«Essence» Bot Is Now Telegram Automation: Closed Channels, Channel and Group Digests

Just a month ago, «Essence» Bot read only public Telegram channels. Now it also reads closed channels through your account, collects digests of group discussions and channel overviews for a chosen period, filters posts by words, and adds signatures to posts in your channels. Together with summaries of new posts and autopublishing, this is no longer just a way to read channels but Telegram automation: you choose the sources and what to do with them, and the bot does the rest on its own.

Below is what’s new, how to connect it, and where each feature has its limits. This article describes the bot as of October 9, 2026.

Channels and groups are connected differently

What you get depends on how you connect.

• A channel is added as a source. The bot reads its new posts and sends you a short summary or the original text. You can also turn on a digest for the same channel.
• A group where you’re an admin is connected for a digest. The bot collects the discussions and, when you request it, sends you an overview for a period.

The bot doesn’t read private conversations, and you can’t connect a group where you’re not an admin.

Channels: public and closed

A public channel is added by username, by link, or by a link to a Telegram folder. You don’t need to subscribe to it or connect your account: the bot reads the channel. New posts arrive in the chat with the bot in near real time, with a link to the original.

The bot reads closed channels through your own Telegram account. You can connect the account once your first public channel has been added: open “Settings” → “Personal Telegram account” or the /personal_account command and sign in with a QR code, with your two-step verification password if needed. Then choose a closed channel your account has access to and separately allow its processing. The bot will read that channel’s new posts, store their texts, and pass them to AI for summaries. You don’t need to add the bot to the channel.

You can add public and closed channels in a single list of links or through a folder. Public ones are added right away, and for closed ones the bot will tell you how to connect your account.

If it matters to you exactly how the account connects to Telegram, you can specify your own proxy or your own api_id and api_hash on the connection page. Neither one protects the account from restrictions that Telegram may impose.

Closed channels have limits. Content protected from copying isn’t processed. A closed channel takes up one slot in your plan’s channel limit. Only posts published after you connect it arrive.

Groups: a digest of discussions

If you’re a group admin, the bot can collect its discussions and, on request, send you an overview for 6 hours, a day, 3 days, a week, or any period up to 30 days. Public and private groups of any type work: regular groups, supergroups, and forums with topics. In a forum, each topic gets its own section in the overview. In supergroups, the overview’s topics have links to the original messages; in regular groups, there are “Original” buttons instead of links.

The bot joins the group as a regular member. It doesn’t need admin rights, but it has to see all messages. Before it starts collecting, it posts in the group that it has been connected and what data it processes. Only messages written after it’s turned on are collected. You don’t need a personal account for this.

Over the past month, connecting got simpler: the button for admins on the website takes you straight to choosing a group. And before you request an overview, you can see whether there are new messages for the period. If there aren’t, no overview is used up.

Channels now have digests too

You can now get an overview for a period not only for a group but also for a channel, public or closed. You don’t need admin rights in the channel for this.

Turn on collection in the channel’s settings, and when you need it, request an overview for the same periods: from 6 hours to 30 days. The overview briefly sets out what was published in the channel and has links to the originals. It includes only posts published after collection was turned on, so it’s worth turning it on in advance, not once you’ve already missed a week. Deleted and protected posts aren’t included in the overview. Summaries of new posts keep arriving as before: collection for the overview doesn’t depend on them.

One overview covers one channel. There’s no combined overview of several channels and no scheduled overviews. The overview limit is shared between groups and channels.

Word filters

For each channel, you can set words that let posts through (“Only with”) or filter them out (“Without”). The filter looks for whole words in the post’s original text and doesn’t understand meaning, so it’s better to choose words with some margin. Before saving, you can test the rule on the channel’s latest saved posts. For complex cases, there’s an advanced mode with regular expressions.

The filter applies to delivery to your personal chat and to autopublishing destinations. It doesn’t apply to digests.

Publishing in your channels and groups

The bot can publish summaries of new posts from chosen channels in your channels and groups, up to 10 destinations. Now you can add a signature to these posts: fixed text at the top or bottom, up to 300 characters. For an individual source channel, you can replace the signature with a different one or remove it. The “Show example” button shows what a post will look like before you turn it on. Summaries of a closed channel are published only where you’ve separately allowed it.

What the bot doesn’t do

• It doesn’t guarantee that every message will arrive.
• It doesn’t load a channel’s or group’s history from before you connected it and doesn’t keep an archive of the source.
• It doesn’t read private conversations or groups where you’re not an admin.
• It doesn’t send overviews on a schedule and doesn’t accept your own summary prompt.

Where to start

The trial lasts 5 days and starts when you add your first channel or turn on a group digest for the first time. It includes up to 5 channels and one digest. Add a channel you read every day to «Essence» Bot, and if you’re a group admin, connect the group for a digest. Within five days, you’ll see which of these features you need.