Answering from Telegram

Telegram puts live chats on everyone's phone, free: each chat a visitor starts with your team becomes its own thread, and whatever you write in that thread goes to that visitor. It counts as "someone available", so visitors are handed over even when nobody has the dashboard open.

Turn on Live chat first.

Setup (about five minutes)

Two steps are yours: an agent cannot create a bot or post in your Telegram.

1. Make a bot. In Telegram, message @BotFather, send /newbot, choose a name (what your team sees, e.g. Acme Desk) and a username ending in bot. Copy the token it gives you.
2. Connect it. Dashboard → Settings → Live chat → Telegram → paste the token → Connect. Or: helppuff telegram connect (it asks for the token; --token or a pipe works too). The token is stored encrypted on your Worker and never shown again.
3. Choose where chats arrive:
   • A team: make a Telegram group, turn on Topics (group settings), add the bot, and make it an admin with Manage topics.
   • Just you: open a private chat with your bot. For a thread per chat there too, turn on the bot's topic (thread) mode in @BotFather.
4. Link it. Send the code the dashboard shows there: /link 1a2b3c4d. The bot answers Linked.
5. Send a test from the dashboard (or helppuff telegram test).

Without topics, each chat arrives as a message: reply to it (Telegram's Reply) to answer that visitor.

In a thread

You write	What happens
Anything	Goes to the visitor (and takes the chat if nobody has)
/take	The chat is yours
/close	Closes the chat; the visitor is told
/ai	Back to the assistant
/info	The visitor's page, country and details
/help	These commands

The visitor sees your Telegram first name (or "someone from the team", if Show visitors your first name is off). Replies from the dashboard appear in the thread too, so the thread is the whole conversation.

Privacy

Visitors' messages, and (unless you turn it off) their email and phone, are sent to Telegram, a third party. Include visitors' email and phone in Settings → Live chat → Telegram turns contact details off. Only the linked chat is listened to; messages anywhere else are ignored, and Telegram's requests are checked with a secret only your Worker and Telegram know.

Rotating HELPPUFF_SECRET makes the stored token unreadable: connect Telegram again.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
No thread appears for a new chat	The bot must be an admin with Manage topics, and Topics on. Otherwise chats arrive as messages to reply to
/link says the code does not match	Copy it again from the dashboard; a new Connect makes a new code
Replies do not reach the visitor	Write in the chat's thread (or reply to its message); the chat must still be live
"Last error" in the dashboard	helppuff telegram status; reconnect with a fresh token from @BotFather (/token)
Nothing arrives at all	helppuff doctor checks it; Disconnect and connect again