Skip to main content
The Telegram integration gives you a second surface for your Selah AI companion. Once connected, you can capture thoughts, ask study questions, and run commands from Telegram just as you would in the web app. Your conversation history and companion memory are shared across both surfaces, so the bot always knows what you’ve been studying.

What you can do in Telegram

After connecting, you can interact with your Selah companion through plain text messages, voice notes, or commands. Commands available in Telegram:
CommandWhat it does
/interview [topic]Starts a Socratic deep-dive on a topic
/pray [request]Saves a new prayer request
/notesLists your notes with buttons to open an append-mode thread
/sessionsLists your recent conversations with buttons to continue on the web
/reflectReviews themes you’ve studied this week
/recentShows your last 7 captures with Develop buttons
/profileDisplays the first part of your companion profile
/helpLists all available commands
Any plain-text message you send goes straight to the companion, just like typing in the web chat.

Rich text formatting

Companion responses in Telegram render with full formatting — bold, italic, inline code, and clickable links all display correctly. You see the same styled output in Telegram that you would in the web app, just adapted for the chat interface.
Use /recent to pick up where you left off. It shows your last 7 captures with a Develop button on each one — tap it to start an interview seeded from that specific capture.

View Note buttons

When the Companion saves a note from Telegram — whether from an interview, a /prep session, or a general /note — the response includes a View Note inline button that links directly to the note in the web app. Tap it to open the note in the full editor where you can restructure, expand, or publish it.

Browse and append to notes

Send /notes to see a browsable list of your notes. Tap any note to open an append-mode thread — every message you send in that thread gets appended directly to the note’s content. This is useful for capturing thoughts on the go without opening the web app. You can also ask the Companion to edit notes conversationally — for example, “Add a section about faith to my Romans note” or “Tighten the intro on my sermon prep.” The Companion finds the right note, makes the edit, and shows an undo button so you can revert if needed. See editing notes through conversation for details.

Cross-surface sessions

Send /sessions to see your five most recent conversations across both web and Telegram. Each session shows its topic and when it was last active. Tap any session to open it in the web app and continue where you left off.
Selah treats your web and Telegram conversations as one unified history. The /sessions list doesn’t distinguish between surfaces — because it’s the same companion either way.

Voice notes

You can send voice messages to the Selah bot instead of typing. Tap and hold the microphone button in Telegram, speak your thought, and release to send. Selah transcribes the audio using OpenAI Whisper and echoes the transcript back so you can verify what it heard. The transcribed text then flows through the same pipeline as a typed message — the companion responds to it, and it can become a capture, trigger a command, or continue an existing conversation. This is especially useful for capturing thoughts on the go — during a walk, while driving, or any time typing isn’t practical. Speak naturally; Selah handles punctuation and formatting automatically.
After sending a voice note, Selah replies with your transcript first so you can confirm it’s accurate before the companion responds. If something looks off, just send a correction as a follow-up message.
Voice notes require no additional setup — they work automatically once your Telegram account is connected. Selah uses your existing OpenAI configuration for transcription, so there are no new API keys or settings to configure.

How to connect your account

1

Open Settings

In Selah, go to Settings and scroll down to the Integrations section.
2

Click Connect Telegram

Click the Connect Telegram button. Selah generates a one-time 6-character code and a deep link. The code expires in 15 minutes.
3

Open the link in Telegram

Click Open in Telegram. This opens the Selah bot in Telegram and automatically sends the linking command. You can also copy the 6-character code and send it to the bot manually if the link doesn’t work on your device.
4

Wait for confirmation

The Settings page polls in the background. Once Telegram confirms the link, the card updates to show Connected. The bot also sends you a confirmation message in Telegram.

How to disconnect

In Settings → Integrations, click Disconnect on the Telegram card. This removes the link between your Selah account and your Telegram chat. You can reconnect at any time by following the steps above.
Disconnecting stops the bot from responding to your Telegram account. It does not delete any captures or notes you created through Telegram.

Proactive check-ins in Telegram

When your Telegram account is connected, Selah can send you brief, unprompted nudges throughout the day — a question about a stalled note, a thematic connection, or a gentle prayer reminder. These arrive as plain-text messages in your Telegram chat during your configured active hours (default: 8 AM to 10 PM), with a maximum of two per day. Check-ins are enabled automatically when you first link Telegram. You can toggle them off, adjust active hours, and customize what Selah checks for in Settings > Companion. See proactive check-ins for full details. When you reply to a check-in message, the conversation continues naturally — Selah knows what it asked and has full context from your study history.

Daily devotional in Telegram

If you enable the daily devotional, and your Telegram account is connected, the devotional is delivered to both your Selah web inbox and your Telegram chat each morning.