Telegram
Connect a Telegram bot by creating it with BotFather and pasting the token — the simplest official channel, with no approvals and no windows.
Telegram connects via a bot. You create the bot with Telegram's own BotFather, paste the token into CoPhrase, and CoPhrase registers a webhook so Telegram delivers messages to your agent.
It is the least fussy official channel in the product. No app review, no messaging window, no template approvals, no ban risk.
Setup
Create a bot with BotFather
In Telegram, message @BotFather and create a new bot. You choose its display name and its @username. BotFather gives you a bot token — a long string that is the bot's password.
Paste the token into CoPhrase
Add a Telegram channel and paste the token. CoPhrase validates it against Telegram immediately, so you find out on the spot whether it works, and registers a webhook so Telegram delivers new messages.
The token is stored encrypted and never shown back to you. See Security.
Pick the agent and share the link
Choose which agent answers. Then put the bot's t.me link where your customers will find it — your site, your bio, your email footer, a QR code.
A bot cannot message someone first
This is Telegram's rule, not ours: a bot can only talk to people who have started a conversation with it. The customer taps your t.me link (or scans the QR) and sends the first message. From then on the agent can reply freely.
There's no way around it, and there's no need for one — CoPhrase is inbound-first. But it does mean the link is the channel. If nobody can find your bot, nobody messages it.
Capabilities
| Official API | Yes |
| Ban / restriction risk | None |
| Messaging window | None — reply whenever you like, however long after |
| Outbound message length | 4,096 characters |
| Outbound media | Text |
| Inbound media | Images, files, and audio messages (voice notes) — read and transcribed for the agent |
| Approval required | None |
No 24-hour window is the underrated part here. On Meta channels, a reply that arrives a day late is simply blocked. On Telegram, the agent (or a human on handoff) can answer whenever.
Things to know
Groups. A bot added to a Telegram group can be configured to see all messages or only messages that mention it. Decide which before you add the agent to a busy group — an agent that replies to everything in a group chat is not a good experience.
The token is a credential. Anyone with the bot token controls the bot. If it leaks, revoke and regenerate it in BotFather, then re-paste the new one into CoPhrase.
Your bot, your branding. Unlike Discord, where a single CoPhrase platform bot is invited into your server, Telegram bots are per-customer by nature — the bot is yours, named by you.
Telegram user accounts are a different thing
There is a separate, unofficial way to connect Telegram: logging in as a real user account rather than a bot. It exists for outbound use cases that a bot can't do. It is not the Telegram bot channel, it carries account risk, and it is not part of the inbound product. Everything on this page is about the official bot.