Channels

An organization can manage several Telegram channels, and a single bot publishes to all of them. On every plan it can also add WhatsApp channels, which publish with a number you link (WhatsApp). Each channel has its own message template, its own image template, its own queue, its own automatic publishing settings, its own default header and footer and, if you want, its own affiliate code. What is shared among all of them is the bot or the number, the stores' credentials, the library of backgrounds and the preset texts.

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On this page

The essentials

  1. Paste your bot's token in Settings › Connections and press Save: the connection is checked by itself.
  2. In Telegram, add the bot to your channel as an administrator, with the Post messages permission.
  3. In Settings › Channels, press Add channel.
  4. Paste the channel's link in Channel link, alias or ID and press Connect.
  5. When it says “The bot can post in this channel.”, press Save.

For a WhatsApp channel the path is different: WhatsApp channels.

Telegram bot

In Settings › Connections, the Telegram bot card stores the token of the bot that publishes your messages, in the Telegram bot token field. @BotFather gives it when creating the bot and it has the form 1234567890:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrsTUVwxyz. If you do not have a bot yet, how to create one is covered in Getting started; one you already have works too.

Paste it exactly as @BotFather gives it to you. If what you pasted does not look like a token, the field tells you.

On saving, the bot's connection is checked, and Test connection, in the header, repeats it whenever you want: the answers are covered in Checking the connection. With the token checked, the card shows the bot's name and alias and an Open in Telegram button. How to remove it is covered in Changing or withdrawing credentials.

The token belongs to the organization, and only the owner enters this section.

The bot must be an administrator of each channel

A valid token is not enough to publish: the bot has to be an administrator, with permission to Post messages, in each channel. This section only answers whether the bot connects; whether it can publish in a particular channel is checked in Channels, when you create the channel and with Check permissions, which is where the fix is.

The control bot. Below, the Control bot card has the switch that turns the same bot into a reduced version of the application, to put offers together from the chat, govern the queue and receive the failure notices. It is the organization's, not each person's: turning it on turns it on for everybody who collaborates. Each person needs their Telegram account linked and to press Start in the chat: see Telegram bot.

When the token changes or is retired

If you save a different token, or retire the credentials, the control bot is invalidated and has to be switched on again.

Managing your channels

Everything is done from Settings › Channels, in the Your channels card.

  1. Your channels: one row per channel, with the handle to reorder them, its name and its alias.
  2. Check permissions checks whether the bot (or the number, on WhatsApp channels) can publish in each one; Add channel creates another.
  3. Edit, archive and delete, on each channel's row.
  4. The help for registering a channel.

If you work in somebody else's organization

This section can be reached by the owner and the managers; an operator does not see it. The selector and the list show only the channels you have been assigned. Only the owner can create, archive, restore or delete channels, so you will not see those buttons. You can edit, reorder and check the permissions of channels that already exist, except switching a channel that has already published to another Telegram channel (that counts as a new channel). See the details in Collaborators and permissions.

Creating a channel

Before you start, the bot has to be connected to check Telegram channels, and the linked number is needed for WhatsApp ones. Without that prior connection you will not be able to check any.

Then add the bot to the channel, as an administrator, with the Post messages permission; it is the only one it needs. The window says so at the top, with the name of your bot.

Press Add channel, paste in Channel link, alias or ID something like https://t.me/my_channel, its @alias or its numeric ID, and press Connect (or Enter). The application asks Telegram, fills in the name, the ID and the alias, and tells you whether the bot can publish there:

  • “The bot can post in this channel.”
  • “The bot is an administrator but has no permission to post messages.”
  • “The bot is not an administrator of this channel.”
  • “The bot is not in this channel yet. Add it as an administrator.”

If you already have other channels, choose in Copy settings from which one to start from, and press Save.

If something fails when connecting
  • “Telegram cannot find that channel”: check the link or the alias and, if the channel is private, that the bot is already a member. Without the bot inside, a private channel cannot be registered.
  • An invitation link (t.me/+…) does not say which channel it belongs to: add the bot to the channel, forward any message from it to @userinfobot and paste the identifier it gives you.
  • A chat with a person is not accepted as a channel.
  • “You already have a channel with that ID”: that channel is already registered. If it is archived, it takes you to Archived channels so you can restore it.
Field Description
Channel link, alias or ID The only thing you need to paste. Connect uses it to obtain the next three fields. If you paste the numeric ID, it does not matter whether the -100 or only the sign is missing: Connect finds the right one.
Channel name How you will see it in the selector. It is not published. It is filled in with the channel's real name, and you can change it. If you connect another channel in the same window, the name is replaced unless you typed it yourself.
Channel ID The numeric ID that Telegram does not show. Telegram supplies it on connecting: it is seen and not typed.
Public alias The channel's @name, without the at sign. Telegram supplies it and it is not typed: it is filled in when the channel is connected and updated if it changes there. A private channel has none, and then it stays empty.
Copy settings from Only when creating. Copies from the channel you choose the message template, the image template, the queue settings, the automatic publishing settings, the default header and footer and whether it shortens links. Start from scratch starts from the factory settings.

If you already have all the channels of your plan, the Add channel button is disabled and the section says what to do, before you fill in anything: on the paid plans, archive or delete one or move to the plan that admits more; on the free one, delete the one you have, because that plan does not archive. There is also a cap on new channels a month: it is covered in Plan caps.

On the free plan — and during the free trial — the bot has to be an administrator already when the channel is registered, and the channels of one same Telegram person can only be in one organization (with a paid plan, in several). If that is not met, it tells you as soon as you look up the channel, before saving.

With a WhatsApp number connected, Add channel opens a menu with Telegram channel and WhatsApp channel: the first follows the steps above and the second, those in WhatsApp channels.

WhatsApp channels

You need the linked number and that number to be an administrator of the channel on WhatsApp. Any plan works, the free one included; on the free plan, 30 days without publishing on WhatsApp unlink the number (we warn you by email 7 days before) and the channels stay: On the free plan explains it.

In Settings › Channels, press Add channel › WhatsApp channel (if you only use WhatsApp, Add channel goes straight there). Instead of pasting a link, the Add WhatsApp channel section lists the channels where your number is an administrator and that you have not added yet. Press Add next to the one you want and that is it.

  • If the list comes out empty, the number does not administer any channel yet: the screen itself explains how to invite it, and Check again reads it once more.
  • If WhatsApp does not answer or asks you to wait because it has limited queries, you will see a notice and the Try again button.

The setup assistant shows this same list in the Your first channel step.

A WhatsApp channel has its template, its queue and its automatic publishing like any other, takes one channel slot of your plan and counts toward the plan caps just like a Telegram one. If your organization has a link shortener connected and its plan allows it, the channel starts with link shortening on.

In the channel list, each one carries the label Telegram or WhatsApp. A WhatsApp channel that cannot publish also carries Disconnected and the sentence that says what to do: the WhatsApp number is disconnected, or it is no longer an administrator of the channel. Meanwhile, whatever is in its queue waits and goes out on return; Telegram channels do not stop. More in If the number disconnects.

What the rest of the team sees

Managers and operators with access to a WhatsApp channel publish to it like to any other, but they do not see or touch the number's connection: it belongs to the owner.

Checking that you can publish

On saving a channel it is checked automatically, and we tell you at once if the bot or the number cannot publish. The Check permissions button reviews channel by channel again (Telegram with the bot and WhatsApp with the number) and updates the result in its row. If you hover over the result or tap it, you will see the full explanation with the steps to follow:

On the row What it means and what to do
Can post The bot can post in this channel. Nothing to do.
Not in the channel The bot is not in this channel, or the identifier is not one of its channels. Add it to the channel as an administrator, or correct the ID.
Not an administrator The bot is not an administrator of the channel. Add it as an administrator in Telegram.
No permission to post The bot is an administrator of the channel but has no permission to post messages. Turn on that specific permission; it is already an administrator.
The number is not an administrator Only on WhatsApp channels: the linked number does not administer the channel. Add it as an administrator from your main phone; the row changes by itself within a few minutes, or straight away with Check permissions.
Could not be checked A passing cut. Try again later.

WhatsApp channels are checked with the linked number, without a bot. With no bot connected, or with the token rejected, the button sends you first to fix that for the Telegram ones.

Each send also updates that result. If it fails because the bot or the number is no longer in the channel or cannot publish in it, the row says so and a notice appears in Home. As soon as a message goes out again through that channel, the result changes by itself to Can post.

Editing a channel

Press in its row. This opens a window titled Edit and the channel name, identical to the creation window but without the copy block. You can change the Channel name and, if you want to switch to another Telegram channel, paste its link and press Connect again so Telegram updates the ID and alias. When you save, permissions are checked again. If the channel has already published, switching it to another Telegram channel counts as a new channel for the month and only the owner can do it: we explain this in Plan caps. On a WhatsApp channel only the name can be changed: the channel is the one your number picked, and to use another you add it separately.

Channel with no ID

A channel that lacks its Telegram ID appears with the note “no ID” in the selector and with No ID, in red, in the list of channels. You can configure it, but it will not publish: neither manual sending, nor the queue, nor automatic publishing will take it into account until you fill in the field, and the screen reminds you with the Complete channel button.

What a channel does differently from the rest is configured where the general value is: the default header and footer in Settings › Message, and its own affiliate code in each store and in Affiliates: A different code per channel covers it.

Reordering the channels

Drag a channel by the icon to change its position and press Save in the header: until then the new order is not saved, and the card marks it with Unsaved. The order is the one you will see in the menu selector, in the multi-channel panel and in all the lists of channels. If you reach only some channels, reordering them moves only those: the others stay where they were.

Archiving a channel

Press Archive in the channel's row and confirm. It stops publishing — by hand and automatically —, leaves the selector and all the lists, and nothing is lost: it keeps its template, its image, its pending queue, its history and its profiles; its queue and its automatic publishing are left off. If it was the active channel, you move to the first one you have left.

The archive also has a cap, depending on the plan — it is covered in Plan caps. When it is full, the button is disabled and the section tells you to delete one of the archived ones. The free plan does not archive: to have another channel you have to delete the one you have or move to a paid plan.

Archived channels

Archived ones are listed apart, in Archived channels, with the reason for each: Archived by hand. or Archived because it did not fit the channels of your plan. (a plan downgrade archives what does not fit, starting with the most recently created, and never deletes).

Restoring one is your decision — the application never chooses it — with Restore, and it comes back with the queue and automatic publishing off, so that resuming them is your decision. There has to be room among your plan's channels, and the section says how many fit. An archived channel can also be deleted from that list.

Deleting a channel

Press Delete. The question says what is deleted with it: its message and image templates, the messages it has in the queue, its affiliate exceptions and the record of products already sent, queued or published. The search profiles that pointed only to that channel are left paused. If it was somebody's active channel, that person moves to the first one they have left.

Irreversible action

It cannot be undone. And deleting the record of what was already sent also deletes what prevents repeats: if you add the channel again, what was already sent may go out again. If you only want to stop publishing temporarily, archive the channel instead of deleting it.

Plan caps

Besides how many channels you can have at once, the plan caps how many you register each month and how many you keep archived. In parentheses, with all the additional channels the plan admits:

Plan New channels a month Archived channels
Free plan 3 0
Solo 3 (9 with 3 channels) 2 (6 with 3 channels)
Creator 9 (36 with 12 channels) 6 (24 with 12 channels)
Agency 36 (300 with 100 channels) 24 (200 with 100 channels)

How many channels you have and how much is left of each cap is covered in Subscription and credits.

Fine print: how registrations and the archive are counted

Each additional channel purchased brings two more places in the archive. The cap on new channels a month is the sum of the channels and the archived ones your plan admits, and never fewer than three.

If you register a channel by mistake and delete it without ever having published in it and within the same month, that registration does not count against you. Restoring an archived channel does not count either: it already counted when you registered it.

Editing a channel that has already published to point it to another Telegram channel counts as a new registration, even if you do not create a channel from scratch; that is why only the owner can do it. If nothing has been published yet on the original Telegram channel, the change does not use up any allowance. Nor does replacing the channel's @alias with its own numeric ID (it only counts if you enter the ID of another channel). Changing only the channel name never uses up registrations.

The active channel selector

The active channel selector lives in the side menu: it is the Active channel block, with the name of the chosen channel. In a narrow window or on a phone, where the menu waits off-screen, you see it on opening the menu.

With a single channel it does not appear: there is nothing to choose between and that channel is always the active one. It shows up as soon as you create the second.

The channel you choose there is the active channel, and it is the one these work on:

Changing channel reloads the page you are looking at with the new channel's settings; if you had unsaved changes, it asks you first. The choice is remembered between sessions, per person and per organization.

To send an offer to several channels at once you do not need to change the active channel: it is covered in The multi-channel panel, in Create offer.

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