Telegram Business: AI bot replies in your personal chats
Do customers write to you personally rather than to a bot? Telegram Business lets you attach a regular bot to your personal chats, and the BotB2B AI will reply on your behalf: greet, consult by your script and collect leads. This is an official Telegram feature with no third-party clients and no risk for the account. It needs a Telegram Premium subscription.
Connect your own bot created in BotFather and connected to BotB2B. The platform bot @botb2b_ai_bot is an assistant for your account: it does not reply to your customers and cannot be tuned to your script.
Step 1. Prepare the bot in BotB2B
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Create a bot in BotFather
Open the official @BotFather, create a new bot with /newbot and copy the token. Step by step with screenshots: Create a bot in BotFather.
Customers will not see the bot's name: in personal chats replies come from you. Call it whatever is convenient, for example "Assistant Irina".
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Connect the bot to BotB2B
Front Desk → Accounts → Add account → Telegram, paste the token, press Connect. Details: Connect a Telegram bot.
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Create the AI bot and assign it to the account
Describe your script in Bots: who you are, what you sell, how to greet, what to ask, when to create a lead and when to call you. Then assign the bot on the account's Bot assignment tab. All fields are explained in Bot settings: every field.
For personal chats keep replies short and natural: the customer thinks they are talking to a person.
Step 2. Turn on Secretary Mode in BotFather
Telegram adds a bot to personal chats only if the bot allows it. This permission is called Secretary Mode and is switched on in BotFather.
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Open the bot in BotFather
Send /mybots to @BotFather, pick your bot and press Bot Settings. Or open the BotFather app with the Open button and go to the bot's Bot Settings.
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Turn on Secretary Mode
In Mode Settings switch on Secretary Mode: "Allows the bot to access entire chats and read or send messages on behalf of the user who enabled it in Settings". In the chat version BotFather shows "Secretary mode is currently disabled" with a Turn on button.
Step 3. Add the bot in Telegram Business
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Open Settings → Telegram Business
In Telegram open Settings and choose Telegram Business. The item appears only with an active Telegram Premium subscription.
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Choose Chatbots
Among the business features (Location, Opening Hours, Quick Replies, Greeting Messages, Away Messages) find Chatbots: "Add any third party chatbots that will process customer interactions".
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Enter your bot's username
On the Add a bot to reply to messages on your behalf screen type the bot's username or link, for example
@demo_botb2b_ai_bot. Telegram finds the bot; press Add.If the bot is not found or cannot be added, Secretary Mode is off. Go back to step 2.
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Choose which chats the bot handles
In Chats the bot can access pick All Private Chats Except… and exclude chats where the bot must stay silent (family, colleagues), or Only Selected Chats to give it a short list. In Bot permission keep Manage Messages on: this is what lets the bot read and reply. Profile, gifts and stories can stay off.
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Check
Write to yourself from another account. The reply arrives within the Answer delay set in the bot. The conversation appears in Front Desk → Chats and the customer's contacts in Leads.
When you reply yourself
The bot does not argue with you over a customer. If you answer in a chat by hand, the bot goes quiet in that conversation and you continue; you can hand the conversation back with the Bot answers in this chat toggle in Chats. People you always talk to personally can be added to the account's Stop list, so the bot never answers them. The bot also never touches chats you excluded in Telegram settings.
Telegram Business vs. personal number
| Telegram Business | Personal number by QR | |
|---|---|---|
| What you need | Telegram Premium and your own bot from BotFather | Just your phone with Telegram |
| How it works | An official Telegram feature: the bot is attached to your personal chats | BotB2B signs in to your account as one more device |
| Where it replies | Private chats, with filters by contact | Private chats, groups and channel comments, with flexible rules |
| Risks | None: the method is approved by Telegram | Telegram limits account activity; the platform keeps safe pauses and daily limits automatically |
No Premium? Connect a personal Telegram number by QR code: the result for the customer is the same, replies come from your name.
Create a bot in BotFather/newbot, name, username and the API token, with screenshotsConnect a Telegram botPaste the token, create a chat reply bot and assign it to the accountWill customers see that a bot is replying?
No. Messages are sent from your account, as if you typed them. Choose a natural tone and a short answer delay in the bot settings.
Can I add the bot to a second Telegram account?
Yes. Each Premium account adds the bot in its own Telegram Business settings. Conversations from both accounts land in the same BotB2B account.
What happens if my Premium expires?
Telegram disables business chatbots until you renew. The bot keeps working in its own chat (customers who write to the bot directly).
See also
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