Telegram bot

The app can send its notifications to Telegram, and the same bot can answer you: write /have zelda in its chat and it tells you whether the game is in your library. Setting it up takes a few minutes and nothing has to be opened on your router: the app asks Telegram for the messages, so it works behind a NAS, Docker or a VPN as long as it can reach api.telegram.org.

1. Create the bot

1. In Telegram, open a chat with @BotFather and send /newbot.
2. Give it a name (shown in the chat, for example My Switch library) and a username, which must end in bot (for example myswitchlibrary_bot).
3. BotFather answers with the token, a line like 123456789:AAH.... Keep it secret: whoever has it controls the bot. If it leaks, send /revoke to BotFather and paste the new token in the app.

Use a bot only for the app. Telegram gives each message of a bot to a single reader, so the same bot in another program, in a second copy of the app or with a webhook set will not answer here.

2. Find the chat ID

The chat ID tells the app where to send the messages and which chat may ask it things. Choose where you want them.

In a private chat with the bot (the simplest)

1. Open the chat with your bot (BotFather gives the link) and press Start, or send any message.
2. In a browser, open https://api.telegram.org/bot<token>/getUpdates, with your token in place of <token>.
3. Look for "chat":{"id": followed by a number, for example "chat":{"id":123456789. That number is the chat ID. If the page shows "result":[], send another message to the bot and reload it.

In a channel

1. Create the channel and add the bot as an administrator with permission to post messages.
2. A public channel uses its name as the chat ID, with the @: @mychannel.
3. A private channel uses a number: post something in the channel, open the getUpdates page above and copy the id of the chat, which starts with -100.

In a channel the messages are posted by the channel, so only its administrators can ask the bot.

In a group

1. Add the bot to the group and send /start@yourbot_username.
2. Open the getUpdates page and copy the id of the chat: a negative number.

In a group everyone in it can ask the bot, /sync included. By default Telegram shows a bot in a group only the commands, the messages that start with /; when the group has other bots, add the name of yours: /have@yourbot_username zelda. To write to it without the slash, send /setprivacy to BotFather, choose the bot and Disable.

Find the chat ID before you turn on the answers (step 4): while the app reads the messages of the bot, the getUpdates page stays empty.

3. Set it in the app

1. Open Settings > Notifications (or the Notifications step of the setup wizard).
2. Paste the token in Telegram bot token and the chat ID in Telegram chat ID, and save.
3. Press Send a test notification: the message should arrive in the chat.

From now on the notifications you turned on there (new updates and DLC, your wishlist, new cheats, new games, failed tasks...) arrive in that chat.

4. Let it answer

Turn on Answer in the chat of Telegram in the same section and save. Write /help in the chat to see what it answers.

Command	In Spanish	Answers
/have zelda	/tengo zelda	Whether a game is in your library: up to five matches, with their regions, version, DLC and whether an update is waiting
/new	/nuevo	The games added in the last seven days, and the updates and DLC you do not have
/space	/espacio	The size of the library and the free space in its folder
/status	/estado	The tasks at work and how far each one is
/sync	/sincroniza	Starts a synchronization, as the button of the app does
/help	/ayuda	What the bot answers

• It answers in the language of the app. The menu of commands that Telegram shows when you type / is in Spanish when the app is in Spanish, and in English otherwise; the English commands always work. After changing the language, the menu follows when the app starts again.
• Only the chat set in the app gets answers; messages from any other chat are ignored.
• Messages written while the app was off are not answered when it starts again.

If it does not answer

• Check that Answer in the chat of Telegram is on and that the token and the chat ID are saved.
• If Send a test notification fails, the token or the chat ID is wrong, or the app cannot reach api.telegram.org.
• In a channel, the bot must be an administrator.
• In a group, start the message with /, or turn off the privacy of the bot as explained above.
• If another program uses the same bot (a webhook, another bot service, a second copy of the app), only one of them receives the messages: create a bot just for the app.
• "Invalid chat ID (a number or @channel)": the chat ID is a number (negative for groups and private channels) or the name of a public channel starting with @.