Telegram

The Telegram integration posts lead notifications into a Telegram group your team already uses - new leads, contact info a customer shares, customer messages the AI didn’t answer, booked appointments, and voice-agent call summaries. Your team can also reply to customers and stop the AI right from notifications about conversations.

What gets posted

You’ll recognize each notification by its label:

• New Lead - a new lead came in. Only when Notify on new lead is on.
• Phone Message or Email Message - the customer shared a phone number or email. Only when Trigger messenger integrations is on in the source’s Contact Info settings.
• Sent a message - the customer wrote and the AI didn’t answer, for example because the AI is off for this lead, it handed the lead over to your team, or it reached its message limit.
• System - a notice about the lead, such as “AI message limit reached” or a file the customer sent.
• Appointment Scheduled or Booking Summary - the AI agreed on an appointment or booked one.
• Call Finished - a voice-agent call ended, with the phone number, a call summary, and the recording link. See Voice Agent Integrations.

Lead notifications also show the customer’s name and, where they apply, the address, the original request, and a link to the conversation.

Connecting Telegram

To post another source into the same group, open that source’s Integrations tab → Add integration → Use existing and pick this Telegram integration. You can also tick sources under Where it’s used in the Telegram window.

Options

Enabled

Turns this Telegram integration on or off everywhere it’s used. It turns on by itself when the bot registers your group. To stop posting for one source only, switch Telegram off on that source’s Integrations tab instead.

Include source name in messages

Default: off. When on, each message starts with Source: and the source’s name - handy when several sources post into one group.

Notify on new lead

Default: off.

• When on - A New Lead message is posted as soon as a lead comes in.
• When off - No New Lead message. The other notifications in What gets posted still arrive.

Reply to customers and stop the AI from this chat

Default: on. While it’s on, notifications about conversation leads get two buttons: 💬 Reply to customer and ⏹ Stop AI & follow-ups. See Replying to a customer from Telegram and Stopping the AI from Telegram.

• Conversation leads are Yelp, Thumbtack, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Google Local Ads leads that started as a message. Notifications about other leads - website forms, Facebook Lead Ads, Google Local Ads phone calls and bookings, and leads that came in as a voice-agent call - arrive without buttons.
• It applies to every source that uses this Telegram integration.
• It only adds buttons. It doesn’t change which notifications are posted.
• Notifications posted while it was off have no buttons.
• When you turn it off, buttons already in the group stay, but pressing one only shows “Lead actions are turned off for this chat”.

Change Telegram Chat

Moves the notifications to another group: you get a new code and paste it there, the same way as when connecting. Until the new group is registered, this Telegram integration posts nothing. Buttons in the old group stop working.

Replying to a customer from Telegram

💬 Reply to customer is on notifications about conversation leads (see Reply to customers and stop the AI from this chat).

Only an answer to the bot’s message, from the person who pressed the button, reaches the customer:

• Everything else stays in Telegram. Replies to the notification itself and anything else said in the group are never sent to customers.
• One person at a time. While you write, the notification shows “✍️ @yourname is writing a reply…”. A teammate who presses the button is told you’re already writing, and if someone else answers the bot’s message meant for you, nothing is sent.
• 5 minutes. The reply window closes 5 minutes after you press the button. Press 💬 Reply to customer again to start over.
• Cancel by tapping /cancel in the bot’s message. Nothing is sent.
• Text only. Photos, files, and voice messages aren’t sent.
• One message per press. To send another one, press the button again.
• If someone on your team already replied to the customer after the notification was posted, the bot’s message warns you.
• Editing or deleting your message in Telegram afterwards doesn’t change what the customer received.

Sending a reply from Telegram works like replying by hand in Auto-Respond: the AI stops answering this lead, and automatic follow-ups stop unless Keep sending follow-ups after you reply yourself is on (see Follow-ups). A System note in the lead’s conversation shows who replied from Telegram.

Stopping the AI from Telegram

Press ⏹ Stop AI & follow-ups to take a lead over from the AI:

• The AI stops answering this lead.
• Automatic follow-ups stop. A lead in Bot Follow-up or Scheduled Messages moves to Follow-up. Any other status, such as Meeting or Done, stays as it is.
• Voice-agent calls already scheduled for this lead are cancelled.
• The notification shows ⏹ “AI & follow-ups stopped by @yourname”, and a System note in the lead’s conversation records who did it.

If the AI and follow-ups were already off, nothing changes and the bot tells you so. To let the AI answer the lead again, turn it back on from the lead in Auto-Respond (see Messages).

Turning Telegram off

• For one source - switch Telegram off on that source’s Integrations tab. Other sources keep posting.
• Everywhere - turn off Enabled on the Telegram card, or click Delete integration in the Telegram window. Every source that used it stops posting.

Messages already in the group stay, but their buttons stop working. You can remove the bot from the group in Telegram if you no longer need it.

Troubleshooting

• The bot didn’t answer the code - Make sure the bot is a member of the group, and send the code exactly as the card shows it, as a message on its own (it ends with #).
• The bot answered “Chat Registered!” but the card still shows a code - Close the Telegram window and open it again. If the code is still there, the one you pasted was an older code: paste the code the card shows now.
• No messages arriving - Check that Enabled is on, that Telegram is on for the source on its Integrations tab, and that the bot is still in the group. New Lead messages need Notify on new lead, and contact-info messages need Trigger messenger integrations in Contact Info.
• No buttons under a notification - Check that Reply to customers and stop the AI from this chat is on. Notifications posted while it was off have no buttons, and notifications about website forms, Facebook Lead Ads, Google Local Ads phone calls and bookings, and voice-agent call leads never get them.
• “Lead actions are turned off for this chat” - The option was turned off, the integration was switched off or moved to another group, or the lead’s source no longer uses it.
• The bot says a teammate is already writing a reply - That teammate has the reply window for this lead. Try again when they’re done, at most 5 minutes later.
• “This reply window has closed, so nothing was sent” - 5 minutes passed, or you pressed the button again and a newer window replaced this one. Press 💬 Reply to customer again.
• ❌ “Not sent” - The platform refused the reply, and the bot shows why. Reply to the bot’s message again to retry, or tap /cancel.

Questions about the Telegram integration? Email support@auto-respond.com.