Telegram

Telegram connects with a bot of your own, with no approval from anyone. The bot posts to your channel, and messages people send the bot arrive in your inbox.

Step by step

1. In Telegram, open @BotFather and send /newbot. Choose a name and a username ending in "bot". BotFather replies with a token like 123456789:AAE.... Treat it like a password.
2. Open your Telegram channel (or group) → Administrators → Add Admin, and add the bot. Give it Post Messages, and Delete Messages if you want Retract to work.
3. In OmniBrand, as an Owner or Admin: Set up → Accounts → click Telegram under Connect an account. The form Connect Telegram opens.
4. Fill in Bot token (from BotFather) and Channel: @yourchannel for a public channel, or the numeric id such as -1001234567890 for a private one.
5. Click Connect account. OmniBrand checks that the token works and that the bot can see the channel before saving.

What happens next

• Publish text (up to 4,096 characters), or one image or video with a caption of up to 1,024 characters. Several attachments on one post: the first is posted (a video is preferred) and you are told.
• Retract works for 48 hours after posting; after that Telegram refuses to delete.
• A post in a public channel gets a t.me link; posts in private channels and groups have none.
• Anyone who writes to your bot directly, and messages in groups the bot is in, arrive in the inbox; your reply goes back to the same chat. In a group, Telegram only passes a bot the messages addressed to it unless you turn off the bot's privacy mode in @BotFather (/setprivacy).

If something goes wrong

• The connect is refused - the token is wrong, or the bot is not an administrator of that channel.
• Messages stop arriving - use this bot only with OmniBrand. A bot that another tool also reads (or that has a webhook set elsewhere) cannot deliver to both.
• Revoked - the token was revoked in BotFather (/revoke) or the bot was removed from the channel. Create a new token, then connect again.