Connectors
Telegram connector
Telegram is a one-tap install, but its default privacy behaviour changes what the product can do. In a group chat, a bot with privacy mode on sees only messages that mention it, replies to its own messages, and commands. Turning that off is a decision for the group admin, and it changes the bot from a narrow listener into a full reader of that group. The connector states this before setup, not after.
Scope
What the Telegram connector reads
Access is granted one channel at a time. Anything outside your selection is dropped before it is stored.
It reads
- In one to one chats with the bot: the messages you send it
- In groups with privacy mode on: messages that mention the bot, replies to the bot, and commands
- In groups with privacy mode off: messages in the groups you opt in to
- Sender display name, chat title and message timestamps
It does not read
- Any group the bot has not been added to
- Messages between other people in a group, while privacy mode is on
- Secret chats, which Telegram does not expose to bots at all
- Channels you have not opted in to
Permissions
Every permission, explained.
If a permission on this list has no reason you accept, do not grant it. Where a permission is optional, the connector says so and works without it.
- Bot added to a chat
- Receive updates for that chat. Adding the bot is the whole install.
- Privacy mode off, set by a group admin
- Optional. Only needed if you want commitments extracted from the whole group conversation rather than from messages addressed to the bot. Leaving privacy mode on is the more private choice and the connector works either way.
- Admin rights
- Not required. If you have granted them for other reasons, we do not use them.
Limits
What Telegram does not let this do
These come from the platform, not from the plan you are on. Paying more does not remove any of them.
- With privacy mode on, group coverage is partial by design. The app labels a group as partially covered rather than implying it caught everything.
- Turning privacy mode off is a group-wide change made by an admin, and it affects every member. Tell the group before you do it.
- Telegram bots cannot read message history from before they were added to a chat, so there is no backfill on this connector.
- Secret chats are never visible to bots.
- The bot never posts into a Telegram chat. A nudge is a note on your own list and a notification to your own phone, not a message to the other person.
No platform review is required for Telegram bots, which is why this connector is the fastest to try and the most limited in what it can see.
Set up Telegram when the first invitations go out
Join the waitlist and pick your channels on day one. One email, no drip sequence.