Commands

[Mettodo]

• Make the main menu of commands easily reachable/findable by default. Pinned message or group description.
• I find it difficult to read the menus. Maybe some bold, italic, emojis, could help.
• I find uncomfortable to type the commands. Would it be possible to have them like in e.g. Telegram? where there is a sort of clickable menu.

[daopunk]

@Mettodo thanks for this — we looked at what Signal actually supports vs Telegram.

Clickable command menu (the Telegram / picker): not possible on Signal. Telegram has a real bot API (setMyCommands, inline/reply keyboards). Signal does not. Bread Bot is a normal Signal account sending text, so !help and the rest have to be typed (or copied from an earlier message). We cannot add tappable command buttons like in your screenshot.

Pinned message or group description: possible, with limits.

• A group admin can put a short pointer in the group description today (e.g. “Type !help for Bread Bot commands”). That is the most reliable “always findable” option, including for people who join later.
• Signal also supports pinned messages now. An admin can pin a !help reply. Pins are weaker than they sound: max 3, they can expire, disappearing messages unpin them, and new members usually will not see a pin if they were not in the chat when it was sent.

We can do the description/pin as a group-admin step without waiting on a bot change.

Bold, italic, emoji: possible. Emoji already works in Signal text. Bold/italic are real Signal text styles; the bot just does not send them yet. That is the most honest product fix for “hard to read,” and it still keeps the stacked mobile layout so commands do not wrap mid-line.

So the split is: we can make the typed menu easier to find and easier to scan; we cannot make Signal behave like Telegram’s command menu. We will treat the first two as follow-ups and close the clickable-menu part as a platform limit.

[Mettodo]

Cool! Would love to try the version with the typed menu easier to find (in the group description, right?) and easier to scan ;)
Bold, Italic, emojis, were just my first thoughts. There might be more creative ways to achieve the same ;) @diterra-code