Telegram

Introduction

The Telegram app lets you connect a Telegram bot you own to AskYura, turning Telegram into another customer chat channel. If your business already uses Telegram to talk to customers, you can link it to AskYura so that the bot you've created in AskYura becomes the front-liner answering those conversations, instead of your team manually replying inside Telegram.

Once connected, a Telegram conversation is routed through the Web Widget channel you linked it to, so it's handled by that channel's existing bot — the same bot that already handles other conversations on that channel. It also appears in your Chat/Inbox alongside your other conversations, so agents can take over whenever needed.

Common Use Cases

The Telegram integration is useful when:

• Your customers already reach out to your business through a Telegram bot, and you want an AI bot to handle first response instead of a human agent.
• You want to centralize conversations from multiple channels (Web Widget, Telegram, etc.) into a single AskYura Inbox.
• You want your existing bot configuration (knowledge base, topics, tools) to also apply to Telegram conversations, without configuring the bot twice.

Requirements

Before connecting Telegram, make sure you have:

• A Telegram bot already created, along with its Bot Token. If you don't have one yet, see Getting a Bot Token from BotFather below.
• A Web Widget channel — either one you already have, or a new one you create during setup. Since the Web Widget channel is the main door for chat in AskYura, the Telegram bot must be connected to one Web Widget channel, and that channel's existing bot will also handle the Telegram conversations.

Getting a Bot Token from BotFather

If you don't already have a Telegram bot, you can create one directly from Telegram using @BotFather, Telegram's official bot for creating and managing bots. Follow Telegram's official guide at core.telegram.org/bots to create your bot.

In short:

1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather, then start a chat with it.
2. Send the /newbot command.
3. Follow the prompts to set a name and a username for your bot (the username must end in bot, e.g. MyStoreSupport_bot).
4. Once created, BotFather will reply with an API Token (Bot Token) — copy this value, as you'll need it to connect your bot to AskYura.

Where to Access Telegram Integration

You can connect Telegram from the 3rd Party Apps page:

Go to:
3rd Party Apps → Marketplace → Telegram

1. Navigate to 3rd Party Apps from the left sidebar.
2. Select the Marketplace tab.
3. Find and click on the Telegram app.
4. Click Install.

Reviewing App Permissions

After clicking Install, a consent form will appear showing what Telegram will be able to do inside your workspace, such as:

• View basic workspace information such as workspace name
• View contacts and other content related to the contact
• Create new contacts, update existing contacts, and modify contact custom attributes
• View agents and other content related to the agent
• View channels and other content related to the channel
• View conversations and other content related to the conversation

Review the requested permissions, then click Allow to authorize the app.

Telegram Bots Dashboard

Once authorized, you'll land on the Telegram Bots dashboard inside the app. This is where you manage all the Telegram bots connected to your workspace.

Since it's one bot per channel, each Telegram bot you add here can only be routed to a single CRM channel. If you haven't connected any bot yet, you'll see a No Telegram bots yet empty state.

Click + New Bot to connect a bot from BotFather to a channel.

Telegram Form Explanation

After clicking + New Bot, the Connect a new Telegram bot form will appear, asking for the following fields.

Bot Token

Paste the Bot Token you obtained from BotFather (e.g., 1234567890:ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ). AskYura verifies this token via Telegram's getMe API before saving, then uses it to connect to your Telegram bot and receive customer messages on its behalf.

Channel

Select the channel you want this Telegram bot to send messages to. Currently, only your Web Widget channels are available here, since the Web Widget is the main door for chat in AskYura.

We recommend creating a Web Widget channel exclusively for this Telegram connection, rather than reusing one that's already serving your website, so you can configure and monitor your Telegram traffic separately. You only need to create the channel itself — there's no need to embed it on a website. Follow Step 2 and Step 3 of the widget creation guide to set one up.

Final Step

After filling in the Bot Token and selecting a Channel, click Connect Bot to activate the integration.

Once connected, your bot will appear back on the Telegram Bots dashboard with a Connected status, showing which CRM Channel it's linked to and when it was created.

From this point, messages sent to your Telegram bot by customers will be received in AskYura and routed to the linked channel's existing bot, so that bot can respond automatically as the front-liner. Conversations will also appear in Chat/Inbox, so your agents can step in whenever the bot escalates or a customer requests human assistance.

If a conversation comes from Telegram, you can confirm it in the conversation's Conversation Information panel — the Conversation Source field will show Telegram.

Best Practices

To ensure optimal performance and reliability:

• Double-check the Bot Token is copied correctly and kept confidential.
• Link the Telegram bot to a Web Widget channel whose bot has already been tested and configured with an accurate knowledge base and topics.
• Test the integration by sending a message to your Telegram bot and confirming it appears in the AskYura Chats page.
• Make sure your escalation tools (e.g., Notify Human Agent) are configured on the linked bot, so customers on Telegram can still be handed off to a human agent when needed.