Telegram + Intercom

How does our Telegram channel work with Intercom?

Tarek Khalil avatar
Written by Tarek Khalil
Updated over a week ago

Introduction

As a business using Intercom, you can use your Telegram Bot as a channel to manage & respond to customer conversations directly from the Intercom Inbox.Β 

The way Telegram works with your Intercom Inbox is simple,

  1. You connect your Intercom Workspace (account) in the Octopods app

  2. You add your Telegram Bot through our Octopods app

  3. When a Telegram User sends a message to your Telegram Bot, you will see the new Message in your Intercom Inbox – Octopods will create a new Conversation.

  4. Any new messages from the same User will be added to the newly opened conversation.

  5. You can reply to the newly opened conversation and your message will be sent to the Telegram User directly.


Private Chats

We support Telegram private chats which is basically a 1-1 Chat between your Telegram Bot and your Telegram Users. When you get a new message from your Telegram User, you will see this message in your Intercom Inbox and be able to reply to it.


Group Chats

We also support Telegram group chats. In Telegram, you can create a Group Chat, and invite a specific number of members, and what's more powerful is that you can invite your own Telegram Bot which represents your business entity.
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This is how a Telegram Group Chat looks like:

And this is how Octopods handles Group Chats:

When the very first member sends a message in your Telegram Group Chat, we create a new Intercom conversation and new lead for this first member. From that point on, this Intercom conversation is going to be "attached" to this first lead. We will also create leads for every participant who sends a new message. However, they will not appear on the "right sidebar" in the conversation.

Octopods will forward all of the messages from your group chat into your Intercom Inbox. You will see all of the group messages within a single Intercom conversation, just like in Telegram. This is how a Telegram Group Chat looks like in Intercom:

We also forward your Telegram Group name to Intercom. The name is added as a conversation tag.


Enabling group chats

Step 1: Allow group chats for your Telegram Channel in your Octopods dashboard

Step 2: Modify your Telegram Bot settings for group chats

  • Allow your Telegram Bot to be invited to group chats

  • Disable your Telegram Bot privacy for group chats

  • Disable Inline mode

Step 3: Invite your Telegram Bot to your group chat


Important note

Telegram Group Chats are meant to be used in a straight forward manner, not with complex rules, conditions or automations.


Supergroups

When your Telegram Group upgrades to a Supergroup a new Intercom conversation is created.

What upgrades the group to a Supergroup:

1. Modifying Chat History For New Members in your Group Chat settings

2. Changing newly added admin's permissions from default (see the screenshot) to extended (allow Remain Anonymous and/or Add New Admins).

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