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🛠 Make.com — automating the routine

3 min read

The next service I use is Make.com. It used to be called Integromat.

It's a visual automation tool:

you build scenarios by connecting actions from different services.

🔗 How does Make work?

Every scenario is made of modules. A module is a single action, for example:

  • get a message from Telegram,
  • send it to ChatGPT,
  • save it to Google Sheets,
  • send a notification to Telegram.

💡 You can add conditions, loops, filters, variables, delays and schedules.

The interface is visual: everything shows up as a flowchart. Control is drag & drop. The entry barrier is minimal.

🤖 Example: the “Storyteller” Telegram bot

Let’s build a bot that every evening (or on command) asks you:

“Tell me a short story of your day. What caught your eye today?”

And then saves it to a Google Sheet. All — without code.

What will it look like?

Step 1: create the bot

  1. Open @BotFather in Telegram.

  2. The /newbot command

  3. Give it a name, e.g. Storyteller

  4. Username: storytelling_mate_bot

  5. Get the API key — save it, don’t show it to anyone.

API key:

What is this?

🔑 API (Application Programming Interface) An API is a way for two services to talk to each other.

Say Telegram exposes its features (get a message, send a message, etc.). For third-party services like Make to use them, Telegram provides an API.

An API isn’t code. It’s an access key + a set of rules for calling those features.

Step 2: build the scenario in Make

  1. Go to make.com, create a new scenario.

  2. Add the first module: Telegram → Watch Updates

  3. Create a connection: paste the API key from BotFather

  4. Click Run Once

  5. Write something to the bot — Make should receive the data.

  6. Check: there’s a name, ID, text.

The module received data from the Telegram bot:

Step 3: add a Google Sheet

  1. Create a Google Sheet in a Storyteller folder on Google Drive

  2. Make columns: Date and Story

  3. Back in Make → add a module: Google Sheets → Add a Row

  4. Connect your Google account

  5. Point to the sheet and the right tab

  6. In the Date field — insert the date from the Telegram module

  7. In the Story field — insert the message text

A simple sheet:

Step 4: send a confirmation

  1. Add a module: Telegram → Send a Message

  2. In Chat ID — plug in the ID from the first module

  3. In Message Text — for example:

”✅ Story saved. Thanks for being honest.”

What the "Send a message" module looks like

🧠 Summary

For the automation to work:

  • Make connects to Telegram via the API
  • Listens for events through a webhook
  • Receives messages, processes them, saves the data
  • Replies back through the Send a message module

All visual. All clear. You don’t need to write code — you just say what to do and in what order.

How could the bot be improved?

Keep going?