Build a Telegram Bot using Apps Script

launching sphygmobot - a human "heartbeat" checker telegram bot that pings you every 24 hours to see if you're alive and notifies someone in case your response fails.

problem statement

the requirement of something like this came out of a personal need where i had to ensure that i could somehow get to know in case an acquaintance of mine was doing okay or otherwise. we didn't get to communicate as much over chats or calls every day and i wanted to come up with a non-intrusive way where there was no need to cross a personal boundary (i.e. calling and checking in every time, every single day) and provide an ease of convenience for someone (in this case, my acquaintance) to having notified an entity (i.e. the "bot") of their well being.

if you leave it up to the humans to proactively mark their status of being healthy and/or alive, there is a good chance they may forget or choose to skip it altogether.

demo

you can access sphygmobot (on telegram) & watch a setup video here -

codebase

you can access the entire script on my github repository here or make a copy from the original script - here.

disclaimer

1. please consider this as a proof of concept (poc) and not a full-fledged application to utilise in everyday life!
2. also, this bot makes use of telegram bot api's webhook functionality and logs (stores) all parameters (data) including (but not restricted to) first name, last name, chat & message id, user name etc.