Python telegram bot - reply when user says specific words

Question

Context: I am starting to learn how to code a telegram bot in python. I have successfully made a fun bot for my group with friends to use. However, i only want it to respond when specific words are mentioned apart from the commands that trigger it. Example: Whenever a user says the word "wen" plus any other word(s), i want the bot to reply with: SOON! I want the bot to only pick up some trigger words and reply and for the remainder of the chat to stay idle

Part of my code:

       user_message = str(input_text).lower()
       wenResponse = str("wen ").join(input_text)
      
       if user_message + wenResponse:
           return ("SOON!")
   
   def handle_message(update,context):
       text=str(update.message.text).lower()
       response=sample_responses(text)
       update.message.reply_text(response)

Actual result: The bot is working but only when the user says specifically "wen". If the user adds more words after "wen" the bot doesnt pick it up.

Answer 1

if "wen" in str(input_text).lower():
    return "soon"

This should work even if the key word isn’t the first word.

Answer 2

You can just use .startswith('text') to check is a string starts with 'text'.

The .startswith('text') return True if the string starts with text, or else it will retur False.