Telegram bots are a great way to interact with users and automate tasks. In this tutorial, we'll walk through the process of creating a Telegram bot using Python and integrating it with the Gemini AI API to add advanced conversational capabilities.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have the following:

• A Telegram account
• Python installed on your system
• Visual Studio Code (or any other preferred text editor/IDE)
• Access to the Gemini AI API

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Step 1 -> Setup Telegram Bot:

1. Go to Telegram and search for BotFather.
2. Start a chat with BotFather and type /newbot.
3. Follow the instructions to create a new bot. Give it a unique name ending with "bot".
4. Once created, BotFather will provide you with a token. Keep this token safe as it will be needed to authenticate your bot.

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Step 2 -> Install Required Libraries:

1. Open a terminal or command prompt.

2. Install the pyTelegramBotAPI library using pip:

   pip install pyTelegramBotAPI

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Step 3 -> Create Python Script:

1. Inside your project folder, create a new Python script file. Name it main.py.

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Step 4 -> Add Telegram Bot Code:

1. Open main.py in VSCode.

2. Add the following code to set up the Telegram bot:

   import telebot
   
   bot = telebot.TeleBot("TOKEN", parse_mode=None) # Replace "TOKEN" with your actual token
   
   @bot.message_handler(func=lambda m: True)
   def echo_all(message):
       bot.reply_to(message, message.text)
   
   bot.infinity_polling()

3. Replace "TOKEN" with the token obtained from BotFather.

4. Run python main.py, then go to your bot in Telegram and send a message. It should echo back your message.

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Step 5 -> Obtain Gemini AI API Key:

1. Visit the DeepMind website: https://ai.google.dev.
2. Navigate to Google AI Studio and locate the section for accessing the Gemini AI API.
3. Generate an API key.

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Step 6 -> Integrate Gemini AI Code:

1. Install the required library:

   pip install google-generativeai

2. Create a new file named gemini.py and add the following code:

   import google.generativeai as genai
   
   genai.configure(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")
   
   convo = genai.ChatSession()
   convo.send_message("Hello! How old are you?")
   print(convo.last.text)

3. Replace "YOUR_API_KEY" with your actual API key.

4. Now integrate this with main.py. Modify the bot handler:

   @bot.message_handler(func=lambda m: True)
   def echo_all(message):
       convo.send_message(message.text)
       response = convo.last.text
       bot.reply_to(message, response)

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Step 7 -> Secure API Keys with .env File:

1. Create a .env file in the root folder and add your API keys:

   API_KEY=your_gemini_api_key
   TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=your_telegram_bot_token

2. Install python-dotenv:

   pip install python-dotenv

3. Modify main.py to use environment variables:

   import os
   from dotenv import load_dotenv
   
   load_dotenv()
   
   GEMINI_API_KEY = os.getenv("API_KEY")
   TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN = os.getenv("TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN")

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Step 8 -> Run the Bot Locally:

1. Save main.py in VSCode.

2. Open a terminal or command prompt and navigate to the project folder.

3. Run the script:

   python main.py

4. Check if the bot is working by sending messages on Telegram.

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Step 9 -> Deploy the Bot (Optional):

If you want your bot to be accessible 24x7, deploy it to a cloud service.

Popular Hosting Options:

• Heroku
• AWS
• DigitalOcean

Follow their deployment guides to ensure your bot runs continuously.

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🎉 Congratulations!

You've successfully built a Telegram bot with Python and integrated it with the Gemini AI API.

Happy bot building! 🚀

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