WhatsApp, Telegram and Instagram: one inbox, three rulebooks

One list, three sets of rules

One inbox gives your team one list. Each conversation has one Responsible person, private notes sit next to the customer’s messages, and each app sends its conversations to the teams you choose.

It does not change the platforms. Meta sets the rules for WhatsApp and Instagram, and Telegram sets its own. A shared inbox can’t lift those limits. A good one shows them plainly, so nobody promises a customer something the channel won’t allow. Here is what each channel allows when it runs through Risti.

WhatsApp: the 24-hour window

Risti connects to WhatsApp through the official WhatsApp Business API from Meta. You need a Meta business account and a number. With Embedded Signup you sign in with the Facebook account that manages the business and pick the number in Meta’s window, with no IDs or tokens to copy. It takes about ten minutes.

You choose one of two paths. “I use the WhatsApp Business app on my phone” keeps the same number working in the app, imports up to six months of chat history and syncs replies both ways. “New number / WhatsApp API only” keeps chats in Risti only. On the first path, open the app on the phone about every 14 days; group chats are not synced.

The rule that shapes daily work is the 24-hour window. You can reply freely within 24 hours of the customer’s last message. Risti doesn’t send WhatsApp template messages from the inbox, so plan to answer inside that window. You also can’t message people who never wrote to you.

• Files up to 16 MB, messages up to 4,096 characters.
• Voice messages, reactions and formatting work.
• Sent replies can’t be edited or deleted.

The rule that shapes daily work is the 24-hour window, and no shared inbox can lift it.

Telegram: a bot or your own account

Telegram gives you a real choice, and Risti takes both.

A Telegram bot runs on the official Bot API. Create one with @BotFather, paste its token into Risti, and it connects in about two minutes. Customers start the chat: a bot can’t write first to someone who never messaged it. Only private chats come in; group chats are ignored. You can send files up to 25 MB, but incoming files over 20 MB don’t open. Edits reach the customer, and you can delete a message within 48 hours.

A Telegram account uses your own number. Risti signs in as you, like another device such as Telegram Desktop, and the phone keeps working. You can start new chats, up to 10 a day per account and 3 a day in its first 14 days. It also takes Telegram voice calls in the browser. You can sign it out any time from Telegram › Settings › Devices.

Pick the bot when customers should talk to the business rather than to a person’s number. Pick the account when customers already know your number, or when you need to write first.

Instagram: professional accounts only

Instagram works only with a professional account, Business or Creator. Before you connect, turn on Allow access to messages in Instagram › Settings › Messages and story replies › Connected tools. Then Continue with Instagram takes you to Instagram and back, with no IDs or tokens. It takes about two minutes.

Instagram direct messages, story replies and post comments all land in the inbox. You can reply to a comment publicly or privately, hide or show it, and set comment rules on the account’s page.

Instagram has its own 24-hour window. Messages carry up to 1,000 characters and files up to 8 MB. There are no voice messages, and sent replies can’t be edited or deleted. Risti can’t publish posts or read your feed or followers.

What changes for your team

The rules stay the same. The work around them changes.

• One queue. New conversations from every channel wait in Not taken yet until someone takes them.
• One owner. The person Responsible for a conversation is clear, whichever app it came from.
• Shared context. Private notes and @mentions work the same way on every channel.
• Routing by app. Each connected account goes to the teams you pick; an app with no team goes to your default team.
• History that stays. Disconnecting an app keeps its conversations, and connecting the same account again continues them.

Honest limits, and where to start

Your team learns one set of habits instead of three: one place to answer, one way to hand over, one list to check before going home. The limits are worth knowing before you plan around them. Risti doesn’t send WhatsApp templates from the inbox. Group chats from WhatsApp and Telegram don’t come in. Instagram replies close 24 hours after the customer’s last message. Of these three channels, only a Telegram account can start a chat with someone who hasn’t written, within its daily limit.

Connect the channel your customers use most first. The guides walk through each one: connect WhatsApp, connect a Telegram bot, connect your Telegram account and connect Instagram.

Questions people ask