So you've decided that it's time your business got into the digital signage game. You've got a screen or two, maybe picked up some hardware, but the idea of running it on a software has you reaching for the nearest IT person. Or worse, you've done the requisite shopping around and realized all the available solutions seem to price you out of the game.

Maybe you've just got the one screen, and don't need the bells and whistles that come with a full-featured digital signage software. You don't want to pay in the range of $20-$40 a month just to display some images and videos on it. But you also want a better solution than a USB stick that you load some files onto and eventually get tired of manually updating with new content (which is a massive LOSE for your customers and the investment you made into your digital signage screens.)

The good news is that running digital signage on a small scale doesn't have to be scary, hard, or expensive. In fact, it doesn't have to cost anything at all.

Enter the Fugo Telegram Bot (FTB) for digital signage. This nifty tool was designed for small businesses that need a frictionless way to get basic content up on their screens without spending money they don't have on a CMS or having to resort to a crappy and cumbersome DIY solution.

The FTB allows you to remotely publish your digital signage content from the Telegram app (a free messaging app available for Android, Apple, and Linux.) It works like a chatbot - you give it a simple one word command (or use the command buttons) and it pushes your image and video files to your screen remotely. Pretty neat!

Check it out here ⬅️ ⬅️

Note: in order to run the FTB, you'll need a screen with an internet connection. Any smart TV will do. Alternatively, you can connect a 'regular' screen to a media player, such as an Amazon Fire TV Stick or Chromebit.

1. Download the Fugo Digital Signage Player app onto your smart TV or your media player (you can find our list of support player platforms - and the download instructions for each - here.)

Launching the Fugo player will display a PIN on your screen. We'll tell you what to do with that in step 5 below.

2. Download the Telegram Chat app onto your phone or computer.

A note on chatbot commands: chatting with a Telegram bot is a bit like chatting with a friend in the app, except that in order for it to respond to you, you need to use simple one-word commands to tell it what you want it to do. Here's a list of commands you can give the FTB:

You can also use the corresponding command buttons located in the bottom right corner of the chat window:

Once you've completed the first 2 steps & downloaded the Fugo player app and Telegram app to your respective devices, you'll be ready to pair your screen and start pushing your content!

3. Open the Telegram app and in the search bar at the top of the app and search for Fugo Digital Signage or find it directly here. This will open a chat with the FTB.

4. You'll see the welcome message explaining what the bot can do. To get started, type the command /start or press the Start button get straight to pairing your screen!

5. Let's start with pairing a screen. Type /pair or click the Pair button and Enter the PIN (from step 1) into the chat message to pair your screen.

Note: You can pair up to 3 screens with FTB (to pair more, you'll need to upgrade to a paid Fugo subscription.)

6. To start creating a Playlist, all you need to do is start uploading images/videos to the chat. You'll get a confirmation message when your file has been published to screen.

7.You can check out how many screens you have by clicking Show Screens (see gif below for reference)

8. If you want to unpair a screen, type /unpair and then select which screen you want to unpair.

9. Also, you can check out what's in your playlist by clicking Playlist or typing in the /playlist command. If you want to remove a piece of media from your playlist, simply click Delete under it.

If at any point you need help or want to be reminded of the bot commands, just hit Help in the menu or type the /help message.

There you have it! It's that easy to set up your digital signage using Fugo and the Telegram app!

If you have any questions you can contact our support team any time at support@fugo.ai.

Happy publishing 📺