Telegram is a fast and secure messaging platform, used by millions of people around the globe. Telegram Bots are special accounts that do not require an additional phone number to set up.

There are multiple perks of using the Telegram bot. Telegram provides multiple types of UI elements for users to communicate with the bot such as different types of keyboards and so on.

Haptik Platform can help you elevate the user experience by adding NLP capabilities using conversational flows on your Telegram bot. Using the Conversation Studio tool of Haptik Platform, you can build user journeys to resolve user queries faster. You can create conversational user journeys, connect the user to an agent if any human intervention is required, and so on.

To get started with a Telegram bot, you can simply start to create a new bot on Telegram, as Telegram does not require any additional phone number. 

You can know more about the UI elements supported on Telegram, here.

Setting up a Telegram bot

Setting up a Telegram bot is a simple 2 step process followed by connecting it to a Haptik bot that you create.

Step 1: Start creating a new bot on Telegram

To get started with the Telegram bot, you will first need to create a new bot on Telegram.

Open your Telegram account and search for BotFather in the search bar. BotFather will ask you some questions about the new bot want to create.

Click on Start.

The BotFather responds with the list of commands that can be used to create a new bot.

Step 2: Create the bot by providing bot details

1. Provide bot name

Once you start typing /new Telegram will auto-suggest the option to create a new bot, tap on the /newbot command.

2. Provide a username for the bot

Once the bot name is accepted, Telegram will then ask you to enter a username.

The username should end with __bot and should be unique. If the username is already taken, it will ask you to provide the username again.

Once the username is accepted, you will receive a Congratulations message along with an API token for the bot.

Now the bot has been created on Telegram.

Setting up a bot on Haptik

You will have to set up a bot on Haptik, and once you have done that you will have to configure the Telegram bot with your Haptik bot. You can learn more about creating a Haptik bot, here. 

Once you have created a bot on Haptik, you will have to configure the channel as Telegram, on your bot. 

Configure channel as Telegram

For configuring Telegram as a channel, navigate to Business Manager > Channels > Platform Deployments, of your bot, as shown - 

You will have to fill required data in these fields - 

• Telegram Base URL
• Telegram Access Token