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Telegram notifications

Lunetta can send you a Telegram message with a thumbnail the moment new footage is detected. Setup takes about five minutes.

Step 1: create a Telegram bot

  1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
  2. Send the command /newbot
  3. Follow the prompts to choose a name and username for your bot
  4. BotFather will give you a bot token — save it, you’ll need it in a moment

The token looks like this: 7123456789:AAHxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Step 2: get your chat ID

You need your Telegram chat ID so Lunetta knows where to send messages.

  1. Search for @userinfobot in Telegram
  2. Start a conversation with it (send any message)
  3. It will reply with your user ID — that’s your chat ID

Alternatively, if you want notifications in a Telegram group, add your bot to the group and use the group’s chat ID (negative number, e.g. -1001234567890).

Step 3: start a conversation with your bot

Before Lunetta can send you messages, you need to initiate a conversation with your bot:

  1. Search for your bot’s username in Telegram
  2. Press Start

This is required — Telegram bots cannot send messages to users who haven’t started a conversation first.

Step 4: configure Lunetta

Go to Settings → Telegram:

  1. Enter your bot token
  2. Enter your chat ID
  3. Enable the Send notifications toggle
  4. Click Send test message to verify everything works
  5. Click Save

If the test message arrives in Telegram, you’re all set. New footage will now trigger a notification automatically.

What the notification looks like

For video events, you’ll receive a message with:

  • A thumbnail image from the recording
  • Caption: Front door: new video at 14:30
  • A ▶ Watch button that links directly to the event in Lunetta

For photo events:

  • The image itself
  • Caption: Front door: new image at 14:30
  • A View button

Group notifications

To send notifications to a Telegram group:

  1. Add your bot to the group
  2. Send a message in the group mentioning the bot (e.g. @yourbotname hello)
  3. Get the group chat ID via @userinfobot — it’s a negative number
  4. Use that negative number as the chat ID in Lunetta

Troubleshooting

Test message fails:

  • Double-check your bot token — copy it directly from BotFather, no extra spaces
  • Make sure you’ve started a conversation with your bot in Telegram
  • Check that the chat ID is correct

Test message works but live notifications don’t arrive:

  • Confirm that scanning is running (cron job or Lunetta Ping active)
  • Check that the footage path is correct in Settings → General