Chat with your dealership from Telegram
Link Telegram to chat with your private dealer AI from your phone, get proactive alerts, and approve safe actions with a tap.
Connect Telegram to chat with your private Dealer AI from your phone. Ask about inventory, leads, deals, and tasks, get proactive alerts, and approve actions with a tap. It all runs inside the Telegram app you already have.
Telegram works only when AutoDealer.io has turned the bot on for the platform. If the card says it isn't set up yet, contact AutoDealer.io support to enable it.
Connect Telegram
You start the connection from the dashboard, then finish on your phone. Each person on the team connects their own Telegram from their own login. There's no owner or manager requirement.
- Go to Settings → AI assistant. Scroll to the Dealer AI: your private assistant section and find the Telegram card.
- Click Connect Telegram. The card shows a one-time deep link, an Open Telegram button, and the link text underneath.
- On the phone where you use Telegram, tap Open Telegram (or open the link shown beneath it). Telegram opens the AutoDealer.io bot.
- Press Start in the chat. The bot replies "✅ Connected! I'm your dealership assistant. Ask me about inventory, leads, deals, or tasks, and I'll send you proactive updates here too." when you're paired.
- Back in the dashboard, click I've connected to refresh. The card now shows Connected with your Telegram username (@yourname).
The connection link works once and expires in 15 minutes. If it expires, just click Connect Telegram again for a fresh link. Always open the link on the phone where Telegram lives. That's how it pairs the right account.
The AI always acts with your role and permissions. A salesperson sees and does only what a salesperson can, and an owner gets full access. Connecting from your phone doesn't change what you're allowed to do.
Chat with your assistant
Once connected, message the bot in Telegram like you would the chat box on your dashboard. It's the same assistant and the same conversation, so a question you start at your desk continues from your phone.
- Ask things like "How many cars did we sell this week?" or "Show me new leads."
- It can also message you first: your morning summary, new-lead alerts, and overdue-title reminders land in the same chat. Choose what it sends under Settings → AI assistant, in the What your assistant keeps you posted on card.
Some lot-level alerts (aging inventory, stuck deals, overdue title work, BHPH delinquencies, the morning/weekly digests) are manager-only. As a salesperson you'll still get your own leads and tasks, but not those.
For your security, the assistant works only in a private Telegram chat (one-on-one with the bot), not in groups.
Approving actions
Every write starts as a proposal, just like on the dashboard. Manual proposals wait for your approval. If the owner has enabled Autopilot for an eligible routine action, the application may try it after the reply finishes and all final checks pass; the message shows the resulting proposal status instead of asking you to approve a settled action.
Telegram shows every proposal as a numbered item with its current status, summary, and review fields. The buttons carry the same number, so each decision is visibly tied to the proposal it controls. If a proposal has editable fields, open the AutoDealer dashboard when you want to change them before approving.
For most actions (adding a vehicle, creating a task, updating a lead), a pending numbered proposal comes with two buttons:
- Tap ✅ Approve #1 (or the matching proposal number) to run it. The assistant removes that proposal's buttons and replies "✅ Done" with a short summary of what it did; buttons for any other pending proposals stay available.
- Tap ✖ Reject #1 to dismiss that numbered proposal.
If Telegram cannot confirm an action after execution may have started, it removes that proposal's buttons and marks it Needs review: outcome unknown. Do not send the approval again. Open the dashboard and inspect the affected record and activity trail first.
While an outcome needs review, AutoDealer pauses all new AI-proposed changes for that dealership. Contact support after you inspect the affected record so the ambiguous receipt can be reconciled before AI changes resume.
Money, irreversible, and communication actions never get a one-tap button. Telegram shows their review fields, including the recipient, subject, and complete message for an email or text draft, but typed "yes" or "no" is not treated as authorization because a text reply cannot be securely bound to one exact proposal. Review and decide these actions in the AutoDealer dashboard. Standard actions can still use their proposal-ID-bound Telegram buttons.
Disconnect Telegram
- Go to Settings → AI assistant and find the Telegram card.
- Click Disconnect and confirm the prompt ("Disconnect Telegram? You can reconnect anytime.").
You can reconnect anytime by clicking Connect Telegram again.
FAQ
Does Telegram cost anything?
No. Telegram is a free messaging app, and there's nothing extra for you to install or run. You connect the AutoDealer.io bot and chat from the Telegram app you already have.
Do I need to be an owner or manager to connect?
No. Anyone on the team connects their own Telegram from their own login. The assistant then acts with your own role and permissions.
Can the AI change things in my account from Telegram without me approving?
Only for an eligible routine action the dealership owner deliberately enabled in Autopilot. The application still rechecks the live policy, your role, feature access, action risk, proposal values, and injection safeguards first. Manual routine proposals use their numbered ✅ Approve button. Money, irreversible, and communication actions must be reviewed and decided in the dashboard; typed "yes" or "no" in Telegram never authorizes a proposal.
Can I approve from my phone something the AI suggested at my desk?
Yes, by opening the AutoDealer dashboard in your phone's browser. Telegram approval buttons are attached only to eligible standard proposals created by that Telegram turn; a proposal created in the dashboard is not later mirrored into Telegram, and a typed Telegram reply cannot decide it. Money, irreversible, and communication actions must also be decided in the dashboard.
My messages stopped coming through in Telegram.
If you blocked the bot, the connection goes dormant and messages pause. The card under Settings → AI assistant will say messages are paused. Just send the bot any message in Telegram to resume.
I tried connecting but it says my Telegram is already in use.
That Telegram account is already linked to another dealership user. Disconnect it there first, then generate a fresh link and try again.
Someone left our team. Can they still use Telegram?
No. The assistant checks your live account on every message. If your account is deactivated, Telegram access stops immediately, even if the link still exists.
What if a stranger messages the bot?
Nothing happens. The bot only acts for connected accounts. Anyone who isn't linked just gets instructions to connect from the dashboard. It never exposes your dealership data.