Offset parameter ignored in getUpdates Telegram bot API

Question

I am making a telegram bot using the telegram bot web API as described here

I am using long polling to collect updates for my bot via the method getUpdates. In order to avoid processing the same message twice I am using the method's offset parameter.

import requests

url = "https://api.telegram.org/botTOKEN/getUpdates"
offsetParam = {'offset' : 999}
response = requests.get(url,params=offsetParam)

When running this code, one would expect that every update would have an offset greater than 999. However I still get message_id's which are less than 999 as part of the last variable in the code (all of them, as a matter of fact).

Can anyone help me figure out why is the response offset not increasing after this call?

P.S: I'm glad to provide extra info.

Thanks

Answer 1

Worked through this using cURL. It's not the message_id; it's the update_id. If offset is greater than update_id, cURL returns only when a new update is available or when timeout elapses. In other words, it long polls.

Answer 2

The answer was simple. The offset refers to the update_id value.

Other answers claim that message_id is the offset, this is not the case at the time of writing.

Answer 3

Offset is message ID, you should obtain that in result.message_id, not start from 0.