# Working with messages

Note

These examples assume you have read The Full API.

Contents

- Working with messages

  - Sending stickers

  - Sending reactions

## Sending stickers

Stickers are nothing else than `files`, and when you successfully retrieve the stickers for a certain sticker set, all you will have are `handles` to these files. Remember, the files Telegram holds on their servers can be referenced through this pair of ID/hash (unique per user), and you need to use this handle when sending a “document” message. This working example will send yourself the very first sticker you have:

    # Get all the sticker sets this user has
    from telethon.tl.functions.messages import GetAllStickersRequest
    sticker_sets = await client(GetAllStickersRequest(0))

    # Choose a sticker set
    from telethon.tl.functions.messages import GetStickerSetRequest
    from telethon.tl.types import InputStickerSetID
    sticker_set = sticker_sets.sets[0]

    # Get the stickers for this sticker set
    stickers = await client(GetStickerSetRequest(
        stickerset=InputStickerSetID(
            id=sticker_set.id, access_hash=sticker_set.access_hash
        )
    ))

    # Stickers are nothing more than files, so send that
    await client.send_file('me', stickers.documents[0])

## Sending reactions

It works very similar to replying to a message. You need to specify the chat, message ID you wish to react to, and reaction, using SendReaction:

    from telethon.tl.functions.messages import SendReactionRequest

    await client(SendReactionRequest(
        peer=chat,
        msg_id=42,
        reaction='❤️'
    ))

Note that you cannot use strings like `:heart:` for the reaction. You must use the desired emoji directly. You can most easily achieve this by copy-pasting the emoji from an official application such as Telegram Desktop.

If for some reason you cannot embed emoji directly into the code, you can also use its unicode escape (which you can find using websites like unicode-table.com), or install a different package, like emoji:

    # All of these work exactly the same (you only need one):
    import emoji
    reaction = emoji.emojize(':red_heart:')
    reaction = '❤️'
    reaction = '\u2764'

    from telethon.tl.functions.messages import SendReactionRequest
    await client(SendReactionRequest(
        peer=chat,
        msg_id=42,
        reaction=reaction
    ))

Please make sure to check the help pages of the respective websites you use if you need a more in-depth explanation on how they work. Telethon only needs you to provide the emoji in some form. Some packages or websites can make this easier.