Private Telegram Bot for X Link Previews

If you use Telegram and X a lot and often share X links in a Telegram group chat, you may have noticed that the X links cannot show as ‘Instant View’, a very convenient function natively supported by Telegram, unless you add a prefix such as ‘fixup’ before the X URL. If you hate yourself, you can manually add the prefix each time you share an X URL in the group chat. Alternatively, you can set up a Telegram bot with your VPS to add the prefix automatically. This blog contains a guide documenting the exact process followed to build, secure and deploy the private Telegram X-Link Fixer bot on a VPS.

Private Telegram X-Link Fixer: Automatically detect x.com or twitter.com links, replace them with fixupx.com for better previews, remove tracking parameters, and delete the original message to keep the chat clean.

1. Bot Creation and Configuration (@BotFather)

1. Create Bot: Search for @BotFather on Telegram and send /newbot. Follow the prompts to name your bot and obtain your API Token.
2. Disable Privacy Mode: This is crucial for the bot to “see” messages containing links in group chats without needing an explicit @mention:
   • Send /setprivacy to @BotFather.
   • Select your bot, then select Disable.
   • Note: If the bot is already a member of a group, remove and re-add it for this change to take effect.
3. Permissions: Add the bot to your target group chat and promote it to Administrator. Ensure it has the Delete Messages permission enabled so it can remove the raw link after posting the preview.

2. Prepare the VPS Environment

Log in to your VPS and set up a dedicated directory with a Python virtual environment to keep dependencies isolated from the system Python.

Debian and Ubuntu Setup

1. Update package lists and install python3-venv:

   sudo apt update && sudo apt install python3-venv -y

2. Install pip using the official bootstrap script:

   curl -sS https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python3 -

3. Create project directory and virtual environment:

   mkdir -p ~/mybot && cd ~/mybot
   python3 -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate

4. Install the required library:

   pip install python-telegram-bot

Fedora and RHEL Setup

1. Update system packages and install python3-pip:

   sudo dnf update -y && sudo dnf install python3-pip -y

2. Create project directory and virtual environment:

   mkdir -p ~/mybot && cd ~/mybot
   python3 -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install the required library:

   pip install python-telegram-bot

3. The Bot Script (bot.py)

Create the script inside ~/mybot using nano bot.py. Update the configuration with your bot token and authorized IDs.

You can use @userinfobot in Telegram to find your user ID, group ID, and channel ID. You may also use third-party Telegram clients to retrieve your ID (such as Swiftgram for Apple platforms or Forkgram on Android).

import re
from telegram import Update
from telegram.ext import Application, MessageHandler, filters, ContextTypes

# --- CONFIGURATION ---
TOKEN = "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN"
# Template user ID and group ID, replace with your own IDs
# Group and channel IDs must include the -100 prefix if retrieved from third-party Telegram clients
AUTHORIZED_IDS = [1234567890, -1001234567890]

# Match X/Twitter links (including fixupx.com) and capture query parameters separately
X_PATTERN = r'(https?://(?:www\.)?)(x\.com|twitter\.com|fixupx\.com)(/[^\s?]*)(\?[^\s]*)?'

async def auto_fix_and_clean(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    # Security: Ignore unauthorized chats
    if update.effective_chat.id not in AUTHORIZED_IDS:
        return

    # Extract text from message or media caption
    text = update.message.text or update.message.caption
    if not text:
        return

    # Check if text contains any X/Twitter-related link
    match = re.search(X_PATTERN, text)
    if match:
        protocol, domain, path, query_params = match.groups()
        
        # Only process if URL has tracking parameters OR is not using fixupx.com
        if query_params or domain != 'fixupx.com':
            # Replace domain with fixupx.com and remove tracking parameters
            fixed_text = re.sub(X_PATTERN, r'\1fixupx.com\3', text)
            user = update.message.from_user.first_name
            
            # 1. Send the fixed version
            await context.bot.send_message(
                chat_id=update.effective_chat.id,
                text=f"🛠 From {user}:\n{fixed_text}"
            )

            # 2. Delete original message
            try:
                await update.message.delete()
            except Exception as e:
                print(f"Delete failed (Check Admin permissions): {e}")

def main():
    app = Application.builder().token(TOKEN).build()
    app.add_handler(MessageHandler((filters.TEXT | filters.CAPTION) & (~filters.COMMAND), auto_fix_and_clean))
    print("Bot is running...")
    app.run_polling()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Optional: Match Links Only at Start of Message

By default, the bot detects and fixes X/Twitter links anywhere inside a message. If you prefer the bot to only process links that appear at the beginning of a message, modify the regex pattern:

# Default: matches links anywhere in the message and removes tracking parameters
X_PATTERN = r'(https?://(?:www\.)?)(x\.com|twitter\.com|fixupx\.com)(/[^\s?]*)(\?[^\s]*)?'

# Alternative: matches links only at the start of the message and removes tracking parameters
X_PATTERN = r'^(https?://(?:www\.)?)(x\.com|twitter\.com|fixupx\.com)(/[^\s?]*)(\?[^\s]*)?'

The ^ anchor ensures the pattern triggers only when the message begins with the URL, preventing casual references within longer sentences from being captured.

4. Deploy as a Systemd Background Service

To ensure the bot continues running after closing your SSH session and restarts on server reboots, configure a systemd unit.

Service File Configuration

Create the service file using sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/tgbot.service:

[Unit]
Description=Telegram X-Link Fixer Bot
After=network.target

[Service]
User=linuxuser
Group=linuxuser
WorkingDirectory=/home/linuxuser/mybot
ExecStart=/home/linuxuser/mybot/venv/bin/python bot.py
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and Start the Service

Reload the systemd daemon, enable automatic startup on boot, and start the service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now tgbot

5. Troubleshooting and Monitoring

Use these standard systemd and journalctl commands to inspect and manage your running bot:

• Check Service Status:

  sudo systemctl status tgbot

• View Live Logs in Real Time:

  sudo journalctl -u tgbot.service -f

• Restart After Script Changes:

  sudo systemctl restart tgbot