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Connecting Accounts to Hotline CRM

Connecting personal accounts (telegram-personal) in Hotline setup bot is possible in two ways: by scanning a QR-code, or sending the account phone number and pin-code from the official Telegram account.

After connection, a new session is created for the account and it becomes a so-called userbot, which is controlled by Hotline, but all messages are still collected on the account and the ability to interact with users in the usual way through the Telegram application (not necessarily through the backend group) is preserved.

Key Account Capabilities

  • Respond as a team on behalf of the connected account through the backend group
  • Write first to Telegram users with /new command
  • Work with chats and channels (message monitoring, keyword filter)
  • Show stories to users who had a dialogue with the account
  • Saving all messages on the account in case of failures
  • Accepting multi-channel calls to the account through SIP.TG gateway

Detailed comparison of bots with accounts

Terms Used

To reduce confusion, we remind about main terms we use

The account from which the connection is made in the setup bot @hotlinetg_bot is called the administrator account. It is also usually the owner of the backend group.

The account that is connected and linked to the backend group is called the connected account.

It's better if the administrator and connected accounts are different.

Personal Accounts and Limits

Hotline can connect to personal accounts, but this is often not optimal in terms of the load created on the system. If a personal account is in hundreds of groups, subscribed to hundreds of channels and many people write to it, all these events start coming to the system, which can quickly lead to exhaustion of available limits, especially on the free tier.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

During session connection, it's necessary to disable two-factor authentication (2FA) from the connected account. Immediately after connection, 2FA can be activated again.

Telegram Business Subscription

To connect a personal account to Hotline, there's no need to purchase a business subscription for it and specify a bot token for correspondence. However, combining business subscription and Hotline capabilities is possible in some cases.

Video of Connecting Account to Hotline

Connection Procedure in Setup Bot

  1. Go to setup bot @hotlinetg_bot from the Administrator Account (usually your personal account), click the New Connection button, then click Connect Account

  2. Scan the offered QR-code from the Telegram application where the Connected Account is active. Code scanning is done from the ☰ menu Settings → Devices → Link Desktop Device

    Important

    QR-code changes every 20 seconds, you may not have time to forward it. Therefore it's better to have the connected account active on a mobile device with a camera, and run the setup bot from the administrator account on another device (for example, on a laptop).

    Important

    In case of termination of the parent session of the connected account (from which the QR-code was scanned), the created session in Hotline will also be terminated.

    or

    Send the phone number linked to the Connected Account, then send the pin-code (sent from the official Telegram account to the connected account)

    Important

    The code cannot be forwarded as a message from the connected account, otherwise the ability to create new sessions may be limited.

  3. Create a new topic group with the Choose Group button or select an existing one (you must be the group owner or have rights to add other administrators to it).

  4. Test the connection by sending any test message to the connected account, in response Hotline should send an automatic welcome.

To start working follow the instructions for working with new connections