BOOTS Automation™

Business chatbots by channel: WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger and Instagram

"Bot" also describes follower-growth tools and data scrapers; this guide is not about those. It covers bots that businesses use to talk to their own customers through each platform's official interface.

Quick answer

A business chatbot answers customers automatically on an official messaging channel, and each channel has its own rules: WhatsApp needs the WhatsApp Business Platform, a 24-hour customer service window and approved templates; Telegram bots use the Bot API with a token from BotFather; Messenger and Instagram use Meta's APIs after Meta approves the messaging permissions. BOOTS Automation runs these channels from one shared inbox.

Channels compared

Channel Official connection Key rule
WhatsApp WhatsApp Business Platform (Meta) Free-form replies within 24 hours of the customer's last message; approved templates after that
Telegram Bot API, token from BotFather Bots reply to users who start the chat
Messenger Facebook Pages messaging API Requires Meta approval of messaging permissions
Instagram Instagram messaging API Business account and approved permissions

TikTok and Snapchat

TikTok offers an official Business Messaging API with approval and a user-initiated 48-hour window; BOOTS does not support it yet and will not advertise it until it works. Snapchat has no public business messaging API for bots, so we do not offer a Snapchat bot.

New to the difference between bots and agents? Read AI agent vs chatbot.

Benefits

  • One inbox

    All channels in one place, attached to one customer record.

  • One AI agent

    The same knowledge base and flows work on every enabled channel.

  • Official interfaces only

    No personal accounts or tools that break platform terms.

Summary

Start where your customers already message you, and follow that channel's official rules.

Frequently asked questions

Does one AI agent work across channels?

Yes, across the channels enabled in your workspace; the knowledge base and flows are shared.

Is there a Snapchat business bot?

Snapchat does not currently offer a public business messaging API for bots, so we do not offer one.

Related topics

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