes or dislikes on topics etc. Will help us tailor to your needs