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If Telegram alerts stopped arriving after a Home Assistant update, an old notification action may be the reason. Home Assistant 2026.11 removed one legacy Telegram notifier; it did not remove Telegram support altogether.
This guide helps you identify affected automations, test the current Telegram bot integration and update messages without losing recipients or extra features. If your setup is large, you will also find prompts for an AI-assisted audit and repair.
Why Telegram notifications may stop after 2026.11
The deprecated YAML notifier defined as notify with platform: telegram was removed in Home Assistant 2026.11. Actions created by that legacy platform, such as notify.telegram or your chosen custom name, are no longer registered. Users who already use the current Telegram bot actions are not necessarily affected. This change is independent of Marketplace.
Telegram bot remains supported. It creates a notification entity for each authorized chat. Use notify.send_message for a simple text message, and look at the telegram_bot.* actions for media and Telegram-specific options.
Check your installation before making changes
- Find your installed Home Assistant version under Settings → System → Information.
- Open Settings → Devices & services and look for Telegram bot. Inspect your existing setup before creating another bot.
- Review allowed chats and their notification entities. Entity names and recipients differ between installations.
- Check automation and script traces for old actions reported as not found.
- Keep a restorable backup outside Home Assistant before editing files; record enabled states and a rollback procedure.
Text searches are useful for finding candidate references, including custom notifier names, but can count comments, backups and inactive files. Inspect automations, scripts, packages, templates and alerts rather than interpreting every match as a confirmed failure.
Find the notifier and send a controlled test
Open Telegram bot and review its entities and allowed chats. If the intended recipient is missing, use the integration menu to add an allowed chat. Keep bot tokens, chat IDs and personal entity names private, including when recording a video.
In Developer Tools → Actions, choose notify.send_message, select the correct notification entity and send a harmless test. Confirm that it arrives in the intended chat. The entity below is a placeholder:
action: notify.send_message
data:
entity_id: notify.TELEGRAM_ENTITY
message: "Home Assistant notification test"When placing this inside an action list, add the leading dash and preserve indentation. A successful action call alone does not prove that the right person received it.
Update a simple automation action
A legacy text action may have looked like this; its actual service name can vary:
- action: notify.telegram
data:
message: "The washing machine has finished"For a simple text message to a chosen recipient, the current equivalent can be:
- action: notify.send_message
data:
entity_id: notify.TELEGRAM_ENTITY
message: "The washing machine has finished"Keep the existing triggers, templates, recipient, action order and enabled state. Start with a noncritical example, inspect its trace and verify delivery. Depending on the automation and its error handling, a failed action can also prevent later actions from running.
Photos, multiple chats and special formatting
Do not assume a photo or attachment can be migrated by changing only the action name. Telegram bot offers dedicated actions. For example:
- action: telegram_bot.send_photo
data:
entity_id: notify.TELEGRAM_ENTITY
file: /media/example-image.jpg
caption: "Image alert"The path is illustrative: the file must exist and be accessible to Home Assistant. Review documents, videos, titles, templates, HTML or Markdown, keyboards, silent messages, group chats and topics individually. Formatting or field names may need adjustment.
Choose recipients explicitly. For some Telegram actions, a single bot without a specified destination defaults to its first allowed chat; with multiple bots an entity or bot selection may be required. Never assume every intended recipient will receive a message. Test the combinations you actually use.
Alerts and safety-critical automations need extra care
The alert integration can rely on legacy notifiers. Putting a modern notify entity name into notifiers: is not automatically equivalent. Check compatibility and preserve the required repeat schedule, acknowledgement and completion message.
For security alerts and appliances, test a notification independently where possible. Do not trigger an alarm, motor or appliance merely to test delivery. Mark any critical behavior you cannot safely verify as pending.
Use AI to help with a large migration
An assistant such as Codex can help inventory and update a large installation, but it can make mistakes and can expose information it can access. Grant only appropriate access, keep secrets out of the conversation, retain backups and verify the actual results.
Prompt 1: read-only investigation
Inspect my Home Assistant in read-only mode for legacy Telegram notifications. Check the version, Telegram bot, notify entities and available actions. Identify affected automations, scripts, packages and alerts, distinguishing active configuration from copies. Separate text, templates, attachments, recipients, groups and special options. State what is verified and what remains unknown. Do not modify anything or send test messages. Do not display or record secrets, private addresses, chat IDs or personal names; use generic placeholders.Prompt 2: careful repair
Adapt my Home Assistant legacy Telegram notifications to the current actions. First inventory uses and recipients, make backups outside Home Assistant and prepare a rollback. Preserve templates, action order, behavior and enabled states; review photos, buttons, groups and repeated alerts individually. Validate the configuration and verify delivery with controlled tests. Do not activate alarms or appliances for testing. Ask me if a critical function cannot be checked safely. Never expose secrets, private addresses or real IDs, and do not claim delivery was verified without evidence. Report changes and outstanding checks.Final checks
- Confirm delivery to the right person, group and topic.
- Test photos, formatting and buttons separately when used.
- Inspect traces and confirm later actions still behave correctly.
- Test critical alerts appropriately or record them as pending.
- Keep the backup and rollback procedure accessible.
A single text action may be easy to update; a complete installation needs a review of its actual behavior and recipients.
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