> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.minidesk.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Telegram

> Connect your own Telegram bot. One paste, no code, no hosting.

Customers message a Telegram bot; the messages become conversations in your
inbox; your replies go back to the same chat. They never leave Telegram, and
you never leave your inbox.

The bot is **yours**, not ours. You create it in Telegram, and you can take it
back at any time.

## What you need

A Telegram account, and two minutes. There is nothing to host and nothing to
install.

## Set it up

<Steps>
  <Step title="Add the channel">
    In the dashboard, go to **Channels** and pick **Telegram**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Say whether you already have a bot">
    The steps differ, so the dialog asks first. Creating one uses `/newbot`;
    using one you already have uses `/mybots`.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Get the token">
    Message [@BotFather](https://t.me/BotFather) in Telegram and follow the
    steps the dialog shows you. It ends with a token that looks like
    `123456789:AAHdqTcvCH1vGWJxfSeofSAs0K5PALDsaw`.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Paste it and press Connect bot">
    We check the token with Telegram before saving it. If Telegram does not
    recognise it, nothing is stored and the dialog tells you.
  </Step>
</Steps>

That is the whole setup. Send your bot a message to confirm it works: it should
appear in your inbox within a second or two.

## Making a bot

If you do not have one yet:

1. Open Telegram and message [@BotFather](https://t.me/BotFather).
2. Send `/newbot`. It asks for a display name, then a username ending in `bot`.
3. It replies with your token.

The username is what customers type to find you, so pick something they will
recognise. It cannot be changed later without making a new bot.

## Using a bot you already have

1. Message [@BotFather](https://t.me/BotFather).
2. Send `/mybots` and choose the bot.
3. Tap **API Token** and copy it.

<Warning>
  A bot can only send its messages to one place. If this bot is already
  connected to another tool, connecting it here stops that tool receiving
  anything. Use a separate bot if you need both.
</Warning>

## What we do with your token

We store it encrypted, and we never show it back to you. The dashboard displays
the last four characters so you can tell two bots apart, and nothing more.
There is no API that returns it.

With it we do exactly one thing you did not do yourself: we ask Telegram to
deliver your bot's messages to us, and we send your replies back. Disconnecting
undoes that.

If you ever want to be certain, revoke the token in
[@BotFather](https://t.me/BotFather). That invalidates our copy along with
every other.

## Direct messages only

One-to-one chats become conversations. Group chats are ignored.

A group has one chat id and many people in it, so there is no single customer
to attach the conversation to, and everyone in the room would share one record.
Telegram also hides most group messages from bots by default.

## What arrives

Text, and photos, files, voice notes, audio and video. Attachments are stored
alongside the message with the same 10MB limit as everywhere else in the
product. Anything larger, or a type we do not accept, is named in an internal
note so your agent knows something was sent.

A message with no words, like a photo on its own, still becomes a conversation.
It gets a short placeholder line so the thread is not blank.

## Which conversation a message joins

Telegram has no threads. A chat is one continuous stream, so a new message
joins your most recent conversation with that person unless it is already
resolved or closed, in which case it starts a new one.

That means a customer coming back a month later opens a fresh conversation
rather than reviving a finished one.

## The Start button

Every new Telegram chat begins with the customer pressing **Start**, which
sends the text `/start` to your bot.

That does not become a conversation. The bot replies with a short line inviting
them to ask their question, and waits. A ticket whose entire content is
`/start` is one your team would have to close on every first contact.

## Customising the Start reply

By default the bot answers Start with a short line inviting them to ask their
question, in the customer's language.

To say something else, open **Channels → Telegram** and fill in **Reply to
Start**. Up to 300 characters.

<Note>
  A custom greeting is one string, sent to everyone. Our default is translated
  per customer; yours cannot be. Clear the field to go back to it.
</Note>

## Their profile picture

Where a customer has a Telegram profile photo, we fetch it once when their
record is created and show it beside their name in the conversation. People
with no photo keep the initials circle.

The image is stored privately and shown through a short-lived signed link, not
a public URL. Erasing a customer deletes the file along with the record.

## Automated replies

If you have AI auto-reply switched on, Telegram follows it like any other
channel. There is a per-channel toggle under **AI**, so you can leave it on for
email and off for Telegram, or the reverse.

## The states

The Channels screen shows which one you are in:

| State                | Meaning                                                            |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Not set up**       | No bot connected yet                                               |
| **No messages yet**  | Connected, but nobody has messaged the bot                         |
| **Live**             | Messages are arriving and becoming conversations                   |
| **Paused**           | You switched it off. We unhook the bot at Telegram while it is off |
| **Reconnect needed** | Telegram is sending this bot's messages somewhere else             |

**Reconnect needed** is the one worth understanding. Because a bot has only one
webhook, connecting the same bot to another tool silently takes it away from
us. Telegram reports no error and neither does the other tool; your messages
just stop arriving. We check on every load of the Channels screen so the row
can tell you. Paste the token again to point it back here.

## Pausing and disconnecting

**Pausing** unhooks the bot at Telegram and keeps your setup. Nothing is queued
while it is off. Switching it back on hooks it up again.

**Disconnecting** unhooks the bot and forgets the token entirely. The bot
itself is untouched and stays yours, so you can connect it here again or point
it at something else.

Conversations that already arrived stay in your inbox either way. They are your
support history, not part of the connection.