sendAnimation or sendVideo for a short AI clip: which Telegram method

Use sendAnimation when the clip is silent and meant to loop like a GIF, and sendVideo when it has sound, needs a poster cover, or should start partway in. Both take up to 50 MB according to the Bot API. The difference is in what the method describes and which parameters it exposes, and Sume's video-trim can prepare either by keeping or dropping audio.

How do the two methods differ?

The Bot API describes sendAnimation as GIF or H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video without sound. It describes sendVideo as video files, with Telegram clients supporting MPEG4 videos. sendVideo has the cover and start_timestamp parameters.

What does each prep look like on Sume?

For an animation, call video-trim with audio: "drop" and a short duration. For a video, leave audio at its default of keep; the exact path remuxes kept audio as AAC. In both cases choose precision: "exact" if you want a frame-accurate cut and a conform with output.

import json, os, urllib.request

body = {
    "video_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/talk.mp4",
    "start": 0,
    "duration": 6,
    "audio": "keep"
}
req = urllib.request.Request(
    "https://api.sume.com/v1/video-trim",
    data=json.dumps(body).encode(),
    headers={
        "Authorization": "Bearer " + os.environ["SUME_API_KEY"],
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
        "Idempotency-Key": "video-send-001",
    },
    method="POST",
)
print(urllib.request.urlopen(req).read().decode())

Which should I pick?

• Silent product loop in a chat: sendAnimation, audio dropped.
• Spoken or musical clip: sendVideo, audio kept.
• You want a chosen poster: sendVideo with a cover from Sume video-frames.
• Preview that should start past an intro: sendVideo with start_timestamp.

What else matters?

Telegram's limit text for animations says it may change in the future, so read the method page at release time. Sume's video trim guide and audio detach guide cover the preparation side.