Connect Telegram

A Telegram connection is a bot of your own. Telegram steps send, edit, delete and pin messages as that bot, in the chats it is in. You make the bot in Telegram with @BotFather, which gives you a token; Bizomate keeps the token encrypted.

Who can do this

Workspace Admins and Editors, on any plan — Telegram is not a premium connection. Viewers see the connection but cannot add or change it.

On Telegram's side, anyone with a Telegram account can make a bot. To add the bot to a group or channel, you need to be allowed to add members there — for a channel, an administrator.

Steps

In Telegram, make the bot:

1. In Telegram, search for @BotFather — the one with the blue tick — and open the chat.
2. Select Start, or send /start.
3. Send /newbot.
4. BotFather asks for a name. Type the name people will see — for example Consulace updates.
5. BotFather asks for a username. It must end in bot — for example consulace_bot. If it is taken, BotFather asks for another.
6. BotFather answers with the bot's link and its token, under "Use this token to access the HTTP API". The token looks like 123456789:AA…. Copy it.

For a bot you already have, send /token to @BotFather and choose the bot.

In Bizomate, add the connection:

1. Select Connections in the bar at the top, then + Add connection.
2. Under Communication, select Telegram. It reads "Stored credential".
3. In Connection name, type a name — for example Consulace bot.
4. Paste the token in Bot token — From @BotFather in Telegram: /newbot, or /token for a bot you have. It is hidden as you type.
5. Leave Test the connection before saving ticked. Bizomate asks Telegram who the bot is before keeping the token.
6. Select Save connection. The button reads Testing, then the dialog closes.

The toast "Connection added" says "“Consulace bot” is ready. Every workflow in this workspace can use it."

Let the bot into your chats

A bot can only post where it has been let in. Do this for every chat the workflow should use.

• A person. They open the bot — t.me/consulace_bot — and select Start. A bot cannot write to someone first.
• A group. In the group, open its members, select Add members, search for @consulace_bot and add it.
• A channel. In the channel's settings, open Administrators, select Add administrator, choose @consulace_bot, and leave Post messages allowed. In a channel, a bot can only post as an administrator.

Then send any message in the chat — or, in a group, mention the bot. The chat now appears in the Chat list of Telegram steps.

Privacy mode

Telegram bots start with privacy mode on. In a group, the bot then sees only commands (/like_this), replies to its own messages, and messages that mention it — not everything said there. It can still post in the group.

This matters for one thing in Bizomate: the Chat list is made from what the bot has seen. If a group does not appear, mention the bot there, or turn privacy mode off:

1. Send /setprivacy to @BotFather.
2. Choose the bot.
3. Select Disable.
4. Remove the bot from the group and add it again — Telegram applies the change only then.

What happens next

• Telegram steps list it under Connection: Send a message, Send a photo, Send a document, Edit a message, Delete a message, Pin a message and Get chat.
• Test in the connection's panel answers "Reached @consulace_bot".
• Messages show in Telegram as sent by the bot, with its name and picture. Set the picture with /setuserpic in @BotFather.

Good to know

• The Chat list shows chats from the last 24 hours — Telegram keeps a bot's recent messages for a day, up to 100 of them. A chat that has been quiet longer is not listed; send a message in it, then select Refresh, or select Use a value and type its id.
• Chat ids. A person's id is a positive number, a group's a negative one, and a channel's or large group's starts with -100 — for example -1001234567890. A public channel or group can also be given by its username, such as @consulace_updates.
• One bot, one place for its messages. If the same bot is connected to another service that receives its messages through a webhook, Telegram will not give Bizomate the list of chats. The steps still work; use a value for Chat.
• A new token. /revoke in @BotFather makes a new token and stops the old one at once. Then, in Bizomate, open the connection's panel, select Revoke and Revoke connection, then Reconnect. Paste the new token in Bot token and select Reconnect. The toast says "Workflows that use “Consulace bot” carry on from their next run." Workflows using it fail between the two, so do both together. With Test the connection before saving ticked, Reconnect tries the new token first and changes nothing if Telegram refuses it.
• Telegram has no paid plans for bots, and sets its own sending limits — about one message a second to one chat, and 20 a minute to one group.

If something goes wrong

Related

• Send a Telegram message
• Send a photo or document with Telegram
• Testing a connection
• Reconnecting a connection that stopped working