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Autoresponder in Telegram without Premium: bot in touch while you are offline
Messages on Telegram also come when there is no one to respond to: in the evening, on weekends, on the road. If the answer is silence, the person goes to the one who answered. The answering machine solves this not with one phrase “we will call you back”, but with a short script: confirm that the message has been received, indicate the deadline, take away the essence of the question and sort requests into topics by morning. Below is how to assemble such a bot in CHBT: the “Condition” block by time of day, triggers by keywords and “Any message”, night and day branches, queue analysis by the operator. Without Premium and without Telegram Business is a regular bot with its own @username.
What exactly are we collecting: a bot with @username, not an auto-reply in PM
The answering machine in CHBT is one Telegram bot script with three inputs and one fork. Inputs are triggers: /start command for the first visit, “Keyword” for typical topics (prices, schedule, address) and “Any message” for everything else. The fork is the “Condition” block by hour and day of the week: during business hours, the request receives confirmation and goes to the operator’s queue, at night the bot itself takes the essence of the question, if necessary, the phone number, puts a tag and postpones the conversation until the morning. All this is assembled over the evening from standard blocks, and the rest of the article is step-by-step instructions with the settings for each of them.
One clarification before we begin. Telegram also has another “autoresponder” - “Telegram for business” settings in a personal account: greeting, “out of office”, bot secretary; Telegram has changed the conditions for access to them more than once; see the current ones in the application. CHBT does not connect to personal accounts - neither as a secretary, nor through Telegram Business - so if the respondent is needed in your personal account, this is not our tool. We assemble a bot with its own @username: the client opens it via a link, QR code or button on the site, it responds instantly and around the clock, and Premium is not needed by either the owner or the client - bots in Telegram are free from the first day Bot API.
Yes, some of the people who are used to writing personally are eliminated at the “write to the bot” transition. This can be cured not by persuasion, but by placement: a link to the bot is in the channel header, in the signature, on the website, on the business card - wherever the client finds you. Then they write to the bot immediately, and not after the request.
What an answering machine should do overnight
A good night response is not an unsubscribe, but the work that the bot does for the operator until the morning. Four tasks:
- Confirm receipt and state the due date. “I’ll answer in the morning after 9:00” relieves the anxiety of “have I been seen?” The deadline must be real: if you respond by lunchtime, write “before 12:00.”
- Get to the heart of the matter. In the morning, the operator opens a conversation and sees “I need an iPhone 13 screen replacement, when can I come?”, and not “Hello.” This saves one round of correspondence per call.
- Ask for a contact if needed. For Telegram, a phone number is often not necessary - you already have a chat. Ask him when the answer really requires a call, and explain why.
- Organize appeals by topic. The “night” tag plus the topic tag (“repair”, “prices”, “recording”) - and the morning queue is already sorted.
What an answering machine should not do: pretend to be a human (“I’ll look now...” at three in the morning), promise something that the bot won’t do, and answer “I don’t understand, reformulate.” The second such answer - and the chat is closed.
flow diagram: three entrances and one fork
The answering machine script in CHBT is several triggers that converge to one fork in time. Triggers are configured in the section “flows”:
- /start - first visit. Here is a greeting with buttons: what to write in it is a separate article about the bot's first message.
- "Key word" — several triggers on typical topics: prices, schedule, address, delivery. They answer the same day and night, because the answer does not depend on the presence of a person.
- “Any message” (catch-all) - everything that did not match the keywords. From here the message goes to the block “Condition” block by time of day, and from there - into the night or day branch.
One fork is needed. Do not build separate nightly answers for each topic: keywords close the typical one, “Condition” decides what to do with the non-standard one.
About editor modes. A mode is available on the Free plan “Steps” — a chain of blocks in which the “Condition” with branches is also assembled: where each branch leads is selected using a drop-down list. So the entire answering machine, with night and day branches, is available for 0 ₽. “Canvas” — a visual editor with blocks and connections from the Basic plan (650 ₽ per bot per month) — more convenient because the diagram with forks is visible in its entirety and it’s easier to return to it after a month. Button “Check script” — test chat directly in the editor, without switching to Telegram — available in both modes.
Working hours through the “Condition” block: time of day and day of week
The “Condition” block in CHBT checks for a tag, variable, channel, time, or day of the week. It is structured like this: inside a block there are one or more named branches, each with its own output; rules within a branch are added by “AND”; if not a single branch works, the script follows the “Else” output. One block with one branch is enough for working hours.
Time. The “Time” field is a whole hour according to the server clock, a number from 0 to 23, without minutes: the value is compared as a number, so write 9, not "9:00", and 20, not "20:00". The night passing through midnight is not described by one rule, but the day is described by two: create a branch “Working hours” with the rules “Time ≥ 9” and “Time < 20” - they are added by “AND”, and the branch is triggered from 9:00 to 19:59. The output of this thread leads to the daytime part, the output “Otherwise” leads to the night message. It turns out: from 20:00 to 9:00 - night, the rest - day.
Day of the week. The "Day of the week" field is the same number: 0 - Sunday, 1 - Monday, ... 6 - Saturday. If you don’t respond at all on weekends, add two more rules to the same “Working hours” branch: “Day of the week ≥ 1” and “Day of the week ≤ 5.” Then Saturday and Sunday are entirely spent in “Otherwise” - in the night thread, and its text says “I will answer on Monday.” If you work until 15:00 on Saturdays, create a second branch “Saturday”: “Day of the week = 6”, “Time ≥ 10”, “Time < 15” - the branches are checked in order, the first suitable one will work. Do not make more than three branches: the script must be readable from the screen.
Two caveats. The first is timezone: the hour is taken from the server clock, not from the client’s phone, so before starting, send a test message at 20:05 and make sure that the night branch worked, not the day one; if there is a shift, adjust the boundaries to the required number of hours. The second is holidays: there is no calendar of holidays in the block; for January 1–8, edit the condition manually or temporarily move all requests to the night branch. A complete list of fields and block operators is in the help “Conditions and branches”.
Night thread: confirm, ask for gist, pick up contact, tag
Night branch - five blocks in a row.
1. "Message". Short, honest, with a real deadline:
It’s already evening, there’s no one in the chat - I’ll read it in the morning and answer before 10:00. To respond immediately to the point, write what you need in one message.
2. “Data collection” → Your field. The question has already been asked in the message above, so the text of the block can be made short (“Listen”). Name the field “Gist of the question”, leave input verification “without verification”, and in the “to variable” setting specify question — this way the text will go into both the contact card and the variable for the next messages.
3. Push-button selection of communication channel. “Message” with two buttons: “Reply here in chat” and “Call back”. Only in the second branch put “Data collection” → Phone number with format check and error text: “It seems that the number is missing numbers - write this: +7 900 000-00-00.” Don’t ask for everyone’s phone number: those who want an answer in chat don’t need it, and refusal at this step costs more than another call.
4. “Action” → Add tag. Tag "night". If the nightly thread is called from a keyword trigger, add a topic tag as well. “Contacts” and “Conversations” are filtered by tags in the morning, and later the newsletter audience is filtered.
5. "Operator". The conversation goes to the “Conversations” section with the “Operator” status (the “Waiting for a response” tab), and the bot in it becomes silent. Everything that the client adds at night will go into the same conversation, and will not start the script again. In the morning a person will answer from the office.
The temptation to put a block in front of the “Operator” "Pause" and in the morning sending “Good morning, we are already looking at your question” is better to overcome. “Pause” in CHBT counts a specified period from the moment of the message - a minute, hour, day or its value in seconds - but it does not know how to “continue at 9:00”: someone who wrote at midnight will receive “good morning” at eight, and someone who wrote at six in the morning will receive it at two in the afternoon. The second signal to the client will be given by the operator himself, when he answers the matter - this is both more honest and without the risk of waking up the person with a message, which will not be followed for another three hours.
Daily thread: keyword response and queue
During the day, the answering machine works differently: it does not replace the person, but covers him while he is busy with another client.
Key words. The Keyword trigger has three modes: exact, contains, and regex. For typical topics, it is more convenient to “contain” with several spelling options or one regular expression: how much|cost|price|price list for prices, works|schedule|until what time|weekend for the schedule, address|where are you|how to get there for the address. The response to such triggers is the same at any time of the day - there is no need to pass them through the “Conditions”. Quick start - template "Autoresponder FAQ": it already contains keywords for prices and schedules and access to the operator.
Queue. The “otherwise” thread after the time condition is a daily request that did not fall under the keywords. Here is confirmation of receipt and the actual deadline: “We have received it, we respond in order of priority - usually up to 15 minutes.” Add two or three buttons with the most common topics to the message so that the person can get a response without waiting for the operator, and then the “Operator” block.
Notice. In the daily thread, it makes sense to “Action” → Notify the operator: the message in the account comes immediately, and not when the operator himself opens the list. Do not perform this action at night - there is no one to read it. About where to draw the line between a bot and a human and how not to lose a client during the transfer - a separate analysis “Where the bot ends and the person begins”.
Morning: how an operator handles night calls
The result of the night is visible in the section “Conversations”. This is a common inbox for all channels - Telegram, MAX, VKontakte and the widget on the site are included in one list, so the morning analysis is the same for everything.
- Tab "Waiting for an answer" (next to “All”, “At the bot”, “AI” and “Closed”) shows only what the bot transmitted to the person. Unread is a separate sign.
- The contact card contains tags (“night”, topic) and the “Gist of the question” field. The operator reads the question before opening the correspondence.
- If there are several operators, conversations are appointed to a specific person - no one responds twice to one request.
- Quick Reply Templates close repeated answers (“yes, free at 14:00”, “the cost of diagnostics is 0 ₽”).
- After the answer, the conversation is closed - otherwise the bot in it will remain silent the next time the client messages.
To avoid keeping a tab open, enable browser notifications and Web Push (the 🔔 icon in the inbox or “Account → Notifications”): the signal will come even when the tab is closed. The app.chbt.io account is installed on the phone as an application (PWA): on Android - the “Install” button, on the iPhone - “Share” → “To the Home screen”. An e-mail about a new conversation is also according to the settings, and this is a reasonable take in case the push did not reach.
The morning routine is in order: “Waiting for a response” tab → sort by tags → reply in the first hour → close. A customer who writes around midnight and receives a response at 9:15 perceives this as a quick response because they already responded that night.
Night response texts: three options
The text depends on who you are to the client. Three blanks - fill in your deadlines.
Private master, tutor, psychologist — they write personally, waiting for a personal response:
This is Anna's answering machine. I'm not in touch right now, I'll read it in the morning and respond before 10:00. Write what you came with and what days you are looking at - in the morning I will immediately offer a time.
Store or delivery — questions about ordering and availability:
The store is open from 10:00 to 21:00, but is now closed. If you have a question about your order, write the number and we’ll check it first thing in the morning. I can tell you prices and availability now: click the button below.
Service company, B2B — procedure and predictability are important:
The lead has been accepted, the lead number will appear in the morning. Engineers are on call from 9:00 on weekdays. Describe the problem in one message and indicate the most convenient way to contact us - here or by phone.
General rules: the deadline is specific, not “in the near future”; one message, not three in a row; not a single exclamation point; buttons instead of “write 1 if...”. And from the first line, call a spade a spade: “this is an answering machine” is cheaper than any apology when the bot answers inappropriately.
What a bot's autoresponder won't do
Know the limits before launch so you don't promise clients too much.
- It won't reply in your personal messages. To repeat: CHBT connects a bot, not an account. You'll need to place the bot link wherever people find you.
- It won't send a photo or file. In Telegram, MAX and VK the CHBT bot works with text and buttons — no media. Send your price list as a link to a page or a cloud document, not as an attachment.
- It won't book into a calendar. CHBT has no time slots or calendar of its own: the client types a convenient time, and you confirm it in the morning. For many services that's exactly the working setup, but you can't promise “the bot books you itself”. The exception is salons on YCLIENTS: the “YCLIENTS booking” block shows free time from the salon's online booking and creates an appointment in its schedule (how to connect).
- It won't message first. Telegram doesn't allow a bot to message someone who hasn't opened it — that's a platform restriction, not a builder one. Why, and how to build a list you can message, is explained in the article about PEER_ID_INVALID.
- On the Free plan you get 30 conversations per month. Once 30 different people have written in a month, the bot talks as usual with those who have already written this month, but answers each new person with a single line about the limit instead of the flow, and their message doesn't reach “Conversations”. For an autoresponder this is critical: a system line at night is almost the same silence you were trying to avoid, and in the morning that client won't be in “Conversations”. The “N of 30” counter on the plan card on the bot's “Overview” page shows how many conversations you've used; if it grows fast, move to Basic.
Unusual night questions (“will your case fit model X”) can be handled by the “AI agent” block with a knowledge base — it answers from your texts and hands off to an operator when unsure. This requires the Basic plan and separate setup, done in the “AI agents” section of the dashboard: name, role, knowledge base as text, test chat.
Launch in one evening: procedure
- Get a token from @BotFather and connect the bot in the “Channels” → “Connect Telegram” section.
- Open the “Autoresponder FAQ” template, transfer your keywords and answers to it by prices, schedule, address.
- Add a trigger “Any message” → a “Condition” block with a “Working time” branch (“Time ≥ 9” and “Time < 20”, if necessary “Day of the week ≥ 1” and “≤ 5”) → day branch; output “Otherwise” → night.
- In the night thread: message with a deadline → “Data collection” with a question → buttons “here/call back” → tag “night” → “Operator”.
- During the day: confirmation with buttons → “Notify operator” → “Operator”.
- Run three messages through “Check Script”: with the keyword, without it during the day, without it after 20:00. Make sure that the necessary branches are triggered and the tag appears in “Contacts”.
- Enable Web Push and install the account on your phone.
The same script without modification works in Telegram, MAX, on VKontakte and in a widget on the website - channels are added in one project; what behaves differently in MAX (buttons, “prints”, deep links), collected in note about answering machine in MAX. On the Free plan, all this is available with a limit of 30 conversations per month; payment by card is not required. Create an autoresponder in Telegram →
Telegram bot constructorTemplate "Autoresponder FAQ"Features of the answering machine in MAXHelp: conditions and branchesTransferring the conversation to the operator