Telegram customer support, through a bot that is yours
Kommio turns a Telegram bot into a shared customer support inbox: create a bot in Telegram, paste its token, and customers' private chats arrive with photos, files and buttons. The bot greets, answers /status and hands over on /agent. No reply window: answer whenever you are ready.
One conversation model, whatever the channel.
Telegram conversations sit in the same list as every other channel, with one owner and one history, so nobody asks the customer to repeat themselves.
What your agent sees
Each customer's private chat is one conversation with their Telegram name, user name and the language of their Telegram app. Photos, documents, voice notes and video arrive as files, a quoted reply is shown above the message, and an edit changes the message in place with the earlier text on hover.
What your customer sees
They message your bot as they would any chat: a command menu, a welcome with buttons on the first /start, formatted replies, photos, documents, typing while an agent writes, and the satisfaction survey as buttons to tap.
Assignment and automation apply
Rules, SLA policies, assignment, agent bots and the AI agent apply. A chatbot flow's choices become inline keyboard buttons, and a tap answers the flow.
Reports count it
Telegram conversations count like every other channel's, with Telegram as its own slice of the channel mix and the inbox as a filter.
The facts that matter for Telegram.
No reply window
Unlike WhatsApp, a bot may answer a customer at any time after they wrote to it. It cannot start a chat with someone who never did.
Private chats only
Messages in groups and channels, and the bot being added to one, are ignored and reported on the inbox.
Webhook or long polling
With a public address Kommio registers a webhook with Telegram; without one it polls, so a self-hosted install behind a firewall works too. What customers sent while the inbox was paused arrives when it resumes.
What goes out
Up to 4,096 characters with bold, italic, links and code; photos up to 10 MB with a short caption; other files as documents. Nothing is ever sent twice.
Commands that answer themselves
/start, /status, /agent and /help sit in the bot's menu, in the workspace's language for customers whose Telegram speaks it. /status says where the conversation stands and /agent hands it from a bot to your team; none of them becomes a message to answer.
A welcome with buttons
On a customer's first /start the bot sends the inbox's greeting with up to eight buttons that route to a team, start a chatbot flow, set the language or add a tag. Each works once, and the buttons go away.
Start links that act
A t.me link with a start payload lands on the conversation as an attribute; ref_<campaign> also tags the conversation and order_<id> leaves a note with the order number.
Floods and blocked bots
More than 30 messages in 10 minutes from one chat get one automatic acknowledgement, and identical messages show once, "sent N times". When a customer blocks the bot, the thread says so and replies fail with that reason.
From Chatwoot
A Telegram inbox imported from Chatwoot reconnects with the bot token, and a returning customer's next message lands on their imported contact and history.
Not yet. Telegram does not tell a bot when a customer deletes a message or reads a reply, so Kommio shows neither; an inbox can react with 👀 when an agent opens the chat instead (off by default). Group chats, and continuing a website chat in Telegram, are not supported yet.
What you need to connect Telegram.
An administrator does this from Settings. Nothing to install on your side beyond what the channel's own platform asks for.
Create a bot with @BotFather
In Telegram, send /newbot to @BotFather, choose a name and a user name ending in bot, and copy the token it answers with.
Paste the token
Settings › Marketplace › Telegram › Install in this workspace. Paste the token and press Test connection: Kommio shows the bot's name and user name. The token is stored encrypted and never shown again.
Try it
Name the inbox and choose its agents. The last step shows the bot's t.me link and a QR code: open it on a phone, send a message, and it arrives in the inbox.
Step by step, with the exact fields and what to do when something does not arrive: Telegram: setup, what is supported, delivery and health.
Guide: run customer support on Telegram with a bot
Coming from another help desk? Kommio as an alternative to Chatwoot, Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk or Help Scout, and what free help desk software really means.
Other channels
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