Shared folders and sticker sets¶

Two things that are made rather than read: a folder other people can join, and a sticker set of your own.

Shared folders¶

An ordinary folder is a private arrangement of your own dialogs, and is in folders. This is the other half: a folder given a link, so that opening the link puts somebody in every chat in it at once.

Both are the same object underneath, named by the folder's id.

link = await app.export_folder_link(
    folder_id, title="Python", peers=["@somechannel", "@another"]
)

The chats in the link are named rather than taken from the folder, because not every chat can be shared: only public ones, and ones you can invite to. Asking for a chat the server will not share is refused outright, which is the honest answer. A link that quietly carried fewer chats than you asked for would be worse than one that failed.

Joining somebody else's¶

preview = await app.preview_folder_link(slug)     # look without joining
await app.join_folder_link(slug, peers=[...])     # take the chats you name

The chats are named on the way in for the same reason they are named on the way out. A link with twenty chats behind it should not put an account in twenty chats without being asked which.

A shared folder goes on being shared: chats added to it later are an update the people who joined can take or ignore.

gained = await app.get_folder_updates(folder_id)
await app.join_folder_updates(folder_id, peers=[...])   # take them
await app.hide_folder_updates(folder_id)                # or decline

Leaving¶

suggested = await app.get_leave_suggestions(folder_id)
await app.leave_folder(folder_id)                       # folder only
await app.leave_folder(folder_id, peers=suggested.peers)  # and these chats

Naming no chats leaves the folder and stays in everything, which is the safe default: leaving chats is the half that cannot be undone quietly. Telegram will suggest which chats you joined through the folder and are in for no other reason, and a suggestion is all it is.

Managing the links themselves:

await app.get_folder_links(folder_id)
await app.edit_folder_link(folder_id, slug, title="New name")
await app.delete_folder_link(folder_id, slug)

Editing leaves out what you did not pass, so a title change keeps the chats. Deleting a link does not remove anybody who already joined through it.

Sticker sets¶

Sending a sticker is in files and needs none of this. This is making one.

first = await app.upload_sticker("cat.webp", "🐱", keywords=["cat", "meow"])

await app.create_sticker_set(
    "me",
    title="My cats",
    short_name="my_cats_by_me",
    stickers=[first],
)

upload_sticker is two calls rather than one, and the second is the one worth knowing about. A set is built out of documents, and an upload is not a document yet: it has to be registered with the server first, which is what turns a handle into something carrying the id and access hash a set can hold. That registering happens in Saved Messages, costs nothing and sends nobody anything.

The default assumes a still image/webp sticker. Pass mime_type="video/webm" for an animated one, or "application/x-tgsticker" for a Lottie.

Three things shape every call here.

A set is named by its short name, not an id, because the short name is what a t.me link carries. Leading @ and stray spaces are trimmed for you.

A sticker is named by the document it is, not by a position. So removing one means having the document in hand: read it off the set, or off a message carrying it. That is also why remove_sticker takes no set, since the document already says which one it is in.

The emoji is not decoration. It is how the sticker is found when somebody types that emoji, so a set built with the same emoji on every sticker is a set nobody can search.

Kinds¶

kind= is one word: "regular", "mask" or "emoji". Telegram spells this as two independent boolean flags, which reads as though a set could be both. It cannot, so it is one choice here.

A set cannot be created empty, which is why stickers is not optional.

Picking a short name¶

if await app.short_name_free("my_cats_by_me"):
    ...
suggested = await app.suggest_short_name("My cats")

Editing a set¶

await app.add_sticker("my_cats_by_me", await app.upload_sticker("cat2.webp", "😻"))
await app.move_sticker(document, 0)              # counting from zero
await app.edit_sticker(document, emoji="😾")     # what it is found by
await app.replace_sticker(document, replacement)  # keeps its place
await app.remove_sticker(document)
await app.rename_sticker_set("my_cats_by_me", "Better cats")
await app.set_sticker_set_thumb("my_cats_by_me", document_id=document.id)
await app.delete_sticker_set("my_cats_by_me")

Renaming changes the title and keeps the short name, so the link still works. Deleting is not undoable and does not free the short name.