Telegram Async Standup Bot: Daily Updates Without a Meeting
Daily standups are the meeting most distributed teams love to cancel — but the updates inside them are genuinely useful. What you did, what you are doing today, what is blocking you: three facts that keep a team aligned, wrapped in a calendar hold nobody enjoys.
Daily Standup (AsyncStandupBot) keeps the updates and drops the meeting. An admin sets an hour and weekdays with /standup setup, and at that hour the bot DMs each member the same three questions. As answers come back, it compiles them into a single report posted to the group, so the whole team reads one message instead of chasing a scattered thread.
This guide covers setup, joining, skipping a day, the free-tier limits, and what the Pro upgrade adds for larger groups.
Steps
- Add the bot and let members opt in. Add @AsyncStandupBot to your group. Members who want to participate run /standup join — the bot DMs the questions, so each member must have started a private chat with the bot at least once (Telegram requires this before a bot can message a user). Members who never opt in are simply left out of the round.
- Set the schedule with /standup setup. Admins run /standup setup 09:00 mon-fri to set the hour and weekdays the bot sends the DM questions. Pick a time that lands before your team's real working day starts — the whole point of async is that nobody gathers anywhere at 09:00.
- Answer the 3 DM questions. At the scheduled hour each member gets the same three questions: what you did since the last standup, what you are doing today, and any blockers. Answer in the DM whenever suits you — there is no call to join and no window to race.
- Read the compiled report in the group. As answers arrive, the bot compiles them into one report posted to the group, so everyone's update is in a single readable message. Admins can post it early with /standup report if the team wants a mid-day snapshot.
- Skip a day without noise. On vacation or heads-down? /standup skip removes you from today's round without affecting anyone else's report — no need to explain yourself in the group chat.
- Pro for bigger groups and history. Free tier supports up to 5 members per group standup and keeps today's report only. Pro (one-time 150 Stars per group) removes the member cap, adds /standup history 7 for the last 7 days of reports, and posts an automatic weekly summary every Friday.
Good to know
- The 3 questions are fixed — what you did, what you are doing, and blockers — and identical for every member each round.
- Answers are compiled into the group report by design; only that group's members see them.
- Members who never started a private chat with the bot cannot be DMed and are skipped automatically.
- Non-answering members are simply left out of the day's report — the bot does not chase or nag.
- Free: 5 members, today's report only. Pro per group: unlimited members, 7-day history, Friday weekly summary.
FAQ
- How do I run a standup in Telegram without a meeting?
- Add @AsyncStandupBot to the group, have members run /standup join, and set a schedule with /standup setup 09:00 mon-fri. The bot DMs the 3 questions daily and posts one compiled report to the group.
- What are the 3 standup questions?
- What you did since the last standup, what you are doing today, and any blockers. They are the same for every member, every round.
- Are my standup answers private?
- No — answers are compiled into that group's report on purpose so the team can read everyone's update. They are stored per group and never shared with other groups the bot is in.
- What does Pro add for standups?
- Pro (150 Stars, one-time per group) removes the 5-member cap, unlocks /standup history for the last 7 days of reports, and posts an automatic weekly summary every Friday.