Connect Telegram
Telegram posts as a bot you create yourself, so you make a bot in BotFather, make it an administrator of your channel and paste its token into NioConnect.
Last updated- In Telegram, search for @BotFather (the one with the blue tick), start the chat and send
/newbot. - Give the bot a display name, then a username that ends in
bot. BotFather replies with a token that begins with digits and a colon. - Open your channel or group, add the bot, and make it an administrator. For a channel, grant at least Post Messages.
- In NioConnect, open Channels, choose Add a channel, then Telegram, and paste the token into Bot token.
- Pick the chat from the list NioConnect shows. That pairing is the channel.
The step most people miss
A bot that is only a member of a channel cannot post to it. Telegram bots also cannot list chats they have never been added to, so the chat list at the last step stays empty until the bot is an administrator somewhere.
One bot can serve many chats. To post to a second chat with the same bot, connect Telegram again and pick the other chat. Each chat behind a bot is its own channel in NioConnect, which is intended.
Anyone holding it can post as your bot. The field is masked while you type and the value is never shown again. If you ever need to cut access, send /revoke to BotFather.
If it did not work
These are the messages you are most likely to meet.
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The chat list is empty | The bot is not an administrator anywhere yet | Make it an administrator of the channel, then try again |
| Unauthorized when you paste | The token is mistyped or was revoked | Get it again from BotFather: /mybots, pick the bot, then API Token |
| Publishing fails with not enough rights | The bot is an admin but lacks one permission | Grant Post Messages on that channel |
| The channel needs reconnection | The token was revoked, or the bot lost its admin rights | Restore the rights, or paste the new token and reconnect |
Bot tokens do not expire, so a Telegram channel keeps working until you change something on Telegram. The Telegram guide walks through the same flow with a check at the end.