How to Use a Telegram Bot in a Group Without Adding It (Guest Mode)
Adding a bot to a Telegram group usually means finding an admin, opening the group's member list, searching for the bot, and giving it a slot in a chat that might already be full of tools nobody uses. Guest Mode, added to the Telegram Bot API in May 2026, skips all of that: any member of any group can @-mention a bot the bot has never joined, and the bot answers right there, in the chat, visible to everyone.
Under the hood, Telegram sends the bot a one-off update the moment someone @-mentions it or replies to one of its messages. The bot gets exactly one reply to work with, then the conversation moves on — there's no ongoing membership, no admin approval, and nothing left behind if nobody ever tags the bot again.
This guide walks through using it as a group member, with SplitTabsBot as a live example, then covers what a Guest Mode reply can and can't do.
Steps
- Pick a group you're already in. It doesn't need to have any bots added — Guest Mode works precisely because the bot has never joined. Any group chat you're a member of qualifies.
- Type the bot's @username followed by what you want. For example, type @SplitTabsBot 120 pizza @anna @ben in the group's message box, exactly as you'd type a normal message.
- Send it as a normal message. Unlike inline mode, you don't pick a card from a popup first — you send the @-mention as a regular group message and wait for the bot's reply.
- Read the bot's reply, posted directly in the chat. SplitTabsBot works out the per-person math from your message and posts the computed split as its one reply, visible to the whole group, attributed to the bot.
- Tap the reply's buttons if you want to continue. Every Guest Mode reply carries an "Open" button that opens a private chat with the bot, and, in a group, an "Add to this group" button if you'd rather have it as a full member going forward.
Good to know
- Guest Mode is the group member's side of a feature Telegram calls Guest Chat Mode, part of Bot API 10.0 (May 2026) — it's separate from inline mode, which has existed for years and is covered in a companion guide.
- A bot only answers once per @-mention or reply. It can't see the group's earlier messages, can't send a follow-up on its own, and can't schedule anything into that chat for later — the reply has to stand on its own.
- Up to three different bots can each answer the same message if more than one is @-mentioned in it, so a single message can pull in replies from several bots at once.
- Not every reply carries the real result. SplitTabsBot, WhisperLockBot, NudgeRemindBot, and IcebreakerDailyBot answer with the actual computed output (a split, a locked message, the reminder it would set, a conversation-starter question); some other bots reply with a short pitch card pointing at what they do instead, since their features need an ongoing membership to work.
- A bot's owner has to turn Guest Chat Mode on for that bot before it will answer — if a bot doesn't respond to an @-mention in a group it's never joined, that setting may simply not be enabled yet for that particular bot.
- Nothing about a Guest Mode reply installs the bot in the group. If the group wants it there permanently, someone still has to tap "Add to this group" or add it the normal way.
FAQ
- What is Telegram's Guest Mode?
- A Bot API 10.0 feature (May 2026) that lets any group member @-mention a bot, or reply to one of its messages, in a group the bot has never joined, and get one reply back, posted directly in that chat.
- Do I need to be a group admin to use it?
- No. Any member of the group can @-mention an eligible bot — there's no approval step and no admin action involved on the group's side.
- Can the bot read the rest of the group's conversation?
- No. A Guest Mode reply is answered from the single message that @-mentioned or replied to the bot — it has no access to the chat's history or its member list.
- What happens if I @-mention a bot and nothing happens?
- Guest Chat Mode is a setting the bot's owner has to enable — if it's off for that bot, an @-mention in a group it hasn't joined won't produce a reply, even though the feature exists.