What a participating channel gets
Before walking through how channels join, here's what an owner actually receives by joining your network:
- A pinned message at the top of their channel every cycle, listing all the bracket-mates in their bracket
- Their channel name appearsin every bracket-mate's pinned message — symmetric cross-promotion
- Auto-rotation — the new pin replaces the previous one, so the channel only ever has one pinned promo
- No manual posting work. The owner does nothing after joining and approval.
That's the deal you're offering owners. Frame your network around it.
How channels join your list
There are three ways a channel can end up in your daily cycles. Most operators use the forwarding flow exclusively — it scales, it's self-service, and it works on mobile.
Forward a message
A channel owner forwards any message from their channel to your bot. The bot reads the forwarded message's metadata to identify the channel, member count, and ownership.
Owner finds a message in their channel
Any post will do — recent ones are best so the member count is current.
Owner forwards it to your bot
Long-press the message → Forward → search your bot's username → send.
Bot identifies and reports back
The bot tells the owner exactly what bracket the channel falls into and what happens next.
Add your bot to the channel
Optional but recommended: the owner adds your bot as an admin of their channel. This lets us:
- Read member count automatically (more accurate)
- Detect if the channel goes private or gets deleted
- Send updates to the owner via DM if needed
Admin rights can be read-only — your bot doesn't need to post anything in their channel.
Direct invite from dashboard
From your dashboard you can paste a channel link or username and add it manually. This skips the forwarding step but means you don't have implicit consent from the owner — use it for channels you own or have been explicitly asked to add.
Approval process
What happens after a join request depends on your approval mode.
Auto-approve mode
Requests are accepted instantly if they meet your minimum requirements:
- Channel is publicly accessible
- Member count is above your floor (default: 100)
- Channel age is above your floor (default: 7 days)
- Not on your block list
Manual review mode
Every request lands in the Requests topic of your supergroup with a message like:
@username requested to add Channel Name (12,345 members). Approve / Reject?
Tap one of the inline buttons. The owner gets a DM with the outcome.
Rejecting requests
When you reject, you can optionally type a reason. The reason is forwarded to the owner as a polite, branded DM — no need to write the rejection yourself.
Bracket assignment
Channels are sorted into brackets based on their current member count, refreshed daily before each publication.
Auto-assignment
We pull the latest member count from Telegram and place the channel in the bracket whose range contains it. As a channel grows or shrinks across cycles, it moves automatically.
Manual override
From a channel's detail page in the dashboard, you can pin it to a specific bracket regardless of size. Useful for:
- Featured channels (always show in “Whale”)
- Slow-growing flagships you want to highlight
- Sponsored placements
Pinning is reversible — unset the override to return to auto-assignment.
Re-bracketing schedule
Every channel's bracket is re-evaluated before each daily publication. If a channel doubled its members yesterday, your list today reflects that.
Channel limits
Channel caps depend on your plan:
- Trial — 50 channels per bot
- Starter — 200 channels per bot
- Pro — unlimited channels per bot
- Agency — unlimited channels per bot
What happens at the limit
New join requests are still accepted, but they sit in a waitlist and don't appear in publications. You can:
- Remove inactive channels to free slots
- Upgrade your plan to raise the cap
- Reject the waitlist with one click
We notify you when you hit 90% so you can decide before the queue forms.
Managing existing channels
Editing channel info
From the channel detail page you can update:
- Display name override (rare — defaults to the Telegram name)
- Notes (internal, only visible to you)
- Bracket override (see above)
- Featured flag (boosts to the top of its bracket)
Removing channels
Two ways to remove a channel:
- Soft-remove — paused, can be re-added with one click. Use this for owners taking a break.
- Hard-remove — deleted from your list, owner must request again. Use this for ToS violations.
Bulk operations
On the channels list page, multi-select rows to:
- Move to a specific bracket
- Soft-remove together
- Export to CSV
- Tag (for filtering)
Channel statuses
- Active — in good standing, appears in publications
- Pending review — awaiting your approval (manual mode only)
- Inactive (lost admin)— bot can't read member count anymore (see below)
- Paused — soft-removed, owner can re-request
- Removed — hard-removed, no longer in your data
Bot loses admin access
If a channel owner removes your bot from their channel, we detect it within 24 hours and mark the channel as inactive. The next publication skips it.
Recovery flow
Channel owner communication
Owners who DM your bot get auto-routed to a dedicated topic in your supergroup. One topic per owner, named after their username — so a 1:1 conversation history is preserved even if multiple owners DM at once.
Replies from your supergroup are forwarded back to the owner as if they came from your bot. Your team can handle support from Telegram itself, without leaving for the dashboard.