ServiceSoftware development
Chat bots that work where your team and customers already talk
Our chat bot service builds bots for the messaging tools people already use — Telegram, a team chat such as Mattermost, and WhatsApp — to send alerts and daily briefs, file tasks and notes, answer questions from your systems, or run a small workflow without opening another app. We run twelve bots on our own self-hosted team chat, plus Telegram and WhatsApp bots, so we know where they help and where they annoy.
What we do for you
- A clear job for each bot (alert, brief, task capture, question answering, approval) — one bot, one purpose
- Bots on Telegram, on a self-hosted team chat (Mattermost) or on WhatsApp, depending on who uses them
- Connections to your systems: CRM, task list, server monitoring, shop or bookings — see API integrations
- Scheduled messages (morning brief, end-of-day summary) and real-time alerts
- Commands and buttons for quick actions, with confirmation before anything is changed
- Access rules: who can talk to which bot, in which channel
- Logs of every action, and an off switch
Who it is for
- Fits: teams that live in a chat app and lose information in it
- Fits: owners who want alerts (a new lead, a failed payment, a server down) on their phone, not in a dashboard nobody opens
- Fits: businesses whose customers already use Telegram or WhatsApp
- Does not fit: bots that message people who never asked for them
- Does not fit: replacing every human conversation — bots should take the repetitive part and hand over the rest
What our own bots do
Our team works with twelve bots on a self-hosted Mattermost chat: they capture tasks and notes, answer questions from our internal system, send a morning brief and an evening review, and report the health of our servers, which are checked every five minutes. Alongside them we run Telegram bots for alerts and remote tasks, and WhatsApp bots (see WhatsApp AI agents). The lesson: a bot earns its place when it removes a step people did every day, and loses it the moment it becomes noise.
Platform rules that shape the design
- Telegram. Bots added to groups run in privacy mode by default and only see commands meant for them and replies to their messages. Bots cannot start a conversation: the user must open the chat first. The token BotFather issues "can be used by anyone to control your bot", so it is stored as a secret and rotated if exposed.
- Mattermost. Bot accounts use access tokens rather than passwords and "can't be logged into"; a BOT tag appears wherever they post, so nobody confuses a bot with a colleague. Mattermost notes they do not count toward Enterprise Edition user licensing.
- WhatsApp. Meta requires opt-in before a business messages someone, and any automation must offer prompt, clear escalation to a human. See our WhatsApp page for the full rules.
Which platform for which bot
| Platform | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Team chat (Mattermost, self-hosted) | Internal bots: tasks, briefs, alerts, questions on company data | A server to run; data stays on it |
| Telegram | Alerts and personal or small-team tools, quick to set up | The user must start the chat; group privacy mode |
| Customers who already message you there | Opt-in, templates, per-message fees, human escalation |
How we build a bot
- One job. Written in a sentence: "Tell the owner within two minutes when a lead arrives", "Every morning, list today's overdue tasks".
- Messages first. We draft what the bot will say, how often, and to whom, before writing code. Fewer, better messages.
- Connect and secure. Tokens as secrets, the bot's rights limited to its job.
- Dry run. The bot posts to a test channel for a few days.
- Live, with an off switch. Logs of every action and a way for your team to pause it.
- Prune. After a few weeks we remove messages nobody reads.
What you own
The bot accounts, tokens and code are yours: the bot is registered in your name on each platform, its code lives in your repository, and it runs on hosting you control or that we manage for you, with the same dev, uat and prod discipline as our other software.
Questions we get
Can a Telegram bot message my customers first?
No. On Telegram the user must open the conversation with the bot before it can reply. After that, the bot can send them messages.
Will the bot read everything in our group?
On Telegram, bots in groups run in privacy mode by default and only see commands for them and replies to their own messages. On our team chat bots, we give each bot access only to the channels it needs.
Is AI required?
No. Many useful bots are simple: alerts, briefs, buttons. We add AI only when the bot must understand free text or answer questions.
Can bots take actions in our systems?
Yes, through the actions we define, with confirmation before changing anything and a log of every action.
Why self-host the team chat?
So your conversations and the bots' data stay on a server you control. It means running that server, which we can do for you.
Sources
- Telegram — Bot features (privacy mode, BotFather) (checked 2026-10-06)
- Mattermost Docs — Bot accounts (checked 2026-10-06)
- WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy (checked 2026-10-06)
- Meta for Developers — Getting opt-in for WhatsApp (checked 2026-10-06)