TL;DR

Eloqra forwards each visitor's chat to your Telegram bot and sends your Telegram replies straight back to the website widget.

Key Points

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When a [[website-visitor]] sends a [[chat-message]] in the [[live-chat-widget]], Eloqra stores it and forwards it to the project owner's Telegram bot.

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Operators reply two ways: a Telegram reply-to-message on the forwarded notification, or a Telegram Mini App inbox; either way the reply lands back in the widget.

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Replies return to the widget through a Telegram [[webhook]] [1] — Telegram POSTs each update to Eloqra, which matches it to the right [[conversation]] [2].

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Forwarded messages carry the visitor context Eloqra captures on first contact: page URL, device, and [[ip-geolocation]] country/region/city, plus any [[utm-parameters]].

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Assignment is simple first-responder [[conversation-assignment]]: the first operator to reply is recorded as the assigned [[support-operator]] — no queue or routing.

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Because the inbox lives in Telegram, founders get push notifications on a phone they already carry, instead of running a dedicated [[help-desk]] app.

How the round-trip works

A visitor types in the Live Chat Widget, which talks to Eloqra over HTTP Polling rather than a persistent socket. Eloqra persists the Chat Message and immediately calls the Telegram Bot API to deliver it to the owner's bot ^[2]. The owner replies inside Telegram — either by long-pressing the forwarded message and using reply-to-message, or from the Mini App inbox. Telegram then notifies Eloqra of that reply through a Webhook: an HTTPS POST callback fired whenever a new update is available ^[1]^[3]. Eloqra reads the JSON Update, identifies the originating Conversation, and queues the operator text so the visitor's widget picks it up on its next poll. The visitor never sees Telegram; they just see a normal chat reply.

Why Telegram instead of a dedicated console

Eloqra targets SaaS founders and indie hackers who do not want to babysit a separate agent dashboard. Telegram is a messaging app most already keep open, so it doubles as the operator surface for Live Chat without extra software. Notifications, reply-to-message, and a Mini App inbox cover the day-to-day reply flow, while richer context — device, browser, OS, and IP Geolocation — rides along with each forwarded message so the operator can answer with Personalization. The trade-off is deliberate scope: Eloqra does not yet layer a Ticketing System, canned Canned Response replies, tags, or multi-seat teams on top. It is a focused Customer Support channel, not a full Shared Inbox.

The webhook contract

Webhooks are user-defined HTTP callbacks triggered by events on a source system ^[3]. Telegram's webhook is registered with setWebhook, after which Telegram pushes every bot update as an HTTPS POST to Eloqra's endpoint rather than Eloqra polling Telegram for them ^[1]^[2]. Each Update is JSON, and operator replies arrive with a reply_to_message field that links the answer to the exact forwarded notification — that link is how Eloqra maps a Telegram reply back to the correct Conversation and visitor. Telegram retries non-2xx responses, so the endpoint must acknowledge quickly and idempotently. This is the same push model that powers most modern Business Messaging integrations, and it is distinct from the client-facing HTTP Polling the widget itself uses.

Sources & References

Marvin's Marvellous Guide to All Things Webhook (Telegram) ↗

Telegram Bot API ↗

Webhook - Wikipedia ↗

Last updated: June 25, 2026

Related Terms

Webhook

A webhook is a user-defined HTTP callback: instead of polling for data, an application registers a URL that a source service calls with an HTTP POST request the moment a specific event happens. [1] In Eloqra, a webhook is how an operator's Telegram reply travels back into the chat widget.

HTTP Polling

HTTP polling is a real-time technique where the client repeatedly sends HTTP requests on a fixed interval to ask the server whether new data is available, instead of holding a persistent connection. Eloqra's chat widget uses short polling roughly every 4-5 seconds to fetch new messages and typing state.

Live Chat Widget

A live chat widget is the embeddable, in-browser chat interface a website loads from a small script so visitors can message a business in real time without leaving the page. In Eloqra it is a floating launcher and chat panel that boots from a single <script> tag and renders inside a Shadow DOM.

Conversation

A conversation is the threaded exchange of messages between a single website visitor and a project's operators, grouped as one unit with a status and unread counters. In Eloqra it is the container that holds every message, the visitor's captured context, and the assigned operator.

Support Operator

A support operator is the human on your side of a live chat who reads visitor messages and replies to them. In Eloqra the operator is whoever has access to the project's Telegram chat or Mini App inbox and answers incoming conversations from there.

IP Geolocation

IP geolocation is the practice of estimating a device's approximate physical location (country, region, city) by looking up its public IP address in a database that maps IP ranges to places. In Eloqra it runs server-side on the first visitor message to attach location context to a conversation.

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Telegram Integration