How to Connect Telegram and Slack: Step-by-Step Guide (2026)

In today's fast-paced business environment, effective communication is crucial. Teams often utilize various platforms for different purposes – Telegram for secure external communications, community engagement, or specific project groups, and Slack for internal team collaboration, project updates, and daily operational discussions. The challenge arises when critical information shared on one platform needs to be instantly accessible on the other, leading to communication silos, manual information transfer, and lost productivity.

Connecting Telegram and Slack automates this information flow, ensuring that important messages from one platform are seamlessly delivered to the other. This guide provides a detailed, step-by-step process for integrating these two powerful communication tools using an integration platform, saving your team valuable time and reducing context switching.

Why Connect Telegram and Slack?

Integrating your Telegram and Slack workspaces offers significant benefits for businesses looking to streamline operations and enhance collaboration:

What You Need Before You Start

Before you begin the integration process, ensure you have the following prerequisites in place:

Step-by-Step Guide to Connecting Telegram and Slack

This guide will walk you through setting up a one-way integration, sending messages from Telegram to Slack. The process uses Make.com as the intermediary platform.

  1. Sign Up or Log In to Make.com

    Navigate to Make.com and either create a new account or log in to your existing dashboard. Make.com provides a visual interface for building automation workflows, known as 'scenarios'.

  2. Create a New Scenario

    From your Make.com dashboard, click the 'Create a new scenario' button. This will open the scenario builder canvas, where you'll define your integration's logic.

  3. Add Telegram as the Trigger Module

    • Search for Telegram: Click the large plus icon in the center of the canvas and search for "Telegram Bot." Select it.
    • Select a Trigger: Choose a trigger module. For most message forwarding needs, "Watch Updates" is the most suitable option as it captures various message types.
    • Create a Telegram Bot: If you don't already have a bot for this purpose, you'll need to create one:
      • Open Telegram and search for @BotFather. Start a chat and send the command /newbot.
      • Follow the prompts to choose a display name and a unique username for your bot (the username must end with 'bot', e.g., MyTeamConnector_bot).
      • BotFather will then provide you with an HTTP API token. Copy this token immediately, as it's crucial for connecting your bot to Make.com.
    • Connect Telegram in Make.com: In Make.com's Telegram module configuration, click 'Add' next to the 'Connection' field. Paste the HTTP API token you received from BotFather.
    • Add the Bot to your Channel/Group: Go to your target Telegram group or channel and add the newly created bot as a member. For channels, you might need to make the bot an administrator to ensure it can read messages.
    • Configure the Trigger: Back in Make.com, you may need to specify the 'Chat ID' from which to watch updates. For groups, the bot automatically detects it once added. For channels, you might need to send a message to the channel and use a service like https://api.telegram.org/bot/getUpdates to find the chat.id. Select the types of messages you wish to watch (e.g., text, photo, document).

  4. Add Slack as the Action Module

    • Add another module: Click the 'Add another module' button (the small circle with a plus icon) next to your Telegram module.
    • Search for Slack: Find and select "Slack."
    • Choose an Action: Select an action module. "Create a Message" is often the most flexible choice for sending custom messages.
    • Connect Slack Workspace: Click 'Add' next to the 'Connection' field. You will be redirected to Slack to authorize Make.com to access your workspace. Grant the necessary permissions.
    • Select Channel and Map Data:
      • Choose the specific Slack channel where you want the Telegram messages to be posted.
      • In the 'Text' field for the Slack message, you will map the data from the Telegram module. Use variables like {{1.message.text}} for the message content, {{1.message.from.first_name}} {{1.message.from.last_name}} for the sender's name, or {{1.message.chat.title}} for the Telegram group/channel name. You can combine these to create a clear, informative message in Slack (e.g., "New message from Telegram [{{1.message.chat.title}}] by {{1.message.from.first_name}}: {{1.message.text}}").

  5. Configure Filters (Optional)

    If you only wish to forward specific types of messages (e.g., only messages containing certain keywords, or only messages from specific users), you can set up a filter. Right-click on the line connecting the Telegram and Slack modules and select 'Set up a filter'. Define your conditions using the available message data.

  6. Test Your Scenario

    Before activating, it's crucial to test your setup. Click the 'Run once' button at the bottom left of the Make.com interface. Then, send a test message in your configured Telegram group or channel. Check your designated Slack channel to ensure the message appears as expected.

  7. Activate Your Scenario

    Once you've confirmed that the integration is working correctly, toggle the scenario 'ON' at the bottom of the Make.com interface. Your Telegram messages will now be automatically forwarded to Slack according to your configuration.

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Popular Use Cases

This integration opens up various practical applications for businesses:

Estimate Your Time Savings

Automating the connection between Telegram and Slack can lead to substantial time savings and increased efficiency. For teams that regularly monitor both platforms for critical information, this integration can eliminate the need for manual checking, copying, and pasting, which can cumulatively consume several hours per week per team member. For instance, a team spending just 30 minutes daily on manual information transfer across five team members saves 12.5 hours per week. Over a year, this translates to over 600 hours of reclaimed productivity, allowing teams to focus on more strategic tasks rather than administrative overhead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I connect multiple Telegram groups to one Slack channel?

Yes, you can. The most straightforward method is to create a separate Make.com scenario for each Telegram group you wish to monitor. Configure each scenario to trigger from its respective Telegram group and send messages to the same designated Slack channel. This provides clear oversight and management for each source.

Is it possible to send messages from Slack to Telegram?

Absolutely. The integration can be bidirectional. To send messages from Slack to Telegram, you would set Slack as your trigger module (e.g., "Watch Messages in Channel") and Telegram Bot as your action module (e.g., "Send a Message"). This allows for two-way communication, bridging both platforms seamlessly.

What happens if Make.com is down or there's an error?

Make.com is designed for reliability and provides robust error handling. If a scenario encounters an error (e.g., an invalid API key, network issue), it typically logs the error, and depending on your scenario's configuration, it might retry the operation. Make.com also provides detailed operational logs where you can review successful executions and troubleshoot any issues that arise, helping you maintain continuous information flow.

Written by Vangari Sai Sampath, Automation Specialist · Integration Directory · Hyderabad, India