Verifying your channel
Verification confirms two things before a channel goes anywhere: that it really exists on Telegram, and that you actually control it. You prove both at once by adding our bot to the channel as an administrator — something only an existing administrator can do.
The same panel appears on every surface that registers or confirms a channel, so once you know it here, you know it everywhere.
Before you start
- A public Telegram channel with a
@username. Groups, personal profiles and private channels cannot be verified. - Administrator rights in that channel, including the ability to add other administrators.
- Ideally, your Telegram account linked to your Onflow Ads account. When it is linked, the check also confirms that you are one of the channel's administrators.
Why a bot, and why admin rights
The bot is the only thing that can see inside Telegram on the platform's behalf, so the bot is what does the checking. Everything you decide about the channel is decided on the website; the bot reports back what is true over there.
- Proof of control. Only an administrator of a channel can appoint another administrator. If our bot is in your channel's admin list, an administrator put it there.
- Proof of existence. Once the bot is inside, we ask Telegram directly for the channel and its administrator list — no guesswork, no screenshots.
- An exact subscriber count. The bot reads the count from Telegram itself, so your listing carries a measured number rather than one you typed in.
- Ability to deliver. The engines that publish for you need the bot to be able to post. That is why Post Messages is required, and not membership alone.
- Proof it stayed delivered. Once a placement is live, the bot checks that the post is still there for the full agreed term. That check is what backs your reliability score — and what protects you when the other side is at fault.
Most Paid Promotions formats sell hours at the top of the feed: the ad is the newest post in your channel for that long. Whether you kept that promise is checked by reading your channel's public history back after the window closes — a different mechanism from the bot, so no admin right in the checklist below turns it on or off, and granting or removing one changes nothing about it. Breaching it costs −0.40 reliability and no money. The rules, including why an inconclusive read never penalises you, are on Your reliability score.
The moment the bot is an administrator with the required right, the check passes. There is no waiting period and no human in the loop. The human review that a submitted listing goes through is a separate thing entirely — see Setting up your channel listing.
When verification runs
- When you add a channel — on the Add your channel page, after you press Fetch & preview. The check runs before any details are fetched, so the panel is what you get instead of a preview.
- When a cross-promotion needs a channel — pasting a channel link into a cross-promotion create or join flow runs the identical gate.
- When you submit a listing for review — pressing Submit for review in the setup wizard re-runs the check. If the bot was removed since you added the channel, the panel comes back and the submission is held.
- On the other engines — Paid Promotions listings and Subscriber Exchange enrolment run their own version of the same panel.
Enrolling a channel in the Subscriber Exchange additionally requires Delete Messages at the door, because the exchange promises advertisers that a hosted placement comes down on schedule and the bot cannot keep that promise without it. Give it everywhere: every engine's bot now removes the posts it publishes when their runs end, so a channel without Delete Messages cannot honour a booking's end. The panel always shows exactly which rights the surface you are on needs.
The panel, piece by piece
The panel is headed Add our bot to verify your channel. Its opening line is either the server's specific failure message, or — when there is no specific failure to report — "To confirm your channel exists and go live, add our bot to it as an administrator with the rights below. We verify instantly — no waiting."
Below that:
- The bot's
@username, as a chip with a Copy button beside it, in case you prefer to add the bot by hand from inside Telegram. - The rights checklist, one row per right, each with a short reason. A required right that is missing is marked with an exclamation mark; a right the bot already holds gets a green tick; an optional right that has not been granted gets a plus.
- ➕ Add @… as admin — a one-tap Telegram deep link. It opens Telegram, lets you pick which of your channels to add the bot to, and pre-selects the exact admin toggles we ask for, so you only have to confirm.
- I've done it — check again — press this after adding the bot. It shows a brief "Checking…" state and then updates the panel with the result.
The rights we ask for
| Right | Required? | Why we ask |
|---|---|---|
| Post Messages | Required | So the bot can publish the sponsored / cross-promo post |
| Edit Messages | Recommended | So the bot can fix or refresh a post it published |
| Delete Messages | Required for delivery | The bot removes every post it publishes when the placement ends — without this right it cannot honour the end of a run |
Those three, in that order, are the whole checklist — the panel renders from the same list.
If your Telegram account is the creator of the channel, Telegram treats you as holding every right implicitly, and the check passes on that basis.
If you have gone looking for one, that is why you could not find it. can_pin_messages is a groups and supergroups right; Telegram's Bot API does not report it for a channel at all, and the channel admin screen does not offer it.
In a channel, pinning is granted by "Edit Messages of Others" — one of the three switches inside Manage Messages. Turn Manage Messages on with all three of its switches and the bot can post, edit, delete and pin.
That is what the platform checks when you switch a pin product on in your rate card. If the bot cannot pin, the save is refused and names the toggle to grant. If the check cannot run at all — Telegram unreachable — the save is allowed through, because refusing your edit over our own outage is the worse mistake.
Telegram treats posting and pinning as two separate rights, and a channel can post perfectly well and still be unable to pin — which is exactly why the check runs at the moment you switch the extra on rather than at publish. A pin that our own auto-post then failed to apply is recorded as a platform fault: the monitor retries the pin instead of counting it against you. What you are still left with is an extra a buyer paid for and did not get.
What the check verifies
| Check | What it means |
|---|---|
| The channel is reachable | Telegram answers for the handle you pasted |
| It really is a channel | Groups and personal accounts are rejected — only channels can be verified |
| Our bot is an administrator | The bot appears in the channel's administrator list |
| The bot holds every required right | In practice, Post Messages and Delete Messages must both be switched on |
| You are an administrator | Only when your Telegram account is linked to Onflow Ads — then your Telegram user must also be in the admin list, so nobody can register a channel they do not control |
The "you are an administrator" arm of the check only runs for accounts linked to a Telegram user. Linking is required anyway to get past the onboarding gate, and it also unlocks Telegram DM notifications — see Connecting your Telegram.
Where each piece of information comes from
Verification and data collection are two different jobs done by two different systems, and knowing which is which explains why a channel sometimes arrives with gaps.
| Detail on your channel | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Exact subscriber count | The bot, from Telegram directly |
| Title and description | The public preview; the bot fills either one in if the preview left it blank |
| Avatar | The public preview, with the bot's copy used only when there is no other source |
| Average views | The public preview |
| Average reactions and forwards | The public preview |
| Engagement rate, media mix, recent posts | The public preview |
If the public preview cannot be read but the bot can see the channel, the channel is still added — with the bot's title, description and exact subscriber count, and with average views, engagement, media mix and recent posts left empty. Those fill in later, when the preview becomes readable again. You will notice it as a channel whose row shows a subscriber count but no "avg views".
Every result message, decoded
| Message you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "We couldn't find that channel. Add @… to your channel as an administrator, then try again." | The handle is wrong, the channel does not exist, or the bot has not been added yet — Telegram will not show us a channel the bot cannot see | Check the handle, add the bot, check again |
| "Only public Telegram channels can be verified — that looks like a group or user." | You pasted a group or a personal profile | Paste the channel's public link instead |
| "Add @… to your channel as an administrator (with “Post Messages” and “Delete Messages”), then verify again." | The bot is in the channel but not as an administrator | Promote the bot to administrator with both rights |
| "@… is an admin but is missing the “Delete Messages” right. Turn it on in the channel's admin settings, then verify again." | The bot is an administrator, but a required toggle is off. The message names exactly the right (or rights) missing — “Post Messages”, “Delete Messages”, or both | Edit the bot's admin rights and switch on the right(s) named |
| "You must be an administrator of this channel to list it. Add yourself as an admin, then verify again." | Your linked Telegram account is not in the channel's admin list | Have the channel's owner add you as an administrator, then check again |
| "We couldn't reach Telegram from our server right now. Please try again in a moment." | A temporary connectivity problem on our side | Wait a moment and retry — nothing you did was wrong |
After verification passes
- On the Add your channel page the panel disappears and the preview card appears with the green Public channel found badge, and Continue to setup takes you into the wizard.
- On Submit for review, the submission goes through and the channel enters the moderation queue.
- Your subscriber count comes from Telegram through the bot, so the figure on your channel is exact rather than estimated.
Keep the bot in your channel
Verification is not a one-off hoop:
- Removing the bot later makes the next check fail. You will not be able to submit a listing, and the engines that publish through the bot cannot deliver into your channel.
- Turning off Post Messages has exactly the same effect as removing the bot.
- Removing it while a placement is live reads as the placement being cut short, because the check that proves the post is still up stops being possible. That costs reliability — the penalty for a post removed early is −1.50. Let anything live finish first.
- The bot never posts in your channel on its own. It publishes only the placements you accept through the engines.
FAQ
Can I verify a private channel?
No. Only channels with a public @username and t.me link can be verified. Private channels have no public page to read, and +invite and joinchat links are rejected before the check even runs.
The deep-link button opened Telegram but my channel is not in the list
Telegram only offers channels where your account has the right to add administrators. If yours is missing, your account either is not an administrator there or lacks the "Add New Admins" permission.
I added the bot but the check still fails
Give Telegram a few seconds to register the change, then press I've done it — check again. If it still fails, confirm you added the bot to the channel itself rather than to its linked discussion group, and that Post Messages is on.
Does the bot see my subscribers or my messages?
No. It uses its administrator position to confirm the channel, read its public details and exact subscriber count, publish the placements you accept, and check that those placements stayed up. Telegram does not hand a bot a subscriber list, and it never messages your subscribers privately. Granting only the rights in the checklist is enough. The full commitment is in the Privacy Policy.
Related
- Adding a channel — where the check runs first
- Setting up your channel listing — where it runs again, at submit
- What the bot checks — the same gate, described from the bot's side
- Your reliability score — what the delivery checks feed
Next: Setting up your channel listing — the three-step wizard, and what review actually decides.