Message relay and saving from private Telegram chats and channels¶
Organize team access to messages from private Telegram chats or channels through relay to the Hotline CRM backend group from a connected personal account.
- Relay messages from closed chats where you can't give the team direct access
- Chat whitelist for selective monitoring of only needed sources
Use the free version of the system for testing right now!¶
Start now with Hotline Free CRM
When this is needed¶
Sometimes you need to give your team access to messages from a private chat or channel, but you can't or don't want to add members there — closed community, confidential source, owner restrictions.
Also, sometimes you need to save all chat messages to an independent source, which can be a Hotline backend group. The connection owner cannot edit Hotline bot messages, so information in messages from the bot can be considered immutable if it has no edit marks.
Hotline CRM solves such tasks through the message relay mechanism — all messages from a private chat are automatically duplicated to the backend group, where all group members can read them. Meanwhile, members of the original chat may not know about the additional relay.
Working with protected content
If the original chat has content forwarding protection, the system will be able to relay the text part of messages to the backend group, but cannot relay attachments (voice, video, documents, etc.).
Free version feature
The free version of the system always sends a greeting with system branding to each new chat from which relay is happening. Disabling automatic greeting is possible on any of the paid Hotline Premium plans.
Hotline CRM capabilities¶
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Feedback to private chat¶
Besides receiving messages, you can send replies to a private chat on behalf of the connected account directly from the corresponding backend group topic. This makes work two-way — not just monitoring but participation in communication.
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Team work¶
Use internal comments and the REPLY_ONLY parameter to discuss messages from the private chat before sending a reply. Formulate a response as a team without showing the internal process in the chat itself.
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Native topic group interface¶
All work happens in a private topic group right in Telegram without needing to switch to web cabinets or third-party apps. Each chat gets its own topic, operators easily navigate between sources.
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Support for all message types¶
The system relays all main Telegram message types — text, voice, video, files, photos. Familiar features are available: text search, pinned messages, scheduled sending, and other Telegram capabilities
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Quick self-service setup via bot in 5 minutes (1)
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Connection takes no more than 5 minutes through our setup bot. All connection settings are configured directly in the bot.
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Unlimited managers, operators and dialogs (1)
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The system has no limits on team size. The number of employees doesn't affect cost at all. Everyone added to the backend group can work with dialogs with assigned roles.
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Privacy protection and data hiding features (1)
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Built-in tools for hiding sensitive information, controlling access to customer data and restricting information leaks.
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High reliability and message delivery guarantees (1)
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Messages are queued and guaranteed delivery even during temporary connection issues or Telegram API problems.
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Connection parameters¶
Connection parameters define the necessary system behavior for various cases and are set through the setup bot @hotlinetg_bot after selecting the desired connection.
Main parameters used when setting up message relay from chats or channels¶
Disabling or setting greeting:
WELCOME
Welcome message that user receives on first contact and when their request was closed (switched to /close status). Can be completely disabled on paid version. Free version requires Hotline link in welcome message.
Default value: standard welcome message in English.
Activating chat monitoring mode:
MONITOR_GROUPS
Create and activate topics when new messages appear in group chats in which the connected account or bot is a member.
Default value: FALSE (groups are not monitored).
General list of negative words when monitoring chats to filter incoming messages:
RESTRICTED_KEYWORDS_FRONTEND
Array of prohibited keywords for incoming messages. Messages with specified words are not forwarded to the backend group.
Default value: NONE (no filtering).
Setting whitelist of chats to relay from (all others will be ignored):
WHITE_LIST
List of chats (USER_ID or CHAT_ID) from which messages are accepted. All other chats are ignored.
Default value: NONE (all chats are accepted).
Allow only explicit reply sending to the original chat via reply to incoming message:
REPLY_ONLY
Activates a mode where outgoing messages can only be sent as an explicit reply (REPLY) to an incoming message.
Default value: FALSE (all messages are sent).
Disabling error message notifications:
SILENT_MODE
Whether to show clients possible errors when processing their messages.
Default value: show errors.
Disabling auto-close timeout for topics:
AUTOCLOSE
Dialog auto-close period after last operator response, specified in hours.
If topic with user was closed, they'll receive welcome message from WELCOME parameter on next contact. Free version has maximum auto-close period of 48 hours.
Default value: 48 hours.
Frequently asked questions¶
How to set up broadcasting of messages from several chats?
Add a bot or an account that is connected to Hotline to the sources and set forwarding rules to the working topic group.
Who is the message relay case suitable for?
Support, moderation and small teams who need copies of messages from different chats.
Is it possible to transfer this data to external systems?
Yes, through integration, events and messages can be sent to CRM/helpdesk/analytics.
Can I test it for free first?
Yes, the free version of Hotline is suitable for testing: Hotline Free CRM.
What KPIs are important for a relay scenario?
Delivery completeness, incoming flow processing speed and the proportion of missed messages.
Related cases¶
Learn about other uses of Hotline CRM with message relay from chats: