Telegram could transform the business sector with Bot Payments

bot payments

Telegram Messenger introduced chat bots about two years back, and this has been a fun fare for users and bot developers. In the latest version 4.0, the app now supports bot payments – a feature that is likely to bring commercial opportunity for many companies wishing to connect directly to their customers.

Bot developers are in position to accept payments from their users around the world, just as users can order and pay for merchandise all in a few button taps.

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How it works

If you have Telegram 4.0 (or newer) installed, you can order goods or services from bots that offer them. Telegram acts as a messaging platform between the paying user, the bot developer, and their chosen payment system. These bots may have a Pay button added to their messages. When you tap Pay, you’ll be asked to fill in your credit card and shipping information, and confirmation to the payment.

You send the credit card details directly to the payment system, then the payment system’s response and the shipping details entered by you, the user, are passed to the bot developer so that they can process the order.

Currently, the payments are handled mostly by Stripe, but the bot payments system is open to a wider range of payment providers all over the world. In Uganda, and across Africa, payments will be available to developers via FlutterWave. Developers in India will accept payments via RazorPay, while over 190 countries across the world shall use PaymentWall.

If you wish to provide payment services, you can let Telegram know of your capabilities by messaging them via @BotSupport, while including the hashtag #paymentsprovider in your message.

You can as well try out the demo @ShopBot to see how it practically works.

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