How to create a Telegram mini app from your phone

What you need

A phone with Telegram and a browser on it. Nothing to download: the editor is the page builder.build-mini.app, not an app from a store.

You also need a bot whose menu will carry the app’s button. Open @BotFather in Telegram, send /newbot, pick a name and an address, and back comes a token like 123456789:AA... On a phone the easiest way to copy it is a long press on the message. Copy all of it, including the digits before the colon: a truncated token is a common reason a bot will not connect.

How the editor works on a phone

A three-column desktop layout does not fit a phone screen, so it is split into tabs: Screens, Canvas, Properties, Layers and Data. Screens run as a strip and are switched with a tap.

Editing happens on the canvas itself: tap a block in the app and what can be changed in it appears below, while the canvas stays visible above the panel, so the result of each change shows at once. A new block is added with the “+” button, order is changed with Up and Down, and a block that landed in the wrong container is moved out with one command.

On a phone a template is the sensible start. Dragging twenty blocks onto an empty screen with a finger takes a while; adjusting an assembled template is a matter of swapping text and photographs.

Data and photographs from a phone

Lists in the app — products, services, doctors, vacancies — are drawn from tables. On a phone tables open in the Data tab, and a row is edited as a card with fields rather than as a wide grid you would have to scroll sideways. The schema of all the project’s tables opens full screen with pinch zoom.

Photographs are uploaded from the phone’s gallery, including HEIC shots, the format an iPhone uses by default.

After publishing you do not even need the editor for this: the owner edits rows right inside the published app, so a price or a new service can be changed from the same Telegram the submissions arrive in.

Publishing and checking

The bot token is pasted in the editor once. Then the Publish button: the app gets an address and the bot gets a menu button, which the platform sets itself. The result is easiest to check on the same phone: open the bot in Telegram, tap the menu button and walk the customer’s path from the first screen to a sent request.

Building is free with no time limit, and the first publish opens three days of trial. A plan is paid with a Russian bank card or with Telegram Stars: 1,000, 2,500 or 7,500 ⭐ a month. Stars are cheapest bought in Telegram on a computer through @PremiumBot — inside the phone app they are sold by Apple and Google with their own commission.

What is still easier at a computer

Everything the editor can do is available on a phone. But a project of a dozen screens with several related tables is easier to think through on a wide screen, where the data schema and the canvas are visible together. A common pattern is to assemble the base one evening at a computer and then run prices, services and small edits from the phone.

Other questions

Can a Telegram mini app be created from a phone alone?

Yes. The bot is created with @BotFather inside Telegram, and the builder’s editor opens in the phone’s browser and works in full: screens, blocks, tables, publishing. No step needs a computer.

Do I need to download the builder’s app?

No. The editor opens in the phone’s browser at builder.build-mini.app. The published mini app asks nothing of visitors either: it opens in Telegram from the bot’s menu button.

How do I pay for a plan from a phone?

With a Russian bank card through YooKassa, or with Telegram Stars — 1,000, 2,500 or 7,500 ⭐ a month depending on the plan. Stars are cheaper bought in Telegram on a computer through @PremiumBot: on a phone they are sold by Apple and Google with their own commission.

Where should building from a phone start?

With a template: it is quicker than from scratch, because the transitions and forms are already wired. Most of the time goes on your own text and photographs rather than on the screens.