Connect a Telegram bot

You can connect your own Telegram bot to your agent so it answers your customers in private chats. Telegram does not review the connection, and setup takes about a minute.

Create the bot in Telegram

1. Open Telegram and search for the official @BotFather account.

2. Send /newbot and follow the prompts to choose your bot’s name and username.

3. BotFather sends you a token that starts with numbers and a colon, like 123456789:AAF…. Copy it.

Caution

The bot token gives full control of your bot. Do not share it with anyone, and paste it only into the tkana portal.

Connect the bot to tkana

1. In Settings, open Channels, then click Add channel.

2. Choose the Telegram card.

3. Type a Channel name, pick the Agent that will answer customers, and paste the token into Bot Token.

4. Click Create channel.

tkana checks the token, connects the bot, and activates the channel right away. If the token is wrong, you see an error and no channel is created. Check the token and try again.

TODOScreenshot coming soonChannels > Add channel > Telegram: Channel name, Agent, and Bot Token fields with the Create channel button

Share your bot link

Once connected, the channel page shows your bot’s link under Your customers can chat with your agent at. Share that link with your customers. When a customer opens it and taps Start, your agent greets them and the conversation begins.

The channel page also has:

• Connect webhook: reconnects the bot if it stops receiving messages.
• Test: checks that the bot and its connection are working.
• Deactivate and Delete: stop the bot from receiving messages, or remove the channel.

What the bot can handle

• Text messages: your agent answers them directly.
• Voice notes: transcribed to text, then answered by your agent.
• Photos, files, and stickers: the bot replies with a short message saying it can only read text and voice messages.
• Groups and channels: the bot works in private chats only and ignores group messages.

Telegram conversations appear in Conversations, and you can filter them by the Telegram channel. Active and Observe modes and the hold window work on Telegram just like on your other channels. See Control when your agent replies on a channel.

Caution

Replies you or your team type in the portal on a Telegram conversation are not delivered to the customer on Telegram at the moment, and they also pause the agent on that conversation. Leave Telegram conversations to your agent, and use an Internal Note if you want to comment for your team.

Note

Telegram does not share the customer’s phone number, so WhatsApp templates and campaigns cannot reach Telegram customers. If the same person also messages you on WhatsApp, they show up as two separate customers.