Chatz Docs - Telegram

Channels

Connect a Telegram bot or a Telegram Business account.

Two ways to use Telegram

Telegram does not have a "connect your account" screen the way Meta does. The official way for another app to read and answer messages is a bot, and Chatz works with bots in two ways:

	Bot	Telegram Business account
Customers write to	The bot, for example @aina_shop_bot	Your own Telegram account
Customer presses Start first	Yes	No
Cost	Free	The account needs Telegram Premium
Groups	Yes	No
Good for	Ads, bios and links that open a chat	Customers who expect to message a person

You can use both. A Telegram Business account answers through a bot, so connecting one is an extra step on top of the bot, or a shortcut that needs no bot of your own (see below).

	Telegram Bot	Telegram Business
Account needed	Any Telegram account, free	Telegram Premium on the account that takes customers
Do customers need Premium?	No	No. Only your account does
Customers chat with	The bot. They find it and press Start	Your own account, like a normal chat
Pick it when	Customers come from ads, bios or links, or you need groups	Customers already message you and replies should look like they come from you
What you see in Telegram	Nothing: chats live in Chatz only	The chats appear in your own Telegram too

It is free and takes a few minutes. You can add Business later, and both can run at once as separate channels. For a Business account you can skip making a bot by choosing Telegram Business, which uses Chatz's own bot.

Connect a bot

The bot is made in Telegram itself, in a chat with @BotFather, which is Telegram's own, verified account for creating bots. You give Chatz the token BotFather hands out. Chatz never sees your Telegram password and cannot open your personal chats: it can only act as that bot.

Make the bot
In Telegram, open @BotFather and send /newbot. Pick a name and a username that ends in "bot". BotFather replies with a token that looks like 123456789:AAH...
Paste the token
In Chatz open Channels, Add a channel, Telegram Bot, and paste the token.
Share the bot
Customers find it by its username, or by a link such as t.me/aina_shop_bot. They press Start, write, and the chat appears in your inbox.

Keep the token private

Anyone holding the token can read the bot's messages. If it leaks, send /revoke to BotFather, then paste the new token under the channel's settings, Bot token, Change token.

Telegram Business accounts

With Telegram Premium, an account can hand its private chats to a bot. Customers then message your own account as usual and never see the bot, and your replies from Chatz go out as you.

Turn on Business Mode for the bot
In @BotFather: open your bot, Bot Settings, Business Mode, and switch it on. Chatz shows whether it is on under the channel's settings.
Connect it in Telegram
On the Premium account: Settings, Business, Chatbots. Enter the bot's username and allow it to reply to messages.
Find it in Chatz
The account appears as a channel of its own, named after the account, within a moment. Each Business account is a separate channel, so assignment, notifications and mute work per account.

Your plan counts it as a channel

If your plan has no room for another channel, the account is connected on Telegram's side but not in your inbox yet. Chatz says so under the bot's settings. Upgrade, then remove the bot from the account in Telegram and add it again.

Use the Chatz bot instead

If you would rather not make a bot at all, a Business account can connect to Chatz's own bot. In Add a channel, choose Telegram Business. It shows as not available until your platform administrator has set the Chatz bot up.

Link your Telegram account
Press Make my link, open it, and press Start in Telegram from the account you want to connect. This is how Chatz learns which workspace the account belongs to. The link works once, for 30 minutes.
Connect the bot in Telegram
Settings, Business, Chatbots, enter the bot's username, and allow it to reply to messages.

Customers still talk only to your account. One Telegram account belongs to one workspace at a time: linking it from another workspace moves it.

Start links for ads and bios

A bot cannot message first, so every lead starts with a Start. A link such as t.me/aina_shop_bot?start=raya_promo opens the chat with Start pressed and carries a code that says where the person came from.

Under the bot channel's settings, Start links, add a link for each ad, bio or poster. Give it a label, a code, and optionally a tag. Everyone who arrives through it gets the tag, so the source is on the contact from the first message. A code can use letters, digits, underscore and hyphen, up to 64 characters.

Groups

Add the bot to a Telegram group and the group appears in the inbox as one conversation, with each message showing who wrote it. You can reply to the group from Chatz, and flows can send into it.

Turn privacy mode off for groups

By default Telegram only shows a bot commands and replies to it. To let the bot see every message in a group, send /setprivacy to @BotFather, pick the bot and choose Disable, then remove the bot from the group and add it again. Chatz checks this for you: the Groups row in the bot's checklist turns green when it is off, and Add the bot to a group there opens Telegram's own picker.

Broadcasts

You can broadcast from a bot channel, but only to people who already pressed Start, because that is all Telegram allows. In the audience review, everyone else is listed as left out with the reason, and so is anyone who blocked the bot. A Telegram Business account cannot broadcast, and neither can drip campaigns, which address people by phone number.

How it differs from WhatsApp

There is no 24-hour window and no templates. Once someone has started the bot you can reply at any time.
In a bot chat a menu is drawn as tappable buttons. In a Business chat it is sent as a numbered list, and the customer answers with the number.
*bold*, _italic_ and the other WhatsApp markers you type in Chatz are converted to Telegram formatting.
Reactions and deleting a message also reach the customer in a bot chat.
You can send images, video, files, voice notes, locations and contact cards.

Troubleshooting

You see	What it means
The channel is in error, or says the token was refused	The token was revoked or regenerated. Paste the current one under Bot token, Change token.
A banner says the person blocked the bot	They blocked it in Telegram. It clears when they unblock or write again.
A Business account never appears	Check Business Mode is on in BotFather and that the account allowed the bot to reply. The settings panel shows both.
Group messages are missing	Privacy mode is still on. Disable it in BotFather and re-add the bot to the group.
Telegram could not deliver to Chatz	Use Reconnect in the channel menu. It checks the token and registers the webhook again.