A lot of what people do in Telegram isn’t chatting with people. It’s checking a home automation bot, getting server alerts, asking a reminder bot what’s next, or grabbing a GIF with an inline bot. Those are exactly the things you’d like to do from your wrist without reaching for the phone.
WristGram, our unofficial Telegram client for Apple Watch, supports bots properly: commands, buttons, inline mode and Telegram Stars payments. Here’s what works, what doesn’t, and how to use it.
WristGram is an unofficial, independent client. As of November 2026, Telegram’s announcement and App Store listing for its official watch app don’t mention bots, so this page describes WristGram.
What works on the watch
Starting a bot
Open a bot you haven’t used before and WristGram shows its intro with a Start button, just like the phone app. Tap it and the bot sends its welcome message. You can find bots through search or open ones you already use.
The command menu
Bots publish a list of commands, such as /status, /help or /lights_off. In WristGram,
tap the / button in the message box to see the bot’s command menu with each command’s description,
then tap one to send it. Commands that appear inside messages are tappable too, so you rarely need to type.
Inline keyboards
Many bots reply with buttons under their messages: “Turn on”, “Next page”, “Confirm”. WristGram shows these inline keyboards under the message and sizes them for the small screen, wrapping long rows instead of cutting them off. Tap a button and the bot reacts: it may edit the message in place, send a new one, or show a short notice. Edits show up live in the open chat. Link buttons are supported too.
Inline bots
Inline bots work in any chat. Type the bot’s @username followed by a search, for example a GIF or sticker query, and WristGram shows the results in a list. Pick one and it’s sent to the conversation. Buttons that switch you to inline mode in another chat are supported as well.
Telegram Stars payments
Some bots sell digital goods or services for Telegram Stars. When a bot sends a Stars invoice, WristGram shows it in the chat with the title and price. Tap to pay, check the confirmation screen, and the payment goes through on the watch. For invoices that need a bank card, finish the payment in Telegram on your phone.
What doesn’t work
- Mini Apps. Mini Apps (sometimes called Web Apps) are web pages that run inside Telegram. watchOS doesn’t give apps the web view they need, so WristGram doesn’t support them. Use your iPhone or computer for those.
- Card payments. Pay those in Telegram on your phone, as above.
Everything else a bot does through regular messages, media, polls, commands and buttons appears on the watch the same way it does on the phone.
Bots worth having on your wrist
Bots are most useful on a watch when the interaction is short: one glance, one tap. Some ideas:
- Home automation. Many smart-home setups can send alerts and accept commands through a Telegram bot. Turn off the lights or check the door from your wrist with a single button.
- Server and app alerts. If your monitoring posts to a Telegram bot, you see the alert as a notification and can acknowledge it with an inline button.
- Reminders and to-do bots. Add a task by voice dictation and get the reminder as a notification.
- Translation and lookup bots. Ask a quick question and read the answer without unlocking your phone.
- GIF and sticker inline bots. Find the right reaction from your wrist.
Pair this with WristGram’s rich notifications and a bot alert becomes something you can act on right from the notification. And because WristGram works without your iPhone, your bots keep working when you’re out with just the watch.
Command menus, inline keyboards, inline bots and Stars payments on your wrist.
For bot developers
You don’t need to do anything special for WristGram. It uses Telegram’s standard bot features, so a bot that works in the official phone apps works here, apart from Mini Apps. A few tips make bots nicer on a watch:
- Set your command list with descriptions, so it shows up in the / menu.
- Keep button labels short. Two or three buttons per row read well on a small screen.
- Edit messages in place for status updates instead of sending new ones each time.
- Put the key information in the first line, since that’s what a notification shows first.
How bots compare with other watch apps
Bot support varies a lot between Telegram watch apps, and most listings don’t mention it at all. See the full comparison of Telegram apps for Apple Watch and WristGram vs the official watch app for details. Plans and prices are on the pricing page.