Telegram uses two bots for each business, and confusing them is the most common source of trouble. Owner access runs over a bot shared across all businesses, while your customers talk to a bot that belongs to your business alone, with your business's own name and picture in the chat header.
Owner access
The setup wizard shows a link that opens the shared bot and binds you as the owner of your business in a single tap. The reply confirms owner access and includes a dashboard link.
The link is valid for a short time and works only once. If it expires before you use it, issue a new one from the wizard — no other setup needs redoing.
Creating your customer bot
Telegram gives no other application a way to create a bot on your behalf, so you create it yourself. The wizard links to BotFather and walks you through it: create the bot there, then paste the resulting token into the wizard.
- The token is checked immediately and the bot is wired up to receive customer messages.
- Its name is set to your business name automatically.
- Its picture is not — Telegram's bot interface doesn't allow that — so set one yourself in BotFather if you want an avatar.
- A token already wired to another business is refused rather than moved.
The bot token belongs in the setup wizard and nowhere else. Never send it, or any other provider credential, into a product support conversation.
Which bot to share with customers
Give customers the link to your own business bot, not the shared one. The shared bot exists purely for owner access and does not answer customer questions for any business.
Disconnecting
Disconnecting from the dashboard stops Telegram from delivering customer messages to Yims.ai. The bot itself keeps existing and you keep full control of it in BotFather. Owner access over the shared bot is unaffected.