What Is an Inline Bot in Telegram? How to Use It

What Is an Inline Bot?

An inline bot is a Telegram bot you use by typing its @username directly inside the message box of any chat, group, or channel you're posting in — without opening a separate conversation with the bot at all. You type @botname, a space, and a search term; Telegram shows a row of results above the keyboard, and tapping one sends that result to the chat you were already in. This only works for bots whose developer has turned on inline mode through @BotFather.

How to Use Inline Mode in Any Chat

Using an inline bot takes the same three steps everywhere — private chat, group, or channel you can post in:

Open any chat and tap the message field.
Type @ followed immediately by the bot's username (for example @wiki), then a space and your search term.
Wait a second for a horizontal row of results to appear above the keyboard, then tap the one you want — it's sent instantly, and the message box clears itself.

On phones, results appear as a horizontal strip right above the keyboard; on Telegram Desktop they show as a dropdown list just below the message field. The trigger and behavior are otherwise identical across iOS, Android, and Desktop.

You never leave the chat, and the bot never appears as a separate contact in that conversation — only its result does, labeled "via @botname" for whoever receives it.

Official Inline Bots Worth Knowing

Telegram ships several inline bots itself, so they work with zero setup, no ads, and no downtime:

@vid searches YouTube (around 236,000 monthly users) and inserts a video with an in-chat player.
@pic searches Yandex's image index (about 4.5 million monthly users) and sends a photo straight into the chat.
@gif finds reaction GIFs (roughly 130,000 monthly users; works best with English keywords).
@wiki inserts a Wikipedia article card in the language matching your Telegram interface (about 14,000 monthly users).
@bold turns typed text into bold, italic, or monospace formatting without markdown syntax.

Thousands of third-party bots add inline mode too — quiz builders, sticker search, translators, and more — but only Telegram's own bots are named here, since a username can be impersonated by anyone.

When Inline Beats Opening the Bot

Inline mode is faster whenever the bot's whole job is "look something up and paste it here." You stay in the conversation you're already having, the recipient sees only the result — not a wall of bot commands — and there's nothing to set up beforehand. It particularly shines in groups and channels, where switching to a private chat with a bot and copying results back would break the flow of a discussion.

Opening the bot directly still makes sense when a task needs several steps, saved settings, or a reply only you should see — for example, building a quiz in @QuizBot, registering a new bot in @BotFather, or managing a sticker pack in @Stickers. Those are multi-step workflows that don't fit a one-line inline query.

Why Some Bots Have No Inline Mode

Inline mode has real limits, so plenty of bots skip it on purpose:

It's off by default. A developer must explicitly enable it through @BotFather, and many never do.
It only returns pre-formed results — articles, images, stickers, short texts. A bot that needs a photo you upload, a voice message, a multi-step form, or your account details (like a wallet or a subscription bot) can't work that way.
Group privacy mode complicates it. Bots that read whole group conversations for moderation or analytics have no natural inline query to offer.
Telegram limits how much a single inline result can carry, so anything requiring a large reply, a file, or a live-updating value doesn't fit.

If a bot you use lacks inline mode, that's a design choice, not a bug — check its own chat's command list instead. Many bots that skip inline mode compensate with a Mini App or a rich keyboard of buttons, which can show far more than a single line of search results ever could.

FAQ

Do I need to add or start an inline bot before using it? No. Typing @ and its username in the message field is enough; you don't need to open a chat with it or press Start first.

Can I use an inline bot in a group where it's not a member? Yes. Inline mode works in any chat you can send messages to, because the query and result travel through you, not through the bot joining the group.

Does the "via @botname" label on a result cause a privacy problem? No — it only tells the recipient which bot generated that one message; the bot does not gain access to the rest of the conversation because of it.