Connecting your Telegram bot to tawk.to

The instructions below are for desktops and laptops only.

This guide walks you through creating a Telegram bot, connecting it to tawk.to, replying to messages, and resolving common issues.

• Admin access to the tawk.to property you want to connect
• A Telegram account
• A Telegram bot token from @BotFather

BotFather is Telegram’s official bot management tool. Follow these steps to create a bot and generate your token using BotFather:

1. Open the Telegram app on your phone or desktop, and search for “BotFather”.

2. Open a chat with @BotFather and send this command: /newbot

3. Enter a display name for your bot (for example, Acme Support). This is the name users will see.

4. Enter a username. It must end in “bot” (for example, acme_support_bot).

5. BotFather will send you a bot token that looks like this:

• Keep your bot token secure. Anyone with access to it can control your bot.
  
• If your token is compromised, send /revoke to @BotFather to generate a new one.
• After revoking, reconnect your bot in tawk.to using the new token (see Updating your bot token after a revoke below).

1. Log in to your tawk.to account.

3. Click Administration on the left navigation bar.

4. Click Integrations in the left submenu.

5. On the Integrations page, click the Messaging tab, and then select Telegram.

6. Click Install in the upper right corner.

7. In the pop-up window, enter:

- Telegram Token — Paste the token from @BotFather.

8. Click Connect.

• You can connect multiple Telegram bots to the same tawk.to property. Each bot appears as a separate inbox.
• Each bot can be connected to one property at a time. If the bot is already connected elsewhere, the connection here will be blocked.
• Only new messages after connecting will appear in tawk.to — historical messages from Telegram are not imported.

1. Open the newly connected Telegram channel in your Inbox. Conversations appear in the list on the right.

2. Click a conversation to open it. Type your reply in the Reply field. Each message can have up to 4,096 characters.

3. You can switch between chats, tickets, Telegram messages, and other channels at the top of the conversation.

• You can reply at any time — there is no 24-hour messaging limit.
• For existing Telegram threads, you can use Compose > Telegram to continue the conversation.

When an agent is composing a message, the customer may see a typing… indicator in Telegram. This is sent automatically by the Telegram API to give the customer a sense that a response is coming. Keep in mind that it is only an approximation — it does not show every keystroke in real time.

Agents, on the other hand, cannot see when a customer is typing. The Telegram Bot API does not provide inbound typing information, so you will only see messages after the customer has sent them.

2. Type your reply.

To react to a message:

1. Click the emoji icon next to the message.

2. Select a reaction.

• Telegram supports 69 specific reaction emojis. In tawk.to, the emoji picker only shows the reactions that are compatible with Telegram.
• If you try to use an emoji that isn’t supported, tawk.to may automatically map it to the closest supported reaction, so your response still makes sense to the customer.

• Images (JPEG, JPG, PNG, GIF) — up to 10 MB per image
• Videos (MP4, MPEG) — up to 50 MB per file
• Audio (AAC, AMR, MP3, MP4, OGG) — up to 50 MB per file
• Documents (TXT, PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, ZIP) — up to 2 GB per file
• Voice messages (WebM, MP4, OGG) — up to 2 GB per file
• Stickers (WEBP) — up to 512 KB per sticker

• Change Status (Open, Pending, Closed)
• Assign the conversation to an agent
• Set Priority
• Add Tags

• Open — The message has not been resolved.
• Pending — You’ve responded and are waiting for further action.
• Closed — The issue is resolved.

• Mark as Spam — Moves the conversation to Spam
• Delete — Moves it to Trash
• Hide Events — Hides notifications for the conversation

• When a customer edits a text message in Telegram, the updated text can appear in tawk.to.
  
  
• Caption edits on photos, videos, or documents may not update in tawk.to; only text message edits are synced consistently.
  
  
• Agents cannot edit their own messages once sent. If you need to make a correction, send a follow-up message.
  
  
• If a customer deletes a message in Telegram, that deletion may still appear in tawk.to due to limitations of the Telegram Bot API.
  
  
• Telegram does not provide delivered or read receipts for messages sent via bots. Agents typically see messages as Sent, but cannot confirm if the customer has opened them.

• Text messages (up to 4,096 characters each)
• Images, videos, and audio files
• Documents and voice notes
• Static, animated, or video stickers and GIFs
• Location (a single point on the map; live location updates are not supported)
• Contact cards, forwards, captions, and @username mentions

• Polls, dice, and game messages may appear as plain text rather than interactive elements.
• Photo albums (multiple images sent together) may appear as separate messages in the conversation timeline.

If AI Assist is enabled, you can automate and enhance your Telegram conversations.

• Escalating from AI to a human agent may require a paid plan.
• Animated stickers and certain non-text content may not be fully handled by AI. For best results, use AI Assist primarily with text-based messages.

2. Go to the Channels list and enable the Telegram toggle. You can assign the AI agent to all Telegram inboxes, or enable specific inboxes individually.

1. Scroll down to the bottom of the AI agent’s Settings page.

1. Go to Administration → Integrations → Telegram → Settings.
   
   
2. Find the bot you want to update. If the old token is invalid, it may show as Disconnected.
   
   
3. Open the bot’s row menu and select Reconnect.
   
   
4. If tawk.to detects an invalid token, a Reconnect Telegram Bot window will appear. Paste the new token from @BotFather and complete the reconnect process.

• Customer-initiated conversations
  New threads must be started by the customer. Once the conversation exists, you can reply anytime and use Compose from the contact view.
  
  
• No messaging window restrictions
  Telegram does not limit how long you can wait to respond after the customer has sent a message.
  
  
• Keep your bot token secure
  Never share it. If needed, rotate your token using Reconnect in the Integrations settings.
  
  
• One bot per property
  Each Telegram bot can only be connected to a single tawk.to property at a time.
  
  
• No group/channel messages, historical messages, and read receipts
  Only private 1:1 chats appear in tawk.to. Historical messages from before the connection will not be imported, and there are no read receipts.
  
  
• File size limit in tawk.to
  Large inbound files over 50 MB may be capped for download or display in tawk.to.

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