What the Telegram channel is
The Telegram channel connects your own Telegram bot to MuseRelay. Your customers write to the bot from Telegram and the conversation lands in the unified inbox, next to WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Email. You can reply yourself or let your AI agent reply, with the same tools as in the other channels: bookings, tickets, information about your business…
- Free: Telegram does not charge for bot messages.
- No 24-hour window or templates: you can always reply, even if the customer wrote a week ago.
- In 5 minutes: create the bot, paste its token into MuseRelay and you're done. No business verification.
How your customers find you
A Telegram bot has no phone number: your customers reach it by its username or a link.
- Direct link:
https://t.me/your_bot. Put it on your website, social media, email signature or business card. - QR code: generate a QR code for that link for your premises or leaflets.
- Telegram search: by typing the bot's username.
When someone opens the bot for the first time and taps “Start”, the AI treats it as a greeting and welcomes them.
Your customers' phone numbers
For privacy, Telegram never shows bots the phone number of the person writing to them. That is why in MuseRelay the contact is saved with their name and Telegram username (for example “Ana López · @ana_lopez”). Even if they change their name on Telegram, it stays the same contact.
When the phone number is needed (for example, to confirm a booking), the AI shows Telegram's official “📱 Share my phone number” button. If the customer taps it:
- Their number, verified by Telegram, is saved on their record.
- If that number already belongs to another contact (for example, the same customer on WhatsApp), MuseRelay suggests merging the two contacts in Contacts → Duplicates. They are never merged automatically: you decide.
The button appears when the AI agent uses tools (bookings, tickets…). If the customer sends someone else's contact card, it stays as a message and is not saved on their record.
Creating your bot (2 minutes)
- In Telegram, open @BotFather (Telegram's official bot for creating bots) and send
/newbot. - Type the name your customers will see, for example “Ana's Salon”.
- Choose a username ending in “bot”, for example
anas_salon_bot. - @BotFather replies with a token, a long text like
123456789:AAH…. Keep it safe: it is the key to your bot. - Optional:
/setuserpicsets its picture and/setdescriptionthe text customers see before writing to it.
Connecting it to MuseRelay
- Go to Channels → Create channel and choose Telegram.
- Paste the bot's token and click Save.
- MuseRelay checks the token with Telegram and connects the bot straight away. The channel page shows the
t.me/your_botlink. - To test it, open the link on your phone and write to it: the message will appear in your inbox.
For the AI to reply, assign an agent on the channel page under Configure AI → AI agent, as with the other channels.
What you can receive and send
| Type | Receive | Send from the inbox |
|---|---|---|
| Text | ✅ | ✅ (very long texts are sent in several parts) |
| Photos | ✅ with their caption | ✅ |
| Voice notes and audio | ✅ | ✅ |
| Videos | ✅ | ✅ |
| Documents (PDF, etc.) | ✅ up to 20 MB | ✅ up to 25 MB |
| Stickers | Shown as their emoji | — |
| Location and contacts | ✅ as text (with a map link) | — |
| Quick-reply buttons | ✅ the tapped button arrives as the customer's text | — |
While the AI prepares its reply, your customer sees “typing…” in Telegram.
Telegram and WhatsApp: differences
| Telegram | ||
|---|---|---|
| How customers find you | t.me/your_bot link or username | Your phone number |
| Cost per message | Free | Meta charges for some conversations |
| Replying after 24 hours | Yes, always | Only with approved templates |
| Sign-up | Instant with @BotFather | Business verification with Meta |
| Usage | Popular in some countries and communities | Used by almost everyone in many countries |
The ideal is to have both: WhatsApp for most of your customers and Telegram for those who prefer it, all in the same inbox.
Privacy and security
- Your bot token is stored encrypted and is never shown in the panel.
- We only accept messages that come from Telegram with a secret key unique to your channel; anything else is rejected.
- Messages and files are stored encrypted in MuseRelay, as with the other channels.
- Private chats only: the bot handles one-to-one conversations. If it is added to a group, group messages are ignored.
- If you delete the channel, the bot is disconnected from MuseRelay and stops receiving messages here.
Common problems
| Message or situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| “That does not look like a bot token” / “Telegram rejected the token” | Copy the full token from @BotFather's message. If you lost it or think someone else has it, generate a new one with /token in @BotFather and paste it again (the old one stops working). |
| “This bot is already connected in the channel…” | A bot can only be connected to one channel. Use that channel or create another bot. |
| Messages are not arriving | A bot can only send its messages to one service at a time. If you connected the same bot to another tool, MuseRelay stops receiving them: save the token in MuseRelay again to get it back. |
| “The user blocked the bot” | The customer blocked the bot or deleted the chat. You cannot write to them until they open it again. |
| A received file cannot be opened | Telegram only lets bots download files up to 20 MB. Ask the customer to send it compressed or another way. |