Going live: your own Telegram bot, iMessage lines and live keys

export TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=...   # the token from @BotFather; never commit it

curl https://api.flow.engineer/v1/senders \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FLOW_MESSAGING_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"channel\": \"telegram\", \"telegram_bot_token\": \"$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN\"}"

​

Checklist

​

WhatsApp: coming

• Numbers: Flow buys and hosts a dedicated number for you.
• Verify your business: WhatsApp requires the business behind a number to be verified through Meta; the Flow team will send you the link.
• Quality and tiers: the sender shows WhatsApp’s quality_rating (green, yellow, red) and its messaging tier in limits.whatsapp_tier. Replies to people who wrote first are not limited by the tier.
• Fees: WhatsApp’s own per-message fees (charged by Meta) are passed through. See Pricing.

​

WhatsApp templates

curl https://api.flow.engineer/v1/templates \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FLOW_MESSAGING_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "sender": "snd_01JB8ZC3K5M7P9R1T3V5X7Z9B1",
    "name": "order_ready",
    "language": "en",
    "category": "utility",
    "components": [
      { "type": "body", "text": "Hi {{1}}, your {{2}} is ready for pickup." }
    ]
  }'

• Names use lowercase letters, digits and underscores. A name and language pair is unique per sender.
• category is utility (updates about something the person asked for), marketing or authentication; it sets WhatsApp’s fee.
• A new template is pending. You receive template.status_changed when WhatsApp approves, rejects (with rejection_reason) or pauses it.
• Send it as template content with values for its placeholders:

{ "content": { "type": "template", "template_id": "tpl_01JB8ZC3K5M7P9R1T3V5X7Z9B1", "language": "en", "params": { "body": ["Asha", "cake"] } } }

​

iMessage: a line from the Flow team

• Get one: ask the Flow team. They connect a dedicated line to your app; it is listed in GET /v1/senders?channel=imessage with your live key.
• Replies only: the person always writes first. Starting a conversation with a new contact is refused with 403 permission.
• Get people to write: the sender’s address.link is the line’s opt-in link (when it has one): it opens Messages with the line and a prefilled text. Publish it on your site, receipts or QR codes. See Build an iMessage agent.

​

Telegram: your own bot

• New token: after revoking a token in @BotFather, send the new one the same way. The bot stays the same sender; one Telegram rejected meanwhile is flagged until you do. Messages queued while it is flagged wait at most 72 hours, then fail with outside_window (channel_code queued_too_long).
• Disconnect: DELETE /v1/senders/{sender_id} removes the bot’s webhook and token and retires the sender.
• One app per bot: connecting a bot to another app moves it there and retires the old sender.

​

Before you launch

• Handle outside_window, new_contact_limit and sender_throttled (see Errors).
• Deduplicate webhook deliveries on the event id, and use event IDs as idempotency keys.
• Subscribe your webhook only to the event types you use.
• Message content and media are kept for your plan’s retention period (30 days by default); store anything you need longer yourself.

​

Related

• Senders and Test and live mode
• API: Request a dedicated sender, Create a template