Private Telegram X-Link Fixer: A Step-by-Step Guide to Enhancing Link Previews

If you use Telegram and X a lot and often share X links in a Telegram group chat, you may have noticed that the X links cannot show as ‘Instant View’, a very convenient function natively supported by Telegram, unless you add a prefix such as ‘fixup’ before the X URL. If you hate yourself, you can manually add the prefix each time you share an X URL in the group chat. Alternatively, you can set up a Telegram bot with your VPS to add the prefix automatically. This blog contains a guide documenting the exact process followed to build, secure and deploy the private Telegram X-Link Fixer bot on a VPS.

🛠 Private Telegram X-Link Fixer

Goal: Automatically detect x.com or twitter.com links, replace them with fixupx.com for better previews, remove tracking parameters, and delete the original message to keep the chat clean.

1. Bot Creation & Configuration (@BotFather)

1. Create Bot: Search for @BotFather on Telegram and send /newbot. Follow the steps to get your API Token.

2. Disable Privacy Mode: This is crucial for the bot to “see” links without being tagged.

   • Send /setprivacy to @BotFather.
   • Select your bot, press Disable button.
   • PS: If the bot was already in a group, remove and re-add it for this to take effect.

3. Permissions: Add the bot to your group and promote it to Administrator. Ensure it has the “Delete Messages” permission.

2. Prepare the VPS Environment

Login to your VPS and set up a dedicated directory with a Python virtual environment to keep things isolated.

For Debian/Ubuntu systems:

Step 1: Update package list and install Python venv

sudo apt update && sudo apt install python3-venv -y

Step 2: Install pip using the official method

curl -sS https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python3 -

Step 3: Navigate to home directory and create project folder

cd ~
mkdir mybot && cd mybot

Step 4: Create and activate virtual environment

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

Step 5: Install the required library

pip install python-telegram-bot

For Fedora/RHEL-based systems:

Step 1: Update system and install Python pip

sudo dnf update -y && sudo dnf install python3-pip -y

Step 2: Navigate to home directory and create project folder

cd ~
mkdir mybot && cd mybot

Step 3: Create and activate virtual environment

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

Step 4: Install the required library

pip install python-telegram-bot

3. The Bot Script (bot.py)

Create the script using nano bot.py. Update the IDs with your specific User/Group IDs.

You can use @userinfobot in Telegram to find your user ID, group ID, and channel ID. You may also use third-party Telegram clients to retrieve your ID. I personally recommend Swiftgram for Apple users and Forkgram for Android users.

import re
from telegram import Update
from telegram.ext import Application, MessageHandler, filters, ContextTypes

# --- CONFIGURATION ---
TOKEN = "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN"
# Template user ID and group ID, replace with your own IDs
# Group and channel IDs must include the -100 prefix if you get it from third-party Telegram clients
AUTHORIZED_IDS = [1234567890, -1001234567890]

# Match X/Twitter links (including fixupx.com) and capture query parameters separately
X_PATTERN = r'(https?://(?:www\.)?)(x\.com|twitter\.com|fixupx\.com)(/[^\s?]*)(\?[^\s]*)?'

async def auto_fix_and_clean(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    # Security: Ignore unauthorized chats
    if update.effective_chat.id not in AUTHORIZED_IDS:
        return

    # Extract text from message or media caption
    text = update.message.text or update.message.caption
    if not text: return

    # Check if text contains any X/Twitter-related link
    match = re.search(X_PATTERN, text)
    if match:
        protocol, domain, path, query_params = match.groups()
        
        # Only process if URL has tracking parameters OR is not using fixupx.com
        if query_params or domain != 'fixupx.com':
            # Replace domain with fixupx.com and remove tracking parameters
            fixed_text = re.sub(X_PATTERN, r'\1fixupx.com\3', text)
            user = update.message.from_user.first_name
            
            # 1. Send the fixed version
            await context.bot.send_message(
                chat_id=update.effective_chat.id,
                text=f"🛠 From {user}:\n{fixed_text}"
            )

            # 2. Delete original message
            try:
                await update.message.delete()
            except Exception as e:
                print(f"Delete failed (Check Admin permissions): {e}")

def main():
    app = Application.builder().token(TOKEN).build()
    app.add_handler(MessageHandler((filters.TEXT | filters.CAPTION) & (~filters.COMMAND), auto_fix_and_clean))
    print("Bot is running...")
    app.run_polling()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Optional: Match Links Only at the Start of Messages

By default, the bot will detect and fix X/Twitter links anywhere in a message. If you prefer the bot to only process links that appear at the very beginning of a message, modify the X_PATTERN:

# Default: matches links anywhere in the message and removes tracking parameters
X_PATTERN = r'(https?://(?:www\.)?)(x\.com|twitter\.com|fixupx\.com)(/[^\s?]*)(\?[^\s]*)?'

# Alternative: matches links only at the start of the message and removes tracking parameters
X_PATTERN = r'^(https?://(?:www\.)?)(x\.com|twitter\.com|fixupx\.com)(/[^\s?]*)(\?[^\s]*)?'

The ^ anchor ensures the pattern only triggers when the link is at the start of the message. This is useful if you want to allow regular X links in conversation while only fixing “intentional” shares that start with the link.

[!UPDATE]
The bot now intelligently handles all X-related URLs:

• Converts x.com and twitter.com to fixupx.com
• Removes tracking parameters (like ?s=46&t=xxx) from all URLs, including those already using fixupx.com

Examples:

• https://x.com/user/status/123?s=46&t=abc → https://fixupx.com/user/status/123
• https://fixupx.com/user/status/123?s=46&t=abc → https://fixupx.com/user/status/123
• https://fixupx.com/user/status/123 → No action (already clean)

4. Deploy as a Background Service

To ensure the bot stays running after you close your terminal or if the server reboots, create a systemd service.

Create the file: sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/tgbot.service

Paste this configuration (Ensure the paths match your which python output):

[Unit]
Description=Telegram X-Link Fixer Bot
After=network.target

[Service]
User=linuxuser
Group=linuxuser
WorkingDirectory=/home/linuxuser/mybot #replace with your own path
ExecStart=/home/linuxuser/mybot/venv/bin/python bot.py #replace with your own path
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and Start:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable tgbot
sudo systemctl start tgbot

Now you can enjoy the convenient bot with your friends in group chats!

Troubleshooting Commands

Check status:

sudo systemctl status tgbot

View live logs:

sudo journalctl -u tgbot.service -f

Restart after code change:

sudo systemctl restart tgbot