Replacements in forwarded messages

Setting up automatic replacements in the text of forwarded messages lets you add signatures to messages, remove ads, replace links, apply formatting and more.

What replacements can do

The FLOWIN service lets you automatically change the content of forwarded messages to give them the form you need. For example, you can use replacements to:

• Add any signatures anywhere in a message.
• Remove any unwanted content from a message.
• Replace links, words, identifiers, numbers, contacts or entire phrases.
• Insert any metadata about a message into the message text itself: the author's ID, the author's name, a link to the author, a link to the original message, the time and date of the original message, the source name and more.
• Apply formatting to individual words or phrases.
• Fit the data from a message into a specific fixed template, completely changing the text's structure.

Creating a replacement

Let's look at the basic replacement features using a simple task: replacing the word “car” with “airplane” in all forwarded messages.

The steps below show how to create and configure a simple replacement:

0. Open @flow_in_bot, send the /start command, and click “Control panel”.

   

1. If the menu on the left is not visible, click “Menu” in the top right corner. Then select “Replacements” and click “Create”.

   

   

   

2. In the “Search” field, keep “Text” mode and enter car. In the “Replace with” field, enter airplane. Leave the other settings at their defaults and click “Create”.

   

3. In the row for the replacement you created, click the blinking “Apply” button. In the window that opens, select the forward you need and click “Save”. “Forwards [1]” will appear in place of “Apply”.

   

   

   

4. After you complete these steps, information about your replacement will appear in the list. The service will now automatically look for the word “car” in forwarded messages and replace it with “airplane” in the forwards selected for this replacement.

   

   

Replacement settings

Let's take a closer look at replacement settings and features using the replacement we have already created.

How to edit and save a replacement

1. Click “Change” in the row for the replacement you need. A window with its settings will open.

   

2. Change the fields you need, for example by adding the description Word replacement, and click “Save”. The window will close, and the new description will appear in the replacement's row.

   

   

Fields in the settings window

“Ready examples”: a list of the most common uses for replacements. Click a particular example to select it. The fields in the dialog will then be filled with the corresponding values from that example, leaving you only to adjust them slightly to suit your needs.

“Search”: the field for the content to find in a message and replace. There are also three search modes next to this field:

• “Text”: searches for the exact sequence of characters you entered, including all spaces, indentation, brackets and so on. Letter case does not matter.
• “List”: searches for several alternatives to find and replace. Use commas or new lines as separators. Letter case does not matter. It searches for the exact character sequences you list.
• “Regexp”: searches using a regular expression. Read more about regular expression syntax in the article “Regular expressions in filters and replacements”.

“After processing” or “Before processing”: a way to control when replacements are applied in relation to other processing steps. If you select “Before processing”, the replacement will be applied before translations, AI assistants, watermarks, merging and other replacements set to “After processing”. If you select “After processing”, the replacement will be applied after the main processing steps, before the message is prepared for sending.

“Description”: a field for a comment about the replacement. It does not affect anything and is only for your convenience. You can leave it empty.

Formatting and styles

Formatting tags

The “Replace with” field has a visual editor: you can apply bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, a link, inline code, a code block, a spoiler or a quote to selected text. Use the “Switch to code mode” button to enter tags.

Example: make the replaced word bold

1. In the replacement editing window, apply bold formatting in one of two ways. In the visual editor, select airplane and click “bold”. If you prefer to enter tags manually, click the “Switch to code mode” button at the bottom of the field and replace the field's contents with <b>airplane</b>. Click “Save”.

   

   

   

2. Now, in forwarded messages, the word “car” will be replaced with “airplane” in bold.

   

   

Special metatags

Main metatags

The “metatag” button opens a searchable list. It also includes the current date and time, message statistics, listener and sender details, and other groups.

Example: a signature linking to the source

1. In the replacement editing window, click “Ready examples”. Enter link to source in the search field and select “Add link to source”.

   

   

2. The fields will be filled automatically: “Regexp” mode and the $ symbol in the “Search” field specify that content should be added to the end of the message. The “Replace with” field will contain the signature “Source:” with metatags for the chat name and the link to the original message. Click “Save”.

   

3. Forwarded messages will now end with a signature containing the source name. Clicking the name will open the original message; the main text will be preserved in full.

   

   

Replacing text with premium emoji

To preserve premium emoji when transferring a signature from Telegram to a replacement, use the JSON from @message_inspector_bot. The bot also works for replacements with complex formatting and no premium emoji.

Let's look at how to create a replacement that adds a signature with premium emoji to every forwarded message:

1. Open @message_inspector_bot in Telegram. Send it the signature text with the premium emoji and formatting you need, then copy the JSON from the bot's reply.

   

2. Return to the “Replacements” section and click “Create”. In the “Search” field, select “Regexp” and enter $. This symbol marks the end of the text.

   

   

3. In the “Replace with” field, press Enter twice to separate the signature from the message. Click “metatag”, enter premium in the search field and select “Formatting and premium emoji from JSON”. Paste the bot's reply into the “JSON” field and click “Insert”.

   

   

   

4. Check that a fragment containing the signature text has appeared in the field and click “Create”. In the new replacement's row, click the blinking “Apply” button, select the forward you need and click “Save”.

   

   

   

5. A signature with premium emoji will now be added to all forwarded messages.

   

   

Available replacement actions

The “Change” button next to a replacement opens its main settings. The “More” menu provides other actions:

• “Apply”: select the forwards that need the replacement.
• “Duplicate”: create a copy of the replacement with the same settings.
• “Select project”: add the replacement to a project.
• “Delete”: delete the replacement.

The “Apply” button in the replacement's row also opens forward selection. Once a replacement is linked, this button displays “Forwards [N]” instead, where N is the number of selected forwards.