Telegram, connected in a minute.
Paste a bot token and the inbox is live. No business verification, no template review, no 24 hour clock.
Telegram for business runs through the Telegram Bot API, which lets a company send and receive messages under a bot account that customers start a chat with. Otobiz connects your bot, routes its messages into the shared inbox alongside WhatsApp and Instagram, drafts replies grounded in your own information, and sends without a conversation window or template review.
What it does on Telegram.
Every one of these runs on your own account, with your own information behind the answers.
The fastest channel to get live
Telegram has no business verification, no number to migrate, and no template approval. You create a bot with Telegram's own BotFather, paste the token into Otobiz, and messages start arriving the same day.
- Connect with a bot token, validated before it is saved
- Nothing else to set up once the token is in
- Your bot stays yours, and the token can be rotated without losing history
No conversation window, no templates
Telegram does not close a reply window after 24 hours and does not require pre-approved templates. If a customer has started your bot, you can write to them when you have something to say, subject to your own consent rules.
- Replies allowed at any time to a chat that started the bot
- No template review, so message copy changes take effect immediately
- Consent, suppression, and frequency caps still applied by Otobiz
Replies grounded in your own content
The same drafting applies as on every other channel: answers from your knowledge base, crawled website, Q&A pairs, and the contact's history, with the sources shown to whoever reviews the draft.
- Grounded answers with visible sources
- Replies in the customer's own language
- Sensitive and uncertain cases routed to a person
Rich formatting and media
Long answers split automatically at Telegram's character limit instead of being cut off. Photos, video, audio, voice notes, animations, and documents all send, and formatting is cleaned up on the way out so a stray character cannot break a message.
- Automatic splitting of long messages, in order
- Photos, video, animation, audio, voice notes, and documents
- Bold, italic, code, quotes, spoilers, and links
- Message reactions, edits, deletes, pins, and typing indicators
Broadcasts and drip sequences
Telegram contacts sit in the same segment builder as everyone else, so a broadcast or a multi-step sequence can target them with the same consent screening, pacing, quiet hours, and per-recipient reporting.
- Text and media broadcasts to a resolved segment
- Multi-step sequences triggered by a tag, a lifecycle change, or an event
- People who block the bot are suppressed automatically
Buttons, polls, and locationssoon
Telegram supports inline keyboards, polls, quizzes, venue cards, and mini app buttons, which turn a question into a tap. These run through the same approval and audit path as any other send.
- Inline keyboards with callback and link buttons
- Polls and quizzes of up to ten options
- Location and venue cards
Group and channel messaging
A bot can sit in a group or a channel and answer there, which suits community support and internal alerting. Otobiz can pair a hosted bot into a group with a short-lived code instead of asking you to create one.
- Group and channel messages read into the same inbox
- Pairing by a short-lived code instead of a token paste
- A group Telegram re-creates is followed automatically
What it will not do.
Most of these are the platform's rules, not ours. They decide what you can send, and when.
The customer has to start the bot first
Telegram does not allow a bot to open a conversation with someone who has never started it. There is no equivalent of a phone list you can message. Growth on Telegram means giving people a reason to tap start.
Blocking is final
If someone blocks your bot, Telegram refuses the send. Otobiz stops messaging that contact.
Inbound files are capped
Telegram limits how large a file a bot may receive. An oversize file is called out as too large instead of arriving as an empty attachment.
Fewer people, in most markets
Telegram is the right primary channel in some regions and a secondary one in others. It costs nothing per message, so it is worth connecting either way.
A bot, not a personal account
Telegram conversations run through a bot you create, so a customer messages the bot rather than someone's own account. They have to write first before you can message them.
What it takes to connect
Message BotFather inside Telegram, create a bot, and copy the token it gives you. Paste it into Otobiz. The token is checked against Telegram before it is stored, sealed, and the webhook is registered with a secret unique to your workspace.
What you bring
- A Telegram account to create the bot with BotFather
- The bot token BotFather returns
- A public name and picture for the bot, which customers will see
- A link, QR code, or button somewhere your customers will actually find
Common questions
How long does it take to connect Telegram?
- About a minute. Create a bot with BotFather, copy the token, paste it into Otobiz. There is no business verification and no template review.
Does Telegram have a 24 hour window like WhatsApp?
- No. Telegram does not close a reply window and does not require pre-approved templates. Your own consent rules and frequency caps are what govern sending.
Can we message people who have not used our bot?
- No. Telegram only allows a bot to write to a chat that started it, and Otobiz cannot work around that.
Does Telegram cost anything per message?
- No. Telegram does not charge for bot messages, unlike WhatsApp, where Meta prices each delivered template message.
Where is the bot token stored?
- Encrypted, with the key held apart from it, and readable only by the part of Otobiz that sends. If the key cannot be reached, a send fails rather than falling back to something weaker.
Can we rotate the bot token later?
- Yes. Rotating the token or renaming the bot does not lose your contacts or your conversation history.
What happens to messages longer than Telegram allows?
- They are split into parts and sent in order. Attachments and keyboards are attached to the right part.
Can Telegram contacts be included in a broadcast?
- Yes. They sit in the same segment builder as every other channel, with the same consent screening, pacing, quiet hours, and per-recipient reporting.
Does the AI answer Telegram messages automatically?
- It drafts, and automatic sending applies only to routine replies you have enabled. Everything sensitive or uncertain waits for a person.
Can the bot work in a group chat?
- Telegram allows it, and Otobiz reads group and channel messages into the same inbox. Pairing a hosted bot into a group is handled separately from the token paste.