Telegram has launched a war against spam bots in reactions. Messenger head Pavel Durov announced new tools to combat bots that impose themselves through emoji reactions. Admins will be able to select specific spammers and ban them directly from the reactions list — while all emojis they left will be automatically removed. The same capabilities will also be available to moderator bots via the Bot API. In addition, the Telegram team is working on protecting polls from rigging. Below we break down the details.
Main points in 1 minute:
- Pavel Durov confirmed that in upcoming updates, Telegram administrators will be given new flexible reaction settings.
- Ban from reactions: the ability to ban specific users in a group chat and remove all their already placed reactions will appear.
- Moderator bots via the Bot API will also be able to clean reactions from spammers.
- Poll analytics: Durov also reported that Telegram is developing tools to detect rigging in polls.
- These innovations should remove “whorebots” (porn bots) from chats and improve the quality of communication in Telegram
🔍 Why bots attack reactions and why it’s bad
Over the past year, administrators of popular groups in Telegram have noticed a strange problem: spam bots have started massively placing reactions (emojis) under posts and comments. The goal is simple — to attract attention to their channels or lure the user into private messages. In his message, Durov acknowledged that “reactions have become a new channel for spam.” Indeed, while the user is reading a post, a clever bot can “befriend” them with one emoji click, and the person, intrigued, moves to the bot chat or advertising channel. Admins could not deal with this quickly: previously the only solution was to disable reactions in the group entirely — which is inconvenient and kills interactivity.
📉 Why is this bad? Passing bots clutter the chat with unnecessary activity, distract from the essence of posts, and can even spread dangerous links. Users complain about “ads” under the guise of emojis.
🛠️ New admin tools
To avoid treating the disease with poison (completely disabling reactions), Telegram is introducing selective removal of spammers from reactions. As Durov announced:
“Soon it will be possible to ban a user from the reactions list and remove all their already placed reactions in the group”.
This is the key new feature:
- Targeted ban. The admin opens the reactions list for any message, selects a suspicious user and bans them. When banned, all emojis that the user placed throughout the group are immediately removed.
- Emoji removal. Unnecessary reactions (for example, on an entire spam bomb in the chat) can be quickly cleaned.
- Bot API moderators. Updates will also affect moderator bots: they will receive API tools for banning from reactions. That is, bots like GroupHelp will be able to automatically scan the reactions list, find spammers and clean up after them without human involvement. This will significantly speed up moderation.
According to Durov, developers are already working on solving the “problem with spam bots in reactions.” Changes will appear in upcoming Telegram releases (in mobile and desktop versions). A detailed release schedule for the feature is not yet known, but community admins are already eagerly awaiting the update.
🤖 How moderator bots will clean the chat
New capabilities will be included in the Telegram Bot API, so popular moderator bots will also receive “cleaning” commands. For example, a moderator bot will be able, on the group owner’s command, to go through the entire chat community and promptly remove spammers’ emojis.
Advantages of this approach: there is no need to manually review every reaction — the bot can filter spam reactions by a given criterion in seconds. This is especially relevant for large groups (hundreds or thousands of participants), where it is unrealistic to visually keep track of reactions.
Thus, the administrator and the bot will work in tandem: the admin sets the rules (for example, ban everyone who massively places 👍 and ➕), and the bot automatically removes the “dirt” from reactions.
📊 What about polls?
Pavel Durov separately mentioned: the Telegram team is also developing protection against rigging in polls. The problem is that spam bots often create fake activity by voting for the options they need.
New tools should teach the messenger to filter out suspicious votes. Technical details have not yet been disclosed, but it is about a system for detecting mass voting from bots and the ability to remove such fake votes. This is important: rigging poll results undermines trust in analytics in groups.
✅ Summary and advice
Overall, the announced changes are a big plus for Telegram. Group admins will get flexible control over reactions, which will significantly simplify the fight against spam. The appearance of reaction-based blocking has already been called the “end of whorebots” in chats. Users and moderators will less often encounter advertising in emojis and distracting “invitations,” and reaction visibility settings will become more thoughtful.
What admins should do right now:
- Prepare for the update. Update moderator bots to the latest versions so they can receive new commands from the Bot API.
- Monitor bots. Use Telegram statistics reports and third-party tools to detect spikes in suspicious activity (many identical emojis, new accounts with reactions).
- Configure permissions. While waiting for the feature, you can try limiting reactions in the most vulnerable chats or temporarily removing from administrators those who abuse them.
Be sure to download the Telegram update when it comes out to test the new settings in practice. And don’t forget to follow the news from Telegram Info — additional tips from the service team may appear.
❓ FAQ
1. What are these spam bots in reactions?
These are automated accounts that place emojis under other people’s messages to attract user attention. Usually, through the emoji they move to private chats or channels and send advertising or unwanted content.
2. How will the new feature help administrators?
Admins will be able to selectively remove spammers from the chat. Instead of completely disabling reactions, you can select a specific user from the reactions list and ban them — their emojis will disappear from all messages. This is faster and more convenient.
3. What will moderator bots get?
Such bots (for example, @GroupHelp) through the updated Bot API will be able to automatically search for and remove spammer reactions according to set rules. Bots will be able to scan the chat and clean emojis without human participation.
4. When will these features appear?
Pavel Durov said that work is already underway, and new tools will appear “in upcoming updates.” Telegram usually releases major updates once a month, so we expect them soon (some features may first appear in the Telegram Beta test version).
5. Will this affect regular users?
For an ordinary user, the change is almost unnoticeable — reactions will still be available. However, the number of harmful spam reactions will undoubtedly decrease. And most importantly — groups will become cleaner and safer, which will make communication more convenient for everyone.
