How Interchat matches Intercom contacts with Telegram users

By default, when a Telegram user sends their first message, Interchat creates a new Intercom contact and links it to that Telegram user. Future messages from the same Telegram user are sent through the linked Intercom contact.

Sometimes you may want Interchat to reuse an existing Intercom contact instead of creating a new one. Contact lookup lets Interchat search for an existing contact before creating a new contact.

Telegram does not provide a phone number or email address by default, so Interchat uses the Telegram user ID to match contacts. It looks for an Intercom contact with the custom attribute telegram_user_id.

You can find this custom attribute in the right-side Details panel:

Contact lookup is disabled by default. To enable it, contact support@interchat.io.

The lookup can add a few extra seconds to the first message from a Telegram user. After Interchat resolves and links the contact, the chat experience works at the normal speed.