The moment it happens

Get an email when someone messages your bot

Every message to your bot reaches your inbox with who sent it.

Runs: The moment it happens
Apps: Telegram
AI: Not needed
Access: bot token

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: whenever someone sends my Telegram bot a message, email me their name, username and what they said.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

Add to ChatGPT Add to Claude

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A freelancer sets up a Telegram bot so clients and leads can reach them from the link in an email signature or on a website. Messages pile up inside Telegram, a place the freelancer does not check during client calls or while traveling. A potential client who wrote at 10 a.m. asking for a quote hears nothing until evening, and by then has contacted someone who replied sooner.

When a person writes to your bot, ClickRuntime receives the update from Telegram, extracts the sender's name, username and the text of the message and emails it to you straight away. The subject line identifies who wrote, so you can triage from the inbox on your phone and reply from wherever you already handle correspondence.

It suits freelancers, small shops and community managers who run a public bot but live in email.

What you get out of it

Leads are not lost in a second app
A message that arrives in your regular inbox gets seen alongside everything else you handle. You no longer depend on opening Telegram to find out that someone wanted to hire you.
Faster replies win more business
Getting back to an enquiry within the hour often decides who gets the job. Email notifications reach your phone, watch and laptop, so the time to first reply drops sharply.
Your mailbox keeps a searchable record
Each message is stored as an email you can search, label and archive. Months later you can find what a client asked and when, without scrolling through a chat history.
Sender details arrive with the text
The name and username are included, so you know who is writing before you open the message. That helps you decide quickly whether it is a customer, a friend or spam.
A bot can be public without being a burden
You can share your bot widely knowing everything reaches you in a place you already check. Worry about missing messages stops being a reason to keep your contact details hidden.

How it works

What happens, step by step

When someone messages your Telegram bot, ClickRuntime picks it up straight away.
It notes who sent it, with their name and username, and what they wrote.
You get an email with the sender and their message, so nothing gets missed.

Before it runs live

Connect Telegram
Paste your automation's link into the other app's webhook settings

What you get

RunsThe moment it happens

Get an email when someone messages your botjust nowSucceeded

Email · Telegram botDana Ortiz (@dana_o) Hi, do you ship to Canada?

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other Telegram steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

forward_my_bot_s_incoming_messages_to_email.pyexample

from clickruntime import on_event, notify

@on_event
def handle(event):
    msg = (event.json or {}).get("message") or {}
    if not msg:
        return {"sent": False}
    who = msg.get("from", {})
    name = f"{who.get('first_name', '')} {who.get('last_name', '')}".strip()
    notify.email_me(f"Telegram message from {name}",
                    f"{name} (@{who.get('username', 'no username')})\n\n{msg.get('text', '[non-text message]')}")
    return {"sent": True}

FAQ

Common questions

Can I reply to the person from my email?

Replying to the email itself does not reach the Telegram user, since the message is a notification. To answer, open the chat in Telegram, or use the support inbox template where replies are routed back through the bot.

Are photos and voice notes forwarded too?

The text of the message is forwarded. For photos, voice notes or files, the email can note that an attachment was sent and include the Telegram file reference. Tell your assistant if media matters for your use and it can be extended.

What stops spam from filling my inbox?

You can limit emails to people on an approved list, add a minimum message length or rate limit repeat senders to one email per hour. Telegram also lets you block users from the chat if someone abuses the bot.

What permissions does it need?

bot token. Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run for each event the app sends.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

The moment it happens