Digging through the chat
“Send me that picture I posted back in May.” Forty minutes of scrolling. Nothing.
Telegram bot · Google Drive and Yandex Disk
Forward a file to the bot — the reply is a download link straight from your own Drive
One /connect at the start, then you just forward. Documents, photos, video,
audio, voice messages, video notes. An album comes back as one reply with every link at once, not ten messages in a row.
Open @lnk2drv_bot
Free, no sign-up, no card.
/connect — Google Drive or Yandex Disk, or both
this is a mock-up of the chat, not the real bot
The situation
Sound familiar?
Six situations where the file technically exists and there is still nowhere to get it from.
Storage full
Need to shoot right now, no space left. I delete at random, knowing I will delete something I need.
Turned to mush
I sent a photo into the chat — it arrived compressed. I wiped the original off my phone a week ago.
Round three
“Send it over again, we did not keep it.” The same signed form, third time this week.
The link expired
The file host keeps it for a week. The client opens the link on day ten. I build the archive all over again.
Seven screens
Download, open Drive, find the folder, upload, share, set permissions, copy. For one link.
All of it goes away with one forwarded message
The sequence
Set it up once,
then just forward
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01
Connect your own cloud
Run
/connectand pick where things should go: Yandex Disk, Google Drive or both at once.The account is yours. The bot is a pair of hands.
-
02
Sign in at the provider
You type your login and password on Google’s or Yandex’s own page — the bot gets nothing but an access token.
Google grants drive.file scope: the bot works only with what it created itself.
Google will show an “app is not verified” warning — that is how it flags every service that has not been through its review. Click “Advanced” → “Go to lnk2drv.com”. The permissions stay the same: one folder, its own.
-
03
Forward a file
Document, photo, video, voice message, video note, album — the link comes back as a reply in the same chat.
-
04
Delete it whenever you decide
In
/my, every upload has a “Delete” button: the file leaves the cloud and the link stops opening.It does not hide the link, it deletes the file. Check in your own Drive.
Steps 1–2 happen once and take about 40 seconds. Step 3 happens every time and lasts as long as the upload does.
We do not have your file
It sits in your own Google Drive or Yandex Disk, in a folder the bot created. What stays with us is an encrypted access token and a row in a log — no storage on our side and no copy of the file.
-
0
files on our server once the upload is done. Bytes go Telegram → server → your cloud and are deleted immediately.
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2
clouds to choose from; connect both and switch between them with one button.
-
1 of 7
steps per link instead of seven: download, open Drive, find the folder, upload, share, set permissions, copy.
Documentsnot visible
Photos 2019–2025not visible
Work / contractsnot visible
Lnk2Drvcreated by the bot
- 8f3c1a7d_lease-agreement-final.pdf
- 2b90e4c1_reels-october.mp4
- c14aa0f9_voice-from-client.ogg
Personalnot visible
The eight characters in front of the name keep files with identical titles from overwriting
each other. The drive.file scope means an app can only touch files it created
itself. The rest of the drive does not exist for the bot — that boundary is held by Google, not by our good intentions.
What the bot does
What it cannot do is written up below — in a section of its own, so you do not have to hunt for it.
Two clouds in one chat
Personal things go to Yandex Disk, work goes to Google Drive, and one button switches between them.
The link comes back as a reply
No opening Drive, hunting for a folder or setting permissions: the link arrives as a reply to that same message.
An album gets one reply
Telegram sends photos in batches of ten. The bot waits for the whole batch and answers with a single message holding every link, instead of ten in a row.
A repeat costs no space
Send the same file a second time and you get the old link back, without a single extra byte on the drive.
Everything that flies around chats
Documents, photos, video, audio, voice messages, video notes, GIFs — and anything forwarded from another chat too.
The off switch is yours
The “Delete” button wipes the file from the cloud: the link stops working at once, for everyone you gave it to.
Upload history
/my lists the last ten uploads with name and size, each with its own “Delete” button.
One folder, no mess
A single Lnk2Drv folder appears in the root — everything goes there, and nothing is created anywhere else.
The file outlives the chat
The other side deleted the message, the cache got cleared, the channel is gone — the file is still in your cloud.
Up to 2 GB on your own server
The public Telegram API hands bots 20 MB at most. On an instance with a local Bot API — up to 2 GB.
20 MB is the Telegram Bot API limit, not ours. No code gets around it, and we will not pretend otherwise.
What the bot does not do
So you do not find out on your third file.
- It does not keep your files. The service has no drive of its own: disconnect the account and the files stay with you — we never had them.
- It will not take more than 20 MB over the public Bot API. That is Telegram’s limit; up to 2 GB is possible only on your own server.
- It cannot put a password on a link or give it an expiry date. For now there is one control: delete the file outright.
- It does not edit documents or render previews — the clouds handle that themselves.
- It does not work in other messengers. Today this is Telegram only. Slack, MAX, Discord and Teams are planned.
Try it on your own file
Forward the same message a second time and the bot recognizes the file by the identifier Telegram gives it, returning the old link instead of uploading again. Below is the same idea run on your file: identical contents produce an identical fingerprint.
The file goes nowhere: your browser computes the SHA-256 fingerprint and not one byte is sent to a server. Turn off your network and try it — it still works. The bot itself compares the identifier Telegram assigns the file rather than the contents: a file forwarded a second time is recognized the same way.
- Drop a file into the box — you will see its fingerprint
- Drop the same file again — same contents, same fingerprint
- Drop a different one — different fingerprint, so a different file
Check it on your own file
Drag a file here
or click to pick one — nothing gets uploaded
The fingerprint is computed on your side, WebCrypto
Four ways to hand over a file
Each of the other three is good at something — and each one breaks in its own particular place.
Scroll the table sideways →
| Property | Lnk2Drv | “Saved messages” in a chat | A file-sharing site | The Drive app |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where the file lives | In your cloud | On the messenger’s servers | With a middleman service | In your cloud |
| How long the link lasts | Until you delete it yourself | No link at all, only forwarding | Usually 7 days | Until you delete it yourself |
| Steps per link | 1 — forwarding | — | 4–5 | 7 |
| Can access be revoked | Yes, with one button | No, they already have the file | Depends on the service | Yes, by hand in Drive |
| Sending it a second time | The same link, no extra space | A new copy | A new upload | A duplicate in the folder |
| File size | Up to 20 MB, or 2 GB on your own server | Up to 2 GB | Gigabytes | As much space as you have |
| Works from a phone on the move | Yes, without leaving the chat | Yes | Through a browser, with an upload | Yes, but seven screens |
When the bot is not needed: the file is wanted once and right now — easier to send it into the chat as is.
Five working days
“I have twelve clients, and files from all twelve sit jumbled together in one saved-messages chat.”
Photos and documents from a client go to the bot straight out of the project chat and
land in the cloud with a link attached. Two months later, when somebody asks for “that picture
from May”, the link is in /my, not forty minutes deep in the chat history.
“Forty versions of the contract in the chat, and the latest one is nowhere to be found.”
A scan or a photo of a receipt goes into the work Drive the moment it arrives. The other party gets a link to one document, not access to a folder holding every client’s paperwork. A year on, a query from the tax office is closed in ten seconds.
“I sent the same audio file to twenty students, one at a time.”
The material is uploaded once, and the link goes into the mailout and the lesson description. A student who loses the file opens that same link. The course ends — the file is deleted, and access disappears for everyone at once.
“The client will not sign up anywhere, and the preview was needed yesterday.”
A layout for approval goes to the bot in the evening, from a phone. The client gets a plain link with no sign-up and no expiry date — and opens it six months later, because the file is sitting in your cloud. Heavy source files still travel through Drive: the public Bot API gives a bot no more than 20 MB.
“Someone left the company, and half the project files stayed in their chats.”
Not there yet: team folders and an activity log are in progress
Today each person connects a cloud of their own and files go there. A shared team folder, roles and a log of who uploaded what will come later — for now that is a roadmap, not a working scenario.
this is what the bot’s reply looks like
✔ lease-agreement-final.pdf · 2.4 MB
disk.yandex.ru/i/8Kq2wRt
OpenDelete
♻ lease-agreement-final.pdf is already in the cloud
disk.yandex.ru/i/8Kq2wRt
Access
We cannot read your Drive — and that is plumbing, not a promise
01
The bot sees only what it put there
Google grants access in drive.file scope: an app works only with files
it created itself. Your older documents and folders do not exist for the bot.
02
You do not type your password to us
Signing in happens on Google’s or Yandex’s page, in their form. The bot ends up with an access token only — it never sees the password, and there is nowhere to store it.
03
Tokens are stored encrypted
Access tokens are encrypted in the database, and the encryption key is kept outside it. A leaked copy of the database without that key is a pile of bytes that opens nothing.
04
Disconnecting works from both ends
/accounts → “Disconnect”: the token is wiped here and a revocation request
goes to Google or Yandex at the same moment. If the provider happens to be unreachable, the
token is erased on our side regardless — and you can always revoke access yourself,
in Google’s security settings or in Yandex ID.
05
You can run the bot yourself
If you would rather not trust someone else’s server, run your own copy: the tokens, the database and the files in transit all stay with you, and the ceiling rises to 2 GB. You will need a server with a domain, your own OAuth apps at Google and Yandex, and half an hour with the instructions. We hand over the source code on request — message the bot.
Connect your cloud Disconnecting is one tap in the same place
Three honest caveats
Yandex Disk has no “own files only” mode
Its API does not offer one: we request access to the disk and stay strictly inside the
/Lnk2Drv folder. Here the boundary is held by our code, not by Yandex. If you
want the provider to guarantee it — connect Google Drive.
The file passes through us but does not stay
Bytes go Telegram → our server → your cloud and are deleted from the server the moment the upload finishes. The intermediate copy exists for seconds.
A public link is public
Whoever has the link can open the file: passwords and expiry dates are not there yet, they are planned. There is a control that works — delete the file and cut access at any moment.
Where you already do your talking
Today the bot lives in Telegram and puts files into two clouds. The routine is the same everywhere, so the list can grow without you relearning anything: forwarding stays forwarding.
Working now
- Telegram
- Google Drive
- Yandex Disk
Planned
- Slack
- MAX
- Discord
- Teams
- Dropbox
- OneDrive
Up for debate — tell us what you need most
- S3 · MinIO
- WebDAV
- Nextcloud
- SFTP
Roadmap
What’s next
Three directions in which the bot stops being an uploader. None of this works yet — which is why it sits in a section of its own instead of being mixed in with the features.
Direction 01
Links you can manage
Expiry dates, passwords, download limits and click stats. You would see whether the client opened the contract — and could close access without deleting the file.
Direction 02
A smart layer on top of the file
Transcription of voice messages and video notes, text recognition on scans, search across your own library right in the chat. The file becomes findable by what is inside it.
Direction 03
Working where you work
Slack, MAX, Discord, Teams, and clouds beyond the current two: Dropbox, OneDrive, S3, WebDAV. Corporate storage inside your own perimeter included.
- Client and project folders: “put this in client X’s folder”
- HEIC → JPG and video into a web format, so the link opens for everybody
- Several photos — as one PDF
- A QR code for any file
- An intake link, “send your files here”, for clients
- A shared team folder with an upload log
Questions
What people ask beforethey connect a drive
Question not here — write to the bot: we read them and we answer.
No. In Google Drive the bot runs in drive.file scope and physically
cannot open anything except what it put there itself. Yandex Disk has no such mode,
so there the boundary is held by the bot’s code: it works only inside the
/Lnk2Drv folder. We do not look at file contents and we do not index them.
That is what Telegram gives bots through the public Bot API. There is no way around it in code: the file simply is not handed over. A local Bot API server lifts the limit — then the ceiling is 2 GB. If you are running your own copy of the bot, it comes down to one variable in the settings.
They stay with you: they sit in your cloud and they belong to you. The bot loses the ability to put anything there or delete anything from it. Links you have already handed out keep working until you delete the files yourself in your Drive.
An encrypted access token for your cloud, your Telegram ID and history rows:
file name, size, date and link — so that /my and deletion work.
The files themselves are not there: they leave the server as soon as the upload to the cloud finishes.
Yes, the link works for anyone who has it — that is how link sharing is built in
Google Drive and Yandex Disk. Passwords and expiry dates are not there yet, they are planned.
There is a control that works: delete the file from /my — and the link
stops opening for everyone at once.
Yes, the space used is yours — that is the whole point: the service has no storage of its own to run out one day or get more expensive. The same file is never uploaded twice: the bot recognizes it and returns the earlier link.
Yes. Both are connected in /connect, and the active cloud is switched
in /accounts with one button. Personal things can go to Yandex Disk,
work to Google Drive.
The files and the links stay: they are in your cloud and do not depend on us. The only thing that stops is the bot itself. You can run your own copy on your own server — we hand over the source code on request.
Free at the moment. The limits are purely technical: a file up to 20 MB, up to 200 files and up to 5 GB a day per person — so that one user cannot take the whole queue. The storage spent is yours, so the only expensive part for us is traffic. What will be paid later is managed links, voice transcription and team folders — the things that cost money on our side.
Today only Telegram works. Slack, MAX, Discord and Teams are planned: the routine there is the same, only the transport changes. Write to the bot about which messenger you need most — it affects the order.
Getting started
Your first file will reach your Drive sooner than you finish reading this page
Open @lnk2drv_bot
Free, no sign-up, no card. Connecting takes about 40 seconds. You can disconnect the cloud in the same place with one button: the token is wiped here and revoked at the provider.
- 40
- seconds to connect
- 1
- step instead of seven
- 0
- of your files on our side
- 2
- clouds to choose from