I am currently stuck with an implementation of a function that has to poll the Telegram API periodically and wait for a response from this. I guess there is some async / await magic that will help me to solve this problem in an elegant way. Maybe someone can jump in an give me a hint

Other suggestions for improvement are also very welcome

defmodule TelegramHelper do
  @moduledoc """
  Documentation for TelegramHelper.
  """

  import Nadia

  @chat_id 123456

  @spec get_sms_verification_code() :: any()
  def get_sms_verification_code do
    # telegram api will return some old messages from time to time
    # so we have to check if there are old message and get the update_id to poll later only for newer messages
    update_id = 0
    {:ok, result} = get_updates
    if length(result) > 0 do
      update_id = List.last(result).update_id + 1
    end

    send_message(@chat_id, "Please send the Auth Code")
    get_reply(update_id)
  end

  defp get_reply(update_id) do
    Process.sleep(1000)
    {:ok, result} = get_updates(%{:update_id => update_id})
    if length(result) == 0 do
      # this should stop after a timeout of e.g. 5 Minutes
      # and is obviously the wrong way of doing it
      get_reply(update_id)
    end
    # this is only for reference on what i want to return if i get back a new message from telegram
    List.first(result).message.text
  end
end