RSS to Zalo and Telegram, a clean daily digest

You open five news tabs “just to check headlines,” and suddenly it’s 45 minutes later. Worse, you still can’t tell what actually matters, because the important items are spread across different sources and formats.

This RSS digest automation hits analysts hardest, but marketing leads and founders feel it too. Everyone wants the same thing: one clean briefing, in Vietnamese, delivered where the team already reads messages.

This workflow pulls from multiple RSS feeds, filters to the last 24 hours, summarizes the top stories into a ~400-word daily digest, then sends it to Zalo and Telegram. You’ll see what it does, what you need, and how to adapt it.

How This Automation Works

See how this solves the problem:

n8n Workflow Template: RSS to Zalo and Telegram, a clean daily digest

Click to explore

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The Challenge: Daily news turns into a time sink

Keeping up with news sounds simple until you’re doing it every day, across multiple sites, while trying to actually run your job. You skim one source, then another, then you “just” cross-check details, and now your morning focus is gone. If you’re sharing updates with a team, it gets messier: links get dropped into chat with no context, people miss the thread, and by the time someone asks “so what’s the takeaway?” you’re rewriting the summary from scratch. Honestly, the repetitive part is what hurts most because it steals energy that should go into decisions.

It adds up fast. Here’s where it breaks down in real teams.

Checking 4+ sources every morning becomes a standing meeting with your browser.
Handwritten summaries drift in tone and structure, so your “daily digest” never feels consistent.
Teams rely on ad-hoc chat messages, which means the key headline gets buried under replies.
Copy-paste errors happen easily, especially with titles, dates, and duplicated stories across feeds.

The Fix: An AI-curated Vietnamese digest sent to Zalo + Telegram

This automation collects fresh articles from four RSS sources, cleans and standardizes the fields (title, published date, and content), then keeps only stories from the last 24 hours. It trims the list down to the 20 most recent items so the AI isn’t summarizing noise. Next, an OpenAI-powered assistant produces a concise Vietnamese digest with 15–19 highlights (about 400 words) and strips out odd characters that often show up in scraped RSS content. If you enable it, the workflow also calls Perplexity to refine the tone into a more financial–economic–political style, which is often what business teams actually want. Finally, the same finished briefing gets delivered to both Zalo and Telegram, so you’re not duplicating distribution.

The workflow can run automatically on a schedule (think 7 AM), or on-demand when someone requests it from Zalo or Telegram. In the middle, it merges items across feeds, filters by recency, and uses an AI memory buffer to keep the output more consistent day to day. At the end, your team gets one message that reads like a real briefing, not a pile of links.

What Changes: Before vs. After

What This Eliminates

Impact You’ll See

Manually opening 4 RSS sources and scanning for what’s new.
Copying titles, dates, and excerpts into a “daily update” message.
Deciding which stories are worth sharing while you’re half-awake.
Sending separate updates to Zalo and Telegram and keeping them in sync.

Most teams get about 1 hour back each weekday morning.
You send a single ~400-word Vietnamese briefing instead of 20 scattered links.
Fewer “wait, what happened?” follow-ups because the takeaway is already written.
Cleaner formatting across sources (consistent titles, dates, and highlights).
On-demand digests when something breaks and you need fast context.

Real-World Impact

Let’s say you check 4 RSS sources each morning and you spend maybe 10 minutes per source skimming, opening articles, and grabbing quotes. That’s roughly 40 minutes, and you still have to write a summary and post it to two places. With this workflow, the “work” is basically zero: a scheduled run at 7 AM, then the AI produces a ~400-word digest and sends it to Zalo and Telegram. You glance once, forward if needed, and move on. That’s about 30–40 minutes back per day.

Requirements

n8n instance (try n8n Cloud free)
Self-hosting option if you prefer (Hostinger works well)
RSS feed URLs for your news sources (4 included).
Zalo User API to deliver messages to chats.
Telegram Bot to send the digest to Telegram.
OpenAI API key (get it from your OpenAI API dashboard).
Perplexity API key (get it from your Perplexity account, if enabled).

Skill level: Intermediate. You’ll connect accounts, paste API keys, and tweak a prompt without needing to write code.

Need help implementing this? Talk to an automation expert (free 15-minute consultation).

The Workflow Flow

Scheduled run or chat request. The workflow starts either at a set time (your morning briefing) or when someone triggers it from Zalo or Telegram.

RSS collection and cleanup. It pulls items from four RSS feeds, then “maps” each feed into a consistent structure so the next steps aren’t fighting messy data.

Merge, filter, and limit. The feeds get combined into one stream, items older than 24 hours are removed, and the list is capped at 20 recent stories so the summary stays readable.

AI digest generation and delivery. OpenAI generates 15–19 Vietnamese highlights (about 400 words), optionally refined via Perplexity, then the same digest is sent to Zalo and to your Telegram bot.

You can easily modify the RSS sources to match your industry focus, or adjust the summary length if your team prefers shorter briefings. See the full implementation guide below for customization options.

Step-by-Step Implementation Guide

Step 1: Configure the Schedule and Incoming Message Triggers

This workflow can start from a scheduled run or from incoming messages, so you’ll configure all three entry points.

Add and configure Scheduled Automation Trigger to your preferred schedule in its trigger settings.
Set up Zalo Incoming Trigger to receive inbound messages and confirm the webhook is reachable.
Set up Telegram Incoming Trigger to receive inbound messages and confirm the webhook is reachable.
Connect the triggers so Zalo Incoming Trigger, Scheduled Automation Trigger, and Telegram Incoming Trigger each output to Retrieve RSS Feed 1, Retrieve RSS Feed 2, Retrieve RSS Feed 3, and Retrieve RSS Feed 4 in parallel.

⚠️ Common Pitfall: Webhook-based triggers like Zalo Incoming Trigger and Telegram Incoming Trigger require the workflow to be active before external services can successfully call them.

Step 2: Connect the RSS Feeds and Map Fields

Each RSS source is retrieved, normalized, and then merged into a single stream.

In Retrieve RSS Feed 1, Retrieve RSS Feed 2, Retrieve RSS Feed 3, and Retrieve RSS Feed 4, set the RSS feed URLs for each source.
Map the output fields in Map Data Fields A, Map Data Fields B, Map Data Fields C, and Map Data Fields D to align titles, links, and descriptions.
Connect Map Data Fields A, Map Data Fields B, Map Data Fields C, and Map Data Fields D into Combine Streams to merge all feed items into one flow.

Tip: Keep the output field names consistent across all four Map Data Fields nodes to avoid filtering issues downstream.

Step 3: Set Up Record Filtering and Summarization

Filter and limit the combined feed items before summarizing them into a compact dataset.

Configure Apply Record Filter to include only the entries you want to summarize (for example, by keywords or categories).
Set Restrict Items to cap the number of entries passed to summarization.
Use Summarize Records to aggregate the remaining items into a structured summary for AI processing.

Step 4: Configure the AI Summarization Layer

The AI node uses tools and memory to generate a final summary for distribution.

Configure AI Assistant Prompt with your prompt and output structure for the news summary.
Ensure Perplexity Model Query is attached as the AI tool for AI Assistant Prompt; add credentials on AI Assistant Prompt, not the tool itself.
Ensure Buffer Memory Store is attached as the memory for AI Assistant Prompt; configure memory settings on the parent node.
Credential Required: Connect your OpenAI API credentials in AI Assistant Prompt.

Step 5: Configure Output Messages

The AI summary is sent out to both Zalo and Telegram in parallel.

Confirm AI Assistant Prompt outputs to both Dispatch Zalo Message and Send Telegram Message in parallel.
In Dispatch Zalo Message, map the AI summary into the message body.
In Send Telegram Message, map the AI summary into the message body.
Credential Required: Connect your Zalo credentials in Dispatch Zalo Message and Zalo Incoming Trigger.
Credential Required: Connect your Telegram Bot credentials in Send Telegram Message and Telegram Incoming Trigger.

Step 6: Test and Activate Your Workflow

Run a manual test to confirm RSS retrieval, summarization, and message delivery before enabling production runs.

Click Execute Workflow to run a test from Scheduled Automation Trigger or use the Zalo Incoming Trigger / Telegram Incoming Trigger webhooks to simulate a real inbound event.
Verify that items pass through Combine Streams, Apply Record Filter, Restrict Items, and Summarize Records without errors.
Confirm that Dispatch Zalo Message and Send Telegram Message receive the summarized content from AI Assistant Prompt.
When successful, toggle the workflow to Active for scheduled and webhook-driven automation.

🔒

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Watch Out For

Telegram credentials can expire or need specific permissions. If things break, check the Telegram bot token in n8n Credentials first.
If you’re using Wait nodes or external rendering, processing times vary. Bump up the wait duration if downstream nodes fail on empty responses.
Default prompts in AI nodes are generic. Add your brand voice early or you’ll be editing outputs forever.

Common Questions

How quickly can I implement this RSS digest automation?

About 30 minutes if you already have your API keys.

Can non-technical teams implement this RSS digest automation?

Yes. You’ll mostly connect accounts and paste credentials into n8n, then tweak the summary prompt.

Is n8n free to use for this RSS digest automation workflow?

Yes. n8n has a free self-hosted option and a free trial on n8n Cloud. Cloud plans start at $20/month for higher volume. You’ll also need to factor in OpenAI and Perplexity API usage, which depends on how long your summaries are and how often you run them.

Where can I host n8n to run this automation?

Two options: n8n Cloud (managed, easiest setup) or self-hosting on a VPS. For self-hosting, Hostinger VPS is affordable and handles n8n well. Self-hosting gives you unlimited executions but requires basic server management.

How do I adapt this RSS digest automation solution to my specific challenges?

You can swap or add sources by duplicating the RSS Read nodes (Retrieve RSS Feed 1–4) and mapping their fields in the Set steps (Map Data Fields A–D). Many teams also adjust the filter window (last 24 hours) and the cap of 20 items so the digest matches their pace. If you want a different writing style, change the instructions in the AI Assistant Prompt, and keep the “remove special symbols” rule so the output stays clean in chat apps.

Why is my Telegram connection failing in this workflow?

Usually it’s an expired or incorrect bot token in n8n Credentials. It can also be a chat ID mismatch (posting to a group vs. a direct chat), or Telegram rate limiting if you trigger the digest repeatedly in a short time.

What’s the capacity of this RSS digest automation solution?

For most small teams, it’s effectively “as often as you need,” since each run summarizes up to 20 items.

Is this RSS digest automation better than using Zapier or Make?

Often, yes, because this kind of workflow benefits from branching triggers (schedule, Zalo command, Telegram command), data shaping, and AI prompting in one place. n8n also gives you a self-hosted option, which matters if your team runs daily digests for multiple groups. Zapier and Make can still work, but you’ll usually feel the pain once you add filtering, merging multiple feeds, and keeping the output consistent. Another practical point: you can add memory/context and optional Perplexity refinement without turning the automation into a fragile chain of separate scenarios. Talk to an automation expert if you want a quick recommendation for your stack.

A daily briefing should feel effortless. Set this up once, and let the workflow deliver the updates while you spend your morning on decisions instead of tabs.

RSS to Zalo and Telegram, a clean daily digest

How This Automation Works

n8n Workflow Template: RSS to Zalo and Telegram, a clean daily digest

The Challenge: Daily news turns into a time sink