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New feature Telegram Severity: low

Telegram Bot API adds custom video covers and start times

Announced12 Feb 2025
Effective12 Feb 2025
StatusIn effect

What changed

Bot API 8.3 (February 12, 2025) added the cover and start_timestamp parameters to sendVideo and the matching fields on InputMediaVideo and InputPaidMediaVideo, so bots can set a message-specific cover and start time for videos, including in albums and paid media. forwardMessage and copyMessage gained video_start_timestamp. The same release let bots send gifts to channel chats.

What it means

Tools can choose the cover image of a video post and the second it starts playing from, including in albums and paid media.

Who is affected

Tools that post videos to Telegram channels and groups.

What to do by 12 Feb 2025

Optional. Pass cover and start_timestamp on sendVideo, or in InputMediaVideo and InputPaidMediaVideo.

What this means for you

A cover is the still picture people see before they press play. Tools posting videos to Telegram can now pick that picture, and can make the video start from a chosen moment. So your video posts can look the way you planned instead of showing a random first frame.

The details

  • sendVideo: new cover (a file_id, an HTTP URL, or an attach:// upload) and start_timestamp (seconds).
  • Albums and paid media: cover and start_timestamp on InputMediaVideo and InputPaidMediaVideo, so they work in sendMediaGroup, editMessageMedia and sendPaidMedia.
  • Forward and copy: video_start_timestamp on forwardMessage and copyMessage changes the start time on the forwarded or copied video.
  • Reading: Video.cover (array of PhotoSize) and Video.start_timestamp.
  • Unchanged: bots can still upload videos of up to 50 MB through the cloud Bot API, per the sendVideo reference.

What to do next

  • Business owners: Nothing.
  • Marketers and agencies: Prepare a cover image for Telegram video posts if your scheduler supports it.
  • Developers: Expose a cover upload and start time for Telegram videos and pass them as cover and start_timestamp.

Primary sources

Checked against the source 7 Nov 2026

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