Telegram Bot Setup Guide
Follow these simple steps to connect your Telegram bot and start receiving messages.
Create a Bot with BotFather
- Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
- Start a chat and send
/newbot - Choose a name for your bot (e.g., "MySupportBot")
- Choose a username ending in
bot(e.g.,mysupportbot) - BotFather will give you a Bot Token
Important: Keep this token secret! Anyone with this token can control your bot.
Create a Support Group & Enable Topics
- Create a new Telegram Group
- Add your bot to the group
- Promote the bot to Administrator
- Open Group Settings → Topics → Enable Topics
- Create a topic named "Customer Support"(or any name you prefer)
💡 ZaneChat automatically creates a dedicated topic for every website visitor conversation, keeping all customer chats organized inside your Telegram group.
Get Your Telegram Group Chat ID
- Send any message inside your Telegram group
- Open:
https://api.telegram.org/bot<BOT_TOKEN>/getUpdates - Find the group ID that looks like:
-1001234567890
"chat": {
"id": -1001234567890,
"title": "Customer Support"
}Connect with ZaneChat
- Open Settings → Telegram Integration
- Paste your Bot Token
- Paste your Group Chat ID
- Click Save Changes
Automatic Webhook Configuration
✅ No manual webhook setup is required.
When you save your Bot Token and Group Chat ID, ZaneChat automatically configures the Telegram webhook and starts routing messages between your website and Telegram group topics.
Test Everything
- Open your website widget
- Send a message as a visitor
- ZaneChat will automatically create a Telegram topic for that visitor
- Reply from Telegram and the response will appear instantly in the website chat widget
Troubleshooting
Bot token or chat ID not configured
Make sure both fields are filled and saved
Telegram API error
Check that your token is correct and the bot is not deleted
No test message received
Make sure you started a chat with your bot first
Wrong Chat ID
Use @userinfobot for the correct ID