WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram in your CRM: setup, platform rules and the 24-hour window

Connecting WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram to a CRM means three things: giving the CRM access to each channel through the platform’s official business interface, deciding what a first message from a stranger turns into, and respecting each platform’s rules about when you are allowed to reply. The first two are configuration. The third is where most teams get caught out, because the rules differ by platform and a reply that breaks them simply fails to send.

The short version of the rules: on WhatsApp you can reply freely for 24 hours after the customer’s last message, and only with pre-approved templates after that. On Instagram the standard window is also 24 hours, with a seven-day exception for a human agent handling support. On Telegram a bot can never write first; the customer has to start. The rest of this guide covers what each rule means for a sales or support team, and how to set the channels up so DMs become a queue rather than a pile of phones.

Why messaging channels belong in the CRM

Customers pick the channel; the business does not. A shop that sells through Instagram gets enquiries in Direct. A B2B company in Eastern Europe or the Middle East may get most first contacts on Telegram or WhatsApp. When those messages live on individual phones, three things go wrong: nobody else can see the conversation, nobody knows who owns the reply, and the enquiry never becomes a lead with a source.

Inside a CRM, each conversation is attached to a record, has an owner, and lands in the same queue as email and web chat. The general argument for one queue is made in one queue for every channel. This guide is about the specifics of the three messaging platforms.

WhatsApp: the Business Platform and the 24-hour window

Connecting WhatsApp to a CRM uses the WhatsApp Business Platform, Meta’s API, not the WhatsApp Business app on a phone. You register a phone number with Meta, and the CRM gets access to it with credentials from the Meta developer console. Sending and receiving are separate steps: sending works once the credentials are in, but incoming messages arrive only after you register a webhook address with Meta so it knows where to deliver them.

The rule that shapes every WhatsApp workflow is the customer service window. Meta’s documentation is precise: when a WhatsApp user messages you or calls you, a 24-hour timer starts; if they message or call again before it expires, it resets to 24 hours. While the window is open, you can send any service message without pre-approval. When it closes, you can only send pre-approved template messages.

In practice this means the follow-ups you know you will need, a quote reminder, an appointment confirmation, an order update, should exist as approved templates before you need them. Template approval is not instant, and a rep who discovers on day two that they cannot send their carefully written follow-up has lost the conversation. Meta also groups templates into categories such as utility, authentication and marketing, with different pricing, so name and categorise them honestly.

Instagram: professional accounts only

Instagram Direct can be connected to a CRM only for a professional account, Business or Creator, and the person connecting it must have admin access. A personal profile cannot be connected at all. Access is granted for a limited time, so the connection needs renewing periodically; a good integration warns you before the token expires rather than after messages stop arriving.

Instagram follows Meta’s messaging policy. The standard messaging window is 24 hours and opens when a person messages your account or interacts through entry points such as a click-to-message ad, and windows opened from those ads can last longer. A human agent tag lets a person on your team reply manually within seven days, for issues that could not be resolved inside the standard window. Tags cannot be used for promotional content. The operational takeaway is the same as for WhatsApp: answer inside a day, and do not plan sales follow-ups that depend on writing to someone a week later.

Telegram: a bot of your own, and the customer starts

Telegram connects through a bot. You create it by messaging @BotFather in Telegram, which issues a token; the token is the bot’s key, and anyone who holds it controls the bot, so treat it like a password. The CRM receives everything customers write to the bot, and replies typed in the CRM go back through the same bot. The customer sees a conversation with your bot; your team sees a conversation with a person.

Telegram’s own documentation sets the limit plainly: bots can’t start conversations with users. A user must message the bot or add it to a group first. That makes Telegram an inbound channel by design. Put the bot link where customers already look, on your site, in your email signature, on a QR code at the counter, and the conversations will come to you.

Routing and response time

Messaging is the channel where customers expect the fastest reply, and the speed matters commercially. Research on web enquiries shows qualification rates falling sharply after the first hour, and a DM is the warmest form of lead there is; it decays at least as fast. The numbers and the set-up that answers inside that hour are in speed to lead.

Three practices keep messaging fast without burning out the team:

1. One owner per conversation. Assigned at creation by channel rule, or picked up from an “unassigned” tab that someone clears several times a day.
2. Saved replies for the questions that arrive ten times a day: prices, hours, delivery areas. Fill the customer’s name automatically.
3. A queue ordered by who is waiting longest, not by who wrote last, so the oldest unanswered message is always on top.

One more thing matters once several channels are live: the same customer often uses more than one. They ask a question on Instagram, then send their order details on WhatsApp because it is easier to attach a file. If each channel creates its own record, the second rep starts from zero. Link conversations to one contact as soon as you know it is the same person, and make sure the reply goes back on the channel the customer used last, not the one where the conversation began.

How Nextora connects the three channels

In Nextora, each channel is a plugin under Settings → Connections. WhatsApp connects through the WhatsApp Business API with a Phone Number ID and an Access Token from the Meta developer console; once connected, the page shows a Webhook URL and a Verify Token to register with Meta so incoming messages arrive, and a Message templates block lists your approved templates and where moderation stands.

Instagram Direct connects by signing in with Instagram as the owner of a Business or Creator account. You can connect several accounts, and each has its own settings: a different bot, lead status and owner per profile. A first message can become a lead with source Instagram. The account card warns a week before access expires and offers Reconnect, which keeps the account’s settings.

Telegram connects with a token from @BotFather on the Telegram Bot plugin page. Its CRM records section decides what a stranger writing to the bot becomes, a lead or a contact, along with auto-creation, status and owner.

All three feed the Inbox, a single queue for Telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS, email and the website bot. Tabs slice it by owner, a Channel filter slices it by source, and the list puts whoever is still owed an answer at the top. If someone chatted to the website bot and then wrote on Telegram, that is one row and one feed. Saved replies, notes visible only to the team and a Next button that closes the current conversation and opens the next one waiting complete the routine.

A setup checklist

1. Choose the channels your customers already use; do not open all of them at once.
2. For WhatsApp, register the number with Meta, connect it, then register the webhook so messages arrive.
3. Write and submit the templates you will need after 24 hours: reminders, confirmations, order updates.
4. For Instagram, confirm the account is Business or Creator and note when access needs renewing.
5. For Telegram, create the bot, store the token securely, and publish the bot link where customers will see it.
6. For every channel, decide what a first message creates, with status and owner.
7. Write saved replies for the five most common questions.
8. Measure first-response time per channel weekly.

Once enquiries arrive as records with a source, the rest of the CRM can work on them: pipelines, follow-up rules and reports by channel. If you also answer with a bot, test it before it speaks to customers; how to test a support bot covers that.