Delayed posting in Telegram using Notepost

The Telegram messenger, which has recently become widespread, has a fairly rich functionality that not all users know about. It greatly simplifies communication with colleagues and friends by using the special @NotepostBot bot, with which it is easy to schedule messages or entire posts for a specific time. You can set up sending in the evening or early morning: it all depends on what information and when you want to convey to the recipient.

Notepost Features

Delayed posting is not the only feature that Notepost has. This posting bot is capable of a lot of features and may well replace analogues with less features. Especially its advantages will be appreciated by the owners of large publics and channels, because it greatly simplifies the work and saves time.

Posting delayed messages

With Notepost, you can create a delayed send message of various types – text, photo, video, any kind of document, or a combination of different formats in one post. When creating a future publication, it is convenient to choose the following functions:

• setting auto-repeat post or the time of its deletion;
• specifying the time and date of the message manually or using the built-in calendar;
• turn off the sound notification;
• enable or disable the ability to comment on a post by channel members;
• pinning a message in a channel or keeping it in the top among other publications;
• make a message that has hidden content, add the ability to rate or react;
• make a future publication in the form of a repost or a response to an existing message on the channel;
• Apply a watermark to a post with a channel logo, if any.

If you connect the Notepost bot for your other channels, you can copy the message to any of them, also choosing a specific time.

Creating Shortened Links

The Notepost bot allows you to shorten overly long links used in a post. Additionally, if you wish, it will add UTM tags to them so that you can track traffic.

Views are analyzed using Yandex and Google metrics known and accessible to any user.

Creating reaction buttons and additional actions

If you are the owner of a news public or channel with many members, it would be a smart decision to add buttons that reflect the reaction of users to the created post. Unlike other bots, Notepost allows you to place buttons in any order.

Despite the fact that Telegram does not allow commenting on a post where there is a tab for adding a reaction, the bot allows you to add a special button for discussion.

Additionally, you can add a button with a URL that will redirect to another channel or third-party site. Another useful feature for members is the ability to repost. It is convenient to name this button as you wish (for example, “Share with friends”), thanks to which public users can easily “share” the article you published.

Bots that are similar in functionality do not make it possible to correct the name of the tabs already formed on the post: for this, they will have to be deleted and recreated. Notepost allows you to edit existing buttons.

Editing posts and publishing in multiple channels at the same time

The functionality of Notepost is so wide that it allows you to carry out any editing of already published or previously pending posts. The bot offers the following features:

• moving the photo relative to the text;
• editing media attachments – changing the order of files, changing their signatures;
• editing media files after launching into a channel.

If you are the owner of several channels, just select the “Copy” function. Your future message will go to several publics at once to choose from.

Create templates

Another interesting functionality for active users of the Telegram messenger. You can create a template for your publications with ready-made captions, watermarks, links, so that in the future you do not waste time adding them to the next post.

You can use scripts that allow you to create message flows with just one click. This is a kind of content plan with a clearly defined schedule, which business channel owners will definitely appreciate.

To be honest, I did not quickly figure out where this cool thing is located, in total, you will find it like this – Go to the “Settings” of your bot that you connected → Your channel (select your channel from the list) → “Templates”. Each channel has its own templates, so they are in the channel settings.

Hidden continuation and holding quizzes

A hidden continuation is text that only subscribers of the channel can see. Others are encouraged to subscribe. Usually, a hidden continuation is used to hide a promo code, a link to interesting content (for example, to a new series of a series), or the answer in a riddle post.

One of Notepost’s know-how is displaying statistics of other users’ responses. This is very convenient for conducting quizzes.

Quizzes are a good way to attract new subscribers to your channel. Users are interested in knowing the correct answer, and for this they need to subscribe.

The quiz is created like this. In the text of the post, we ask a question and add a few hidden continue buttons. Each button has an answer option.

Automatic acceptance of applications for joining the channel

This technique is very successful for increasing traffic and attracting new subscribers to closed channels. Its essence is as follows.

Telegram allows users to view the contents of closed channels for 5 minutes without a subscription. As a result, many leave without signing. To force a user to subscribe to a channel before viewing content, admins use invite links with the “Application to join” option enabled. The disadvantage of this approach is the need to process all applications manually.

Notepost solves this problem.

In order to save your time, set up auto-acceptance of applications, then you do not have to process all requests from new participants manually. Notepost, unlike other similar services, is endowed with the ability to filter all users who want to join the community. For example, it will reject applications from potential participants:

• with hieroglyphs or Arabic characters in the name;
• without photo.

This feature will help prevent third-party bots from spamming your channel.

Another problem with accepting applications is that Telegram does not notify the user in any way that his application has been approved. As a result, the user may forget about his application, and the interest that prompted him to click on the link may cool down.

To avoid this, set up a welcome message in Notepost that each new subscriber will receive after the application is approved.

The function of prohibiting copying individual posts

Telegram allows you to enable a ban on copying content on the channel, but this setting applies to the channel as a whole. Some administrators want to use this feature only for certain, most significant posts.

Notepost gives you this option: you can disable copying for a particular post.

Additional Benefits

In addition to the main functions, Notepost has a number of additional advantages that the owner of a news channel will definitely appreciate:

• integration with Google-calendar to manage the created scenarios of publications;
• the ability to connect Evernote and Notion, if you prefer to manage your public through them;
• uploading reactions to Google spreadsheets;
• tracking channel statistics, which includes the total number of posts, expenses with income, and even net income.

In the Notes section, the Notepost bot saves all posts, including drafts and unpublished ones. The owner of the channel can at any time retrieve them from the repository and send them for publication.

Create a bot to send delayed messages

Before you start publishing delayed posts, you need to launch Notepost in Telegram and create your own bot for future posts. If you have previously worked with similar services, then you will not have problems here.

The algorithm for launching the messenger functionality is as follows:

1. In the Telegram search, find and run @Notepostbot.
2. In the window that opens, enter the /newbot command.
3. Then return to the messenger search and run @BotFather, set the / start command in it.
4. In the message that appears, select /newbot from the list of commands, which creates a new bot. Here you need to come up with a name, as well as a user name, at the end of which there should be a postscript “bot”. If the selected username is already taken, the system will inform you about it. After creating the bot, you will receive a token that will later allow you to connect to Notepostbot.
5. At the next stage, you can work out the appearance of the created bot – add an avatar, make a description, etc.
6. Next, the message about creating a new bot, received in @BotFather, should be forwarded to @Notepostbot.

As a result, the delayed message bot you created is connected to Notepost. Now you should link it to your channel where you plan to post delayed posts.

How to connect a bot to a channel

The algorithm for linking the created bot to the public:

1. Run the created bot and enter the /addchannel command in it.
2. Next, it is important to give him administrator rights with the ability to publish and edit messages.

So with the help of a couple of simple steps, you connected your bot to the channel – it is already ready to go.

How to test a bot?

Before you can start working with a delayed message bot, you need to check its functionality. To do this, select the “Create Post” tab, upload a test post or a simple image, point to the “Snooze” function. Then select the date and time of the post, confirm your actions.

The message will be published on the channel during the selected period. You can turn off post notifications if you wish.

About collaboration

Often several people are the owner of the channel at once, and this point is also taken into account by the Notepost developers. By selecting the “Editors” tab in the bot’s menu, you can add other users of the channel whom you plan to give the ability to change content and add new pending posts.

At the same time, the owner of the channel will not have to give the co-author any special rights and spend time on this. All work with the public will be through Notepost, so you can track any actions of your colleagues.

Additionally, there is a function of separate access to the content of the channel. For example, you can give a new author the right to change only his posts or all the content published in the group. You can also grant permissions only to create, delete or edit messages.

If you want to test the competence of a new channel manager, you can set a delay before posting. This feature gives you time to read the post before it’s released. Another option is to set up pre-moderation of messages when the publication does not go into the channel content without the approval of the administrator.

In total, Notepost is endowed with all the necessary functions for high-quality public content management. It allows you to completely abandon many other bots, which often do not have even half of the desired capabilities.