Telegram auto-reply: 3 ways without programming

Which Telegram auto-reply to choose

“Auto-reply” usually means one of three different features. The first greets a new contact. The second says you cannot answer right now. The third understands the question, carries the conversation and helps move to the right next step. Decide which you actually need first — then you will not expect from a simple template what only an AI assistant can do.

Depending on the job, an assistant can:

• clarify a request and collect what is missing;
• help pick a service or a plan and answer questions about price and terms;
• send the right link — to payment, a form, a catalogue or an instruction;
• offer a consultation, a call, a meeting or an interview;
• suggest the first steps towards fixing an error or another problem;
• hand the conversation to the owner or the right specialist when a person has to decide;
• close a conversation politely when the message is off-topic or looks like spam.

If you are looking for a free Telegram auto-reply, note one important limit. Without a paid subscription an ordinary bot can only answer in its own separate chat. For a bot to answer in your name you need Telegram's business features and a paid subscription.

Ways 1 and 2: Telegram's built-in features

Telegram Business has quick replies, a greeting and an “Away” message. All of them live in the Telegram business settings.

Quick replies

A quick reply is a saved text you send by hand. Use it for an address, consultation terms, a list of documents or a payment link. In a chat you pick the saved text, edit it if you need to and send. It saves time but does not answer for you automatically.

The greeting message

1. Open the business account settings and choose the greeting message.
2. Write something short. Say the message has arrived, when you will answer and what the person can do meanwhile.
3. Choose the recipients. Check the excluded chats so the greeting does not reach colleagues, family or internal contacts.
4. Save it and test from another account.

Do not pretend the message has already been read. Better: “Thanks for your message. I usually reply within the hour.” Only state times and links that are genuinely current.

The “Away” message

An away message can run permanently, for a chosen period, or only outside working hours. Say when you will be back and where to go with something urgent. Choose recipients and exceptions. If your schedule changes, update the message immediately.

Setting up a Telegram auto-reply on Android, iPhone and desktop

Auto-replies are stored in the account rather than in the app. So setting them up once on any device is enough — everywhere else they switch on by themselves. Only the menu names and where the settings hide differ.

On Android

1. Open the menu on the left and choose Settings.
2. Go to Telegram Business.
3. Pick the auto-reply you want: Away Message, Greeting Message or Quick Replies.
4. Write the text, choose recipients and exceptions, and switch it on.

On iPhone

1. Open the Settings tab in the bottom row of icons.
2. Tap Telegram Business.
3. From there it is the same as on Android: the auto-reply entry, the text, recipients, exceptions, the switch.

On iPhone the sections carry the same names in the same order. The only difference is that settings open from the bottom bar rather than a side menu.

On a computer

In the Windows, macOS and Linux app the same settings live in Settings → Telegram Business. The text is easier to write here and easier to test from a phone, by writing to yourself from another account.

Who gets a Telegram auto-reply, and when it fires

Half of the auto-replies that go wrong break not on the text but on these three settings. The reply either reaches the wrong people or stays quiet exactly when it was needed.

Who gets the auto-reply

• Everyone. Anyone who writes to you gets a reply. Fine while you have one stream of messages and no personal chats in it.
• New chats only. The auto-reply reaches people you have not talked to before. The safest way to start.
• Selected contacts. The list is set by hand. That way the auto-reply can be switched on for clients only.

Check the exceptions separately. That is the list of chats an auto-reply will never reach. Put family, colleagues and every conversation where a machine answer would look out of place into it. Exceptions beat every other rule — if a chat is on the list, no auto-reply arrives there.

When it fires

The “Away” message can run always, for a chosen period, or only outside working hours — in which case Telegram watches the schedule and time zone itself. The greeting works differently: it goes out once at the start of a conversation rather than on every message, so a person does not see it again mid-exchange.

Where an auto-reply will not fire

Telegram's built-in auto-replies live only in direct chats. They do not answer in groups, channels or comments. An auto-reply in a group means a bot, not a built-in feature.

Way 3: a bot through chat automation

HeadHack connects to your account as a ready AI assistant. There is no bot for you to create. The connection uses @Head_Hack_bot. It answers in your name only in the direct chats you allow.

Connecting the HeadHack assistant, step by step

1. Open @Head_Hack_bot in Telegram and press Start.
2. In the message after /start tap Open Mini App. Open it from inside Telegram so HeadHack can see your account.
3. In the mini app find the Connect Telegram Business block. It already names the bot @Head_Hack_bot; tap the name to copy it.
4. In Telegram open Settings → Telegram Business → Chatbots.
5. Add a chatbot, paste @Head_Hack_bot and pick the HeadHack assistant.
6. Allow it to work with messages. Choose the chats where it may answer, and put the rest on the exception list.
7. Go back to the HeadHack mini app and tap I have connected it, refresh.
8. Make sure the status now reads Telegram Business connected. That is it — the assistant can now use your profiles, knowledge and documents in the allowed chats.

People write to an ordinary bot in a separate chat. A connected assistant works right inside your own conversations. So choose the available chats carefully. Personal, financial, medical and other sensitive conversations are better left out.

Do you need a bot of your own

Telegram has a service bot that creates ordinary bots. It helps pick a name, add a description and get an access key. But it cannot answer messages by itself. Every rule such a bot follows has to be built separately.

Assembling a Telegram auto-reply bot yourself needs code, a server, a database and continuous maintenance. For AI answers you also need document search, data protection and rules for when the bot does not know the answer. That route suits an unusual project, but for an ordinary auto-reply it is often far too much.

In a ready solution without programming, the technical part is already done. What is left to you is choosing who to answer, which information to use, what tone to write in and when to hand the conversation to a person.

What the HeadHack AI assistant does

HeadHack is an AI auto-reply with no programming. It does more than send a prepared sentence: it understands the topic of a message, finds the right details and answers in the style you chose. Everything is set in the Telegram mini app — profiles, rules, questions and answers, facts, topics, documents and the calendar.

Different conversations need different answers. A client asks about price, a user reports a bug, a partner proposes a joint project. They need different information and a different tone. That is why HeadHack uses separate profiles.

A separate profile for each kind of message

There are ready profiles for clients, support, partners, hiring, personal messages and unwanted enquiries. You can add your own — for a single service, a department or a topic. Every profile can be switched on, switched off, or made the default.

Each profile has its own rules, facts, questions and answers, style and documents. The “Clients” profile knows your services, prices and how booking works. “Support” knows the common errors and how to fix them. A profile that is switched off is never used.

How HeadHack picks the right profile

The system reads the new message and takes the earlier exchange into account. Then it picks a fitting profile. A price question goes to “Clients”, a bug report to “Support”, a proposal to work together to “Partners”, and spam to “Filter”. The reply is then prepared by that profile's rules.

If a message can be read more than one way, HeadHack must not switch profiles at random. It keeps the current profile or falls back to the default. If the mistake repeats, the owner can sharpen the profiles' topics and rules.

How the assistant will speak

For each profile you can set the tone, the length and the shape of a reply, and allow or remove emoji. There are ready options: formal, brief, team-style and corporate. You can write your own rule too — “Answer briefly and warmly, no emoji. Give the direct answer first, then ask one clarifying question”, for instance.

If the rule is hard to write yourself, AI can draft it and you can edit the result by hand. Then try the style on different messages: short, emotional, incomplete and businesslike. The replies should be clear and sound like you.

Where the assistant gets its information

In the profile's rules you explain what the assistant should do and where its boundaries are. In the questions and answers section you add the frequent enquiries. In the facts you state services, terms, experience, contacts and limits. The topics say which messages this profile can handle.

Say separately what should happen when there is no answer. Better to ask a clarifying question or hand the chat to the owner than to invent a price, a deadline or a promise. That matters most for money, health, hiring and contracts. When something changes, update it in the profile too.

How the assistant uses documents

A profile takes .pdf, .docx and .txt files, a public web page, or a link to a document in the cloud. The assistant draws on them to answer about services, plans, rules, a CV and other working material. Each document belongs to one profile, so a support instruction never turns up in an answer to a partner.

Upload only current, readable material. Do not add unnecessary personal data or secrets. If you have several versions of your prices, keep the one in force, or label when each applies.

Booking a meeting and handing over

Add a calendar link, your time zone and your free hours. Then the assistant can offer a booking or a call. If a question needs your decision, it hands the conversation to you.

Setting a Telegram auto-reply up with HeadHack, without code

No code and no server of your own. Everything is set step by step in the mini app. Do not connect every conversation at once. Start with one kind of message and widen the access after testing.

1. Connect the assistant. Open the mini app, follow the instructions and allow only test or work chats at first.
2. Pick or create a profile. Choose “Clients”, “Support”, “Partners”, “Recruiters / HR”, “Candidates”, “Personal” or “Filter”, or create your own. Give it a clear name.
3. Fill in topics, facts, questions and answers. Add verified details and the frequent questions. Say which topics may be answered and when the chat should come to you.
4. Set the reply style. Pick a ready option, or describe the tone, length, shape and use of emoji in your own words.
5. Upload documents. Attach a current .pdf, .docx or .txt file, or a public link, to the right profile. The assistant will use what is in the file when preparing replies in that profile's conversations. To check, ask a few questions whose answers are in the document.
6. Add the calendar and switch the assistant on. Check the time zone, your free hours and the booking link. After testing, switch the profile on and add chats gradually.

Before launch, try a few ordinary situations. Ask about price, report an error, propose a partnership and ask something that is not in the base. See whether the assistant picks the right profile, whether it invents anything, and whether it hands the chat to you when it does not know. If something is off, sharpen the profile's rules.

Telegram auto-reply examples: ready-made texts

Setting the auto-reply up is half the job: next you have to decide what it will write. Below are eight replies to the most common situations, shown as they look in a conversation. Copy them as they are or rewrite them in your own voice — the HeadHack assistant answers in your style and fills in the details from your knowledge base.

A good auto-reply does three things: it takes the worry away (“you have been heard”), it names a time, and it offers a next step. A reply with neither a time nor a step reads as a brush-off.

How to tell the auto-reply is actually useful

Usefulness is not measured by the number of replies but by whether they helped. Before launch, gather the frequent messages: questions about price, deadlines, errors, partnership and booking. Add the hard cases: an incomplete phrase, an abrupt change of topic, and a question with no answer. Repeat the exercise after any significant change.

Check four things in every reply:

• whether the right profile was chosen;
• whether the details used are actually in the base or a document;
• whether the tone and length fit;
• whether the next step is right: answer, clarify, offer a booking or hand the chat to the owner.

One profile and a few chats are enough to start. Compare a week without the assistant and a week with it. Count how many ordinary questions were closed without you, how many replies you had to correct and how much time you saved. Count test messages and real conversations separately.

One launch of the mini app only shows interest. The real value shows later: a person filled in a profile, switched the assistant on, got good replies and kept using it. For a paid product it also matters whether they keep it after the trial.

If the replies are poor, find the cause first. The wrong profile — describe its topics more clearly. Wrong details — update the base or the document. Replies too long — change the style. The assistant sounds too confident — add a rule: clarify, or hand the chat to the owner.

How to remove or switch off a Telegram auto-reply

An auto-reply is switched off where it was switched on, almost always with one toggle. There is no need to delete the text: it stays in the settings and will be there when you want auto-replies again.

Switching off the built-in auto-replies

1. Open Settings → Telegram Business.
2. Choose Away Message or Greeting Message.
3. Turn off the switch at the top. Automatic messages stop immediately; there is no need to restart Telegram.

If auto-replies only get in the way in a couple of conversations, you do not have to switch everything off: add those chats to the exceptions and the auto-reply keeps working elsewhere.

Removing a chatbot from your conversations

A bot is disconnected in Settings → Telegram Business → Chatbots: remove it from the list. After that it loses access to the conversation — it not only stops answering but stops seeing the messages.

Switching the HeadHack assistant off

The mini app has an assistant toggle: switch it off and replies stop in every chat, while settings, knowledge and documents stay where they are. For something narrower, use profiles: switch one profile off, or remove a single chat from the allowed list and leave the rest as they were.

The auto-reply is silent: what to check

Almost every “it does not work” comes down to one of five causes. Go through them in order — it is quicker.

1. The chat is on the exception list. The most common cause. Open the excluded chats and look for the person there.
2. The wrong recipients are selected. With “new chats only”, somebody you have already talked to gets no auto-reply — and that is correct behaviour, not a fault.
3. The schedule did not match. An “Away” set to outside working hours stays quiet inside them. Check the time zone in the schedule settings too.
4. You are testing from your own account. No auto-reply comes back to your own messages. Test from another account, or ask someone to write to you.
5. The subscription ran out. Without Telegram Premium the built-in auto-replies switch off along with the “Telegram Business” section.

If the HeadHack assistant is the one staying quiet, the order is different: make sure the mini app shows “Telegram Business connected”, that the assistant is switched on, and that the chat is on the allowed list. The assistant answers new incoming direct text messages, so a forwarded post or a message in a group is left alone deliberately.

What to check before launch

AI makes mistakes. It can misread a question, miss an important detail or answer with too much confidence. So discounts, refunds, hiring and any significant medical, legal or financial decision should be confirmed by a person.

• Limit access to chats in the Telegram settings and review the exceptions regularly.
• Upload only the documents you need, with no stray secrets or personal data.
• State the forbidden topics, the rules for handing a chat over, and the promises that must never be made in your name.
• Update prices, schedules, links and rules the moment they change.
• Read real conversations from time to time and treat mistakes as a signal to improve the profile or the knowledge base.

Common questions

Official Telegram material

More about Telegram's own features in the official material:

• What Telegram Business can do — an overview of the business features.
• Chat automation: the 2026 update — connecting a bot and choosing chats.
• Telegram for developers — the technical documentation.

The choice is simple. For one ready sentence, use the greeting or the “Away” message. If you need the question understood and answered from your base and documents, connect an AI assistant. Start with one kind of message, check the replies, and only then add more chats.

Which chats the assistant answers in is chosen in the app, and the same screen adds it to a group or to a channel's comments. How that works — “Choose which chats the assistant answers in”.

A detailed walkthrough of setting HeadHack up without Telegram Premium — profiles, the system prompt, the knowledge base and documents — is in the article “A free Telegram auto-reply: how to connect it without Premium”.

If you want an auto-reply for personal messages rather than clients — for when you are at work, driving or asleep — that case has its own article: “A reply takes 30 seconds; getting back to work takes 23 minutes”.

What has changed in the assistant lately: a draft reply with buttons in the chat with the bot — a doubtful answer comes to you for approval rather than to the other person, and the assistant no longer introduces itself as an assistant.

The app itself was rebuilt too: one button turns the assistant on — the state is visible the moment it opens, and a reply can be delayed so you have time to write yourself.

A separate question is what happens when Telegram only opens for you every other time: how to keep answering without a VPN — the assistant answers from the cloud, and drafts and settings are open in a browser.