[SimpleX] BitcoinTalk notification bot (mentions, merits, topics, users)

[TryNinja]

For those who don't like or use Telegram, here is a notification bot for SimpleX.

What is SimpleX?

SimpleX is an E2E-encrypted messaging app that does not require a phone number, email, or any other personal information.

https://simplex.chat


Features

- Mention notifications
- Merit notifications
- Tracked topics
- Tracked phrases
- Tracked users
- Ignored users


How do I use the bot?

1. Add the bot to your contacts with the SimpleX address:

simplex:/contact#/?v=2-7&smp=smp%3A%2F%2FPQUV2eL0t7OStZOoAsPEV2QYWt4-xilbakvGUGOItUo%3D%40smp6.simplex.im%2F3-DlKp810rjWdx9WnzsMFpnGbl6RY2gy%23%2F%3Fv%3D1-3%26dh%3DMCowBQYDK2VuAyEA0tDzeBBjlWO1f0C5uQR2cIXcvoNbtTufArwHporP1D0%253D%26srv%3Dbylepyau3ty4czmn77q4fglvperknl4bi2eb2fdy2bh4jxtf32kf73yd.onion

2. Wait a few seconds for the bot to accept your contact.

3. Follow the bot instructions (set your forum username and uid).

4. That's it!

Keep in mind that the bot might have a small delay when answering (compared to the telegram one) due to the SimpleX client api.
Also, there might be issues since it's my first time coding a bot for SimpleX. Let me know of any bugs.


Commands

/help - shows a list of commands

/mentions - Toggle mention notifications
/merits - Toggle merit notifications
/only_direct - Toggle only direct mentions (@username) and quotes notifications (for those with common words as usernames).

/topic ID - Adds tracked topic
/del_topic ID - Deletes a tracked topic
/list_topics - Lists tracked topics

/ignoretopic ID - Adds ignored topic
/del_ignoretopic ID - Deletes a ignored topic
/list_ignoretopics - Lists ignored topics

/phrase TEXT - Adds tracked phrase
/del_phrase TEXT - Deletes a tracked phrase
/list_phrases - Lists tracked phrases

/user TEXT - Adds tracked user
/del_user TEXT - Deletes a tracked user
/list_users - Lists tracked users

/ignoreuser TEXT - Adds ignored user
/del_ignoreuser TEXT - Deletes a ignored user
/list_ignoreusers - Lists ignored users

/invite - Get the bot invite address
/reset - Restart bot setup

Donations are appreciated!

BTC: bc1q5esjqsdw3l6whu6a24p3uw69pdakc5xnthfyge

XMR: 8AjhMhRtbK9GPzcSEnCYikHYTGFpNnc4QK83ZPTkAXx1FxmsYGNSmDuAKSjokfkRq6VhocV2yCeYdJX AC7eJZ72r7xynh9K

[TryNinja]

Changelog

Code:

26/03/2025
- added ignored topics

21/03/2025
- added /only_direct command
- fixed doubled tracked phrase notifications

[bchannel]

I checked the bot! Everything works fine, all that's left is for you to reply to this message and I'll make sure that the notifications work.

By the way, have you thought about using formatting to make the text look pretty (colors)?:

**bold**           - bold text
_italic_           - italic text (shown as under-lined)
~strikethrough~    - strikethrough text (shown as inverse)
`code snippet`     - a + b // no *markdown* here
!! text !          - red text (1-6: red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, magenta)
#secret#           - #secret text# (can be copy-pasted)

[TryNinja]

I checked the bot! Everything works fine, all that's left is for you to reply to this message and I'll make sure that the notifications work.

Hey.

By the way, have you thought about using formatting to make the text look pretty (colors)?:

**bold**           - bold text
_italic_           - italic text (shown as under-lined)
~strikethrough~    - strikethrough text (shown as inverse)
`code snippet`     - a + b // no *markdown* here
!! text !          - red text (1-6: red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, magenta)
#secret#           - #secret text# (can be copy-pasted)

Might test colors, but I couldn’t find a good format.

I wish there was a way of embedding urls in a text, right now I need the full url to link a post, for example.

On telegram I can do: Mentioned by TryNinja for POST TITLE HERE (url inside).

[bchannel]

Might test colors, but I couldn’t find a good format.

I wish there was a way of embedding urls in a text, right now I need the full url to link a post, for example.

On telegram I can do: Mentioned by TryNinja for POST TITLE HERE (url inside).

This is unfortunately true.
I made a list of what is needed including a link in the text and a bunch of others... Sent it to the developers, I hope they will answer whether they will do this and when. But for now we use what we have..

I confirm that the bot worked in the best possible way.
Very useful! ^{(There is even a sponsor, ahaha)}

[dkbit98]

Thank you for making this bot TryNinja, but looks like bot is currently not working for me.
I was able to add the contact, but there was no instructions, and nothing happened when I typed /help.
Nothing is happening even after I removed the contact and add it back again.
I have other simplex bots working fine, so is there any issue on your side maybe?

[TryNinja]

Thank you for making this bot TryNinja, but looks like bot is currently not working for me.
I was able to add the contact, but there was no instructions, and nothing happened when I typed /help.
Nothing is happening even after I removed the contact and add it back again.
I have other simplex bots working fine, so is there any issue on your side maybe?

Could you try again?

[dkbit98]

Could you try again?

Yeah, I removed than added contact again, and now it's working fine.
Now I will do some testing to see how bot behaves with notifications and commands.

I guess there are some limitations with simplex chat, but there are much more advantages compared to telegram app.
As for use of color in bots, I saw eXch bot using green color.

[paid2]

Cool to see a new SimpleX bot. Thank you OP.

However it's not working on my side...
I'm using the latest SimpleX version on Linux.

Error log:

Code:

java.lang.NullPointerException: read(...) must not be null
	redacted

[TryNinja]

Cool to see a new SimpleX bot. Thank you OP.

However it's not working on my side...
I'm using the latest SimpleX version on Linux.

Error log:

Code:

-snip-

Not sure what I'm seeing here. Is this an error on SimpleX? Is this showing up when you try to add the bot as a contact?

[paid2]

Not sure what I'm seeing here. Is this an error on SimpleX? Is this showing up when you try to add the bot as a contact?

Yeah, when I add the bot with the contact address provided in OP, SimpleX crashes, and I get a box with the above error log on next startup.
The contact line of the bot is written in red "There is an error..." (in my contact list) and when clicking on it, it closes Simplex.

[TryNinja]

Yeah, when I add the bot with the contact address provided in OP, SimpleX crashes, and I get a box with the above error log on next startup.
The contact line of the bot is written in red "There is an error..." (in my contact list) and when clicking on it, it closes Simplex.

I think this is happening because I passed an url as the bot profile avatar and that's just not how this works. Not sure how to add a profile avatar and docs are very lacking, so I just removed it for now.

Can you see if you can open it now? If not, try removing and adding the bot again.

[paid2]

I think this is happening because I passed an url as the bot profile avatar and that's just not how this works. Not sure how to add a profile avatar and docs are very lacking, so I just removed it for now.

Can you see if you can open it now? If not, try removing and adding the bot again.

It works now, thank you!

[apogio]

I believe this bot is a great tool.
Thanks TryNinja.
I will test it and if it works flawlessly I will transition to this one instead of Telegram, which has also been very useful until today.

EDIT:

I didn’t receive notifications for the merits and the quoting in this message : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5535755.msg65187546#msg65187546

Could you see it? I did receive a notification in the Telegram bot.

[bchannel]

I didn’t receive notifications for the merits and the quoting in this message : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5535755.msg65187546#msg65187546

I agree, for some reason, I didn't receive a notification about the merits from the user, even though everything was fine yesterday.
If there's anything I can help you with, feel free to drop me a DM.

[dkbit98]

TryNinja here are my first impressions after using the bot for one day.
I am not getting all notifications when someone replies to my posts, and I enabled mentions and merits in settings.
It's the same thing for merits, I received some notifications, but not all of them.
Does simpleX app need to be opened all the time (and correct user selected) to receive notification, or issue is with something else?

[TryNinja]

I didn’t receive notifications for the merits and the quoting in this message : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5535755.msg65187546#msg65187546

Could you see it? I did receive a notification in the Telegram bot.

I agree, for some reason, I didn't receive a notification about the merits from the user, even though everything was fine yesterday.
If there's anything I can help you with, feel free to drop me a DM.

I am not getting all notifications when someone replies to my posts, and I enabled mentions and merits in settings.
It's the same thing for merits, I received some notifications, but not all of them.
Does simpleX app need to be opened all the time (and correct user selected) to receive notification, or issue is with something else?

Ok, so I'm learning how SimpleX works as I code and debug, so bear with me. I think that unlike Telegram, which is very straightforward to send notifications since their servers do all the work behind the scenes, with SimpleX sometimes the user isn't connected and the notification just can't be sent. I refactored the code and now if the user isn't connected the notification data will be stored and it will retry when they do get connected. Hopefully it works.

[apogio]

Ok, so I'm learning how SimpleX works as I code and debug, so bear with me. I think that unlike Telegram, which is very straightforward to send notifications since their servers do all the work behind the scenes, with SimpleX sometimes the user isn't connected and the notification just can't be sent. I refactored the code and now if the user isn't connected the notification data will be stored and it will retry when they do get connected. Hopefully it works.

I got a notification for this quote of yours. Yeah so simpleX works differently. If you check in someone's profile, it says "Receiving on channel: xxx" and "Sending from channel: xxx", so I guess these channels require from the application to be turned on at the time of the actual message reception.

[Text]

Impressive work!

The only thing I noticed at first was that when I sent my Bitcointalk username do I really need to click the lightning icon to go live? The forum ID question only appeared after I clicked it. So far the commands are working as expected and I haven’t encountered any errors.

[TryNinja]

Impressive work!

The only thing I noticed at first was that when I sent my Bitcointalk username do I really need to click the lightning icon to go live? The forum ID question only appeared after I clicked it. So far the commands are working as expected and I haven’t encountered any errors.

Thanks! You don't have to. The lightning icon seems to be related to a live chat feature SimpleX has where the user sees what you're typing as you type, nothing to do with the bot. There is a delay when answering which is just how long the SimpleX client takes to receive and answer the message.