How to Manage Telegram Conversations in Intercom

If your customers reach out on Telegram, chances are you’ve faced these issues before: Messages come in outside your main inbox. Agents jump between tools. Conversations get dropped.

Connecting Telegram to Intercom changes things. Telegram stops being just another app your team needs to check. Instead, it becomes a native-like channel inside Intercom. Telegram messages land in the same inbox your agents already use.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the Telegram workflows support teams use in Intercom. From replying to customers and managing conversations to collaborating internally.

1. Assign Telegram conversations to teams & agents in Intercom

When a customer messages you on Telegram, the conversation first lands in Intercom’s Unassigned inbox. From there, Intercom's assignment rules dictate which agents takes ownership of the conversations.

As soon as the conversations is assigned, it's clear who’s replying and who’s following up, making it easier for managers to track performance.

Assigning Telegram conversations works the same way as any other Intercom channel. Agents can use the assignment sidebar to claim a conversation for themselves or pass it to another teammate or team.

Most teams keep assignment simple and practical. Some route by language or region, others by team function, and some distribute conversations based on agent workload.

Here’s how this plays out in a real support scenario:

Multi-lingual support

• A customer messages your business on Telegram in Arabic asking about an account issue.
• The conversation appears in Intercom and is assigned to the regional support team that handles Arabic-speaking users.
• The agent picks it up immediately without checking Telegram separately.

2. Organize Telegram messages with tags, views & segmentation

Intercom’s tags and views help your team manage and organize Telegram conversations and spot patterns without slowing down replies.

Here’s how teams usually use them in day-to-day support.

Tag Telegram conversations to add context

Tags let agents quickly label what a Telegram conversation is about. This could be the type of issue, the customer’s region, or whether the request needs special handling.

Once a tag is applied, that context stays with the conversation and can be used for filtering, reporting, or prioritization.

Common tagging patterns include:

• Region or market (for example, country or language)
• Issue type (billing, login, delivery, technical issue)
• Customer status (trial, premium, VIP)

Use saved views to track what matters

Saved views in Intercom allow teams to filter Telegram conversations based on tags, channel, team, or status.

Instead of scanning the entire inbox, agents and managers can focus on a specific slice of Telegram traffic.

Views are especially useful for monitoring trends and making sure high-priority conversations don’t get buried.

Segment Telegram conversations by region, language, or request type

When you combine tags and filters, you can segment your Telegram conversations inside Intercom.

This makes it easier to route work, balance coverage across regions, and respond faster to recurring issues.

Here’s what this looks like in a real support scenario:

Issue-type tracking in a SaaS product

• Several users message your team on Telegram because they can’t log in.
• Agents tag these conversations as a login-related issue.
• A saved view automatically groups all similar Telegram messages together.
• It’s easy to triage and spot a wider problem early.

3. Match Telegram users to the right contact profile

Telegram handles identity very differently from channels like WhatsApp or SMS, and that often causes confusion.

Unlike phone-based channels, Telegram users don’t have to share a phone number. Some use a public username, some only show a first name, and others don’t expose any clear identifying information at all.

Intercom fixes this through integrations. If you integrate Telegram with Intercom through Octopods, you get identity syncing.

When a user messages you on Telegram, Octopods maps that Telegram user to an Intercom contact profile.

Instead of relying on a phone number, the integration uses Telegram’s internal user ID to create and maintain a consistent identity.

This means every message from that user—now or later—links back to the same Intercom profile.

Best practices for managing Telegram contacts

• Treat the Telegram user ID as the source of truth for identity
• Update Intercom contact fields when users share useful information
• Use tags or notes to add context when usernames or names are unclear
• Avoid creating duplicate profiles by keeping conversations tied to the same contact

4. Manage customer data from Telegram in Intercom

Telegram is known for how flexible it is with media. Customers share screenshots, voice notes, files, stickers, GIFs, and even live locations. For support teams, that can be incredibly useful if everything is easy to access and manage.

Once Telegram is connected to Intercom, all of that content shows up directly inside the conversation. There’s no need to open Telegram separately or ask customers to resend files through another channel.

You’ll typically see:

• Images and screenshots displayed inline
• Voice messages playable from the conversation
• Files available for direct download
• Stickers and GIFs shown as visual messages, not broken links

5. Use Intercom tools to collaborate on Telegram conversations

Telegram conversations often involve more than one person behind the scenes. An agent might pass the conversation to another team or leave context for whoever picks it up next.

Intercom’s collaboration tools make this easy without exposing any internal discussion to the customer:

• Internal notes let agents leave context that only teammates can see. They’re useful for summarizing what’s been discussed or flagging something important before reassigning the conversation.
• Mentions allow agents to @mention colleagues directly inside a Telegram conversation in Intercom. The mentioned teammate gets notified and can jump in with guidance or take over the conversation if needed.
• Macros are pre-written responses that agents can insert with one click. They’re especially useful for FAQs, onboarding steps, or policy explanations.

Here’s how teams collaborate on Telegram conversations day to day:

• Escalating complex questions: An agent receives a technical question on Telegram. They add an internal note summarizing the issue and mention a second-line specialist to review it before replying to the customer.
• Handling repetitive questions efficiently: New users frequently ask the same onboarding questions on Telegram. Agents use saved replies to respond quickly.
• Coordinating with sales: A user messages support on Telegram asking about upgrading their plan. The agent leaves an internal note and assigns the conversation to Sales.

Best practices to manage Telegram in Intercom

Managing Telegram inside Intercom works best when structure and simplicity go hand in hand.

To get the most out of it, a few best practices make a big difference:

• Be mindful of identity. Telegram users may share very little information. When needed, politely ask clarifying questions and update Intercom contact fields as you learn more.
• Use tags consistently. A small, well-defined set of tags helps categorize Telegram messages by issue, region, or priority and makes filtering and reporting far more useful.
• Create saved views for focus. If you support multiple regions or languages, saved views help teams monitor Telegram conversations that matter to them without scanning the entire inbox.
• Match Telegram’s communication style. Keep replies short, clear, and conversational. Telegram users typically expect quick, straightforward responses rather than long-form explanations.
• Leave notes for smooth handoffs. Internal notes ensure that when a conversation changes hands, the next agent understands the context instantly.
• Close conversations deliberately. Closing resolved Telegram conversations keeps the inbox clean and makes it easier to track what still needs attention.

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