Why your Telegram bot ignores group messages
You added your bot to a Telegram group, but it never reacts to ordinary messages. It replies fine when you mention it or reply to it, yet stays silent the rest of the time. The bot is not broken — privacy mode is on.
Why it happens
Telegram switches on privacy mode for every new bot by default. In this mode a bot in a group only receives messages that mention it (@yourbot), reply to one of its messages, or start with a command. All other group chatter is hidden from it. That is a sensible default for most bots, but wrong for any bot whose job is to see the whole conversation.
The fix
Open @BotFather and:
- Send /setprivacy
- Choose the bot you want to change
- Select Disable
BotFather confirms that privacy mode is now disabled. The bot will start receiving every message in groups it belongs to.
Re-add the bot if it still does not see messages
The privacy setting is applied when a bot joins a group, not retroactively. If the bot was already in the group before you changed the setting, remove it and add it back so the new setting takes effect. After re-joining, it should see all messages.
Why this matters for a bridge
Anything that relays a Telegram group elsewhere depends on the bot seeing every message. If you are bridging a Telegram group to a Slack channel with Crosswire, privacy mode being on is the usual reason Telegram messages never reach Slack while Slack-to-Telegram still works. Disable it in BotFather, re-add the bot, and both directions flow.