Telegram Mail Bridge

Copies emails your WordPress site sends through wp_mail() to Telegram chats. Unlimited rules, bots and chats, no account and no paid tier.

• Version: 1.3.1
• Requires: WordPress 6.2+, PHP 7.4+
• Languages: English, Ukrainian
• Website and docs: https://telegram-mail-bridge.muzychenko.dev/
• License: GPL-2.0-or-later

What it does

Every email that goes through wp_mail() - contact forms, bookings, WooCommerce orders, security alerts - is checked against your rules. When a recipient matches, the email is converted to Telegram formatting and posted to the rule's chats. The email itself is delivered as usual: the plugin reads the arguments and never changes them.

• Rules: recipient addresses (office@example.com, *@example.com, any) → bot → one or more chats.
• Several bots: tokens are activated once, checked with getMe and never shown again or sent to the browser.
• Forum topics: -1001234567890:12 posts into topic 12 of a supergroup.
• Templates: {email_subject} {email_message} {email_to} {site_name} {site_url} {date} {time} {attachments}.
• Clean conversion: paragraphs, lists, links, tables as a | b; styles, comments and hidden preheaders removed; long emails split into balanced parts (5 messages at most by default).
• Instant delivery: sent on shutdown after the response is handed to the visitor. No WP-Cron, no queue.
• Tests: "Send test message" posts straight to the chats; "Send test email" goes through wp_mail() and checks the whole chain.
• Log: last 40 deliveries with Telegram's error text and plain-language hints.
• Updates: from GitHub releases, through the usual WordPress update screen.

Install

1. Download telegram-mail-bridge-X.Y.Z.zip from Releases or the website.
2. Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin → Activate.
3. Settings → Telegram Mail Bridge.

Moving from the old tg-mail-bridge folder (1.0-1.2)

Versions before 1.3.0 lived in tg-mail-bridge/. Install 1.3.0 next to it and activate: bots, rules and settings are copied, and the old copy is deactivated automatically so emails are not forwarded twice. Then delete the old plugin - its uninstaller removes only its own tmb_* options.

Set up

1. Create a bot with @BotFather (/newbot), paste the token under Bots and click Activate.
2. Get the chat ID from @MyChatInfoBot. For a private chat, write to your bot first; for a group, add the bot to it.
3. Add a rule: recipient addresses, bot, chat IDs. Click Send test message, then save and click Send test email.

Token in wp-config.php

define( 'TGMB_BOT_TOKEN', '123456789:AA...' );

The bot appears in the list as locked and its token is not stored in the database, so it does not end up in backups or database exports. TMB_BOT_TOKEN from older versions still works.

For developers

// Change the text right before sending.
add_filter( 'tgmb_message_text', function ( $text, $rule, $mail_args ) {
    return $text;
}, 10, 3 );

// Skip a particular email.
add_filter( 'tgmb_should_forward', function ( $forward, $rule, $mail_args ) {
    return false === strpos( $mail_args['subject'], '[test]' );
}, 10, 3 );

// Most messages per email and chat (default 5).
add_filter( 'tgmb_max_parts', fn () => 3 );

// Turn off update checks against GitHub.
add_filter( 'tgmb_enable_updates', '__return_false' );

// After delivery or failure.
add_action( 'tgmb_sent', function ( $message, $chat_id, $rule, $mail_args ) {}, 10, 4 );
add_action( 'tgmb_failed', function ( $error, $chat_id, $rule, $mail_args ) {}, 10, 4 );

WP-CLI

wp tgmb status              # bots (masked) and rules
wp tgmb test 1              # test message to the chats of rule 1
wp tgmb test 1 --mail       # real email through wp_mail() to rule 1
wp tgmb log                 # delivery log
wp tgmb log --clear

Limits

• Only wp_mail() is seen. Plugins that call a mail service API directly (SendGrid or Mailgun SDKs) bypass it. SMTP plugins are fine.
• Attachments are not sent, only their names through {attachments}.
• Email content goes to api.telegram.org and stays in the chat. The rule any also forwards password reset links - avoid it on client sites.
• Masking keeps tokens out of sight, not out of reach: anyone with administrator access can read the database. Use a separate bot per client site.
• Security plugins may flag requests to api.telegram.org. Add the host to trusted ones.

Data

Nothing is autoloaded. Deleting the plugin removes every tgmb_* option and the update checker state.

Releasing (maintainer notes)

1. Bump the version in telegram-mail-bridge.php (header and TGMB_VERSION), in readme.txt (Stable tag and Changelog) and in this README.
2. wp i18n make-pot . languages/telegram-mail-bridge.pot --domain=telegram-mail-bridge --exclude=languages,lib,tools and python3 tools/make-uk.py.
3. git archive --prefix=telegram-mail-bridge/ -o telegram-mail-bridge-X.Y.Z.zip HEAD
4. Create a GitHub release with tag vX.Y.Z and attach that zip. Sites update from the attached zip only; a release without it is ignored.

Author

Ihor Muzychenko - muzychenko.dev

Not affiliated with Telegram.