Close access to a message on a timer
How to make a Telegram funnel delete the message with the "Watch video" button after a day and close its link, and why the timer has to be shorter than 48 hours.
A Telegram funnel can take back a message it sent: delete it from the chat and close the link button inside it. This is how you give access "for a day": if the person hasn't opened the video within 24 hours, the message is gone and the saved link shows "Access to this link is closed".
How it works#
- The Action step has a "Delete message" type. In it you pick a step of the same funnel whose message should be deleted.
- When the funnel reaches the action, the bot deletes that message in the person's chat. An album and an article message are deleted in full.
- Link buttons of the deleted message stop opening: instead of your address the person sees the page "Access to this link is closed". The funnel doesn't continue on such a tap, and no tags are applied.
- If the person goes through the funnel again and receives the message once more, the link works for them again — until the next deletion.
Telegram only.
What you need#
- A Telegram funnel with a message that has a link button.
- About five minutes.
Step 1. The link button: "Tracked", with a tag#
Open the message with the video, click the button and choose the "Link" action. Under the address, select "Tracked" (the mode where taps go through Craft). Below, in "Assign tags on click", enter a tag — for example opened video. The funnel will use it to tell who tapped the button.
🔴 A "Direct" button's link can't be closed. Such a button carries your address as is: the message gets deleted, but anyone who saved the link can still open it. When the action points at a step with a button like that, the builder warns you right in the panel.
Step 2. The timer#
From the dot in the bottom-right corner of the message ("continue without waiting for a tap") draw an arrow to a Delay step and set 24 hours.
🔴 The delay has to be shorter than 48 hours. Telegram lets a bot delete its own message only while it is less than 48 hours old. After that the message stays in the chat, and its link button stops opening.
Step 3. The check: tapped or not#
After the delay, add a Condition step → "Assigned tags" and pick the tag from step 1. Lead the "No" branch on to the deletion. The "Yes" branch can stay empty: people who opened the video keep the message.
Step 4. The "Delete message" action#
Add an Action step and choose "Delete message". In "Which message to delete" pick the step with the video.
Step 5. The "Access closed" message#
After the action, add a regular message — for example: "Access to the video is closed. Send the keyword again and I'll send it once more."
How to check that it works#
- Temporarily set the delay to 1 minute and turn the funnel on.
- Send the bot your keyword from your own account. When the message arrives, copy the button's link (long-press the button → "Copy link") but don't tap the button itself.
- A minute later the message should disappear, followed by "Access closed".
- Open the copied link in a browser — you should see the page "Access to this link is closed", not the video.
- Go through the funnel again and tap the button. A minute later the message should still be there.
- Set the delay back to 24 hours.
If it doesn't work#
| What you see | Cause and what to do |
|---|---|
| The message wasn't deleted although the action ran | More than 48 hours have passed since it was sent — Telegram no longer lets the bot delete it. Shorten the delay. The link button is closed anyway. |
| The message wasn't deleted although less than 48 hours have passed | The person received it before the "Delete message" action appeared in the funnel. Craft only remembers message numbers from that moment on: for everyone who receives the message later it will work. |
| The message was deleted, but the link still opens the video | The button is in "Direct" mode. Switch it to "Tracked". This won't help messages already sent — they carry the direct address. |
| The message was also deleted for people who opened the video | There is no tag check before the deletion (step 3), or the button has no tag on click (step 1). |
| A person says the video still opens for them | They opened it earlier and kept the YouTube link itself. Craft can't close that — see below. |
| "Delete message" isn't in the list of actions | This is an Instagram funnel. The action exists only in Telegram. |
What's not there yet#
- Instagram. A bot can't delete a message it has sent there, so Instagram funnels don't have this action.
- Messages older than 48 hours can't be deleted — that's a Telegram limit.
- The video link itself keeps working. Craft closes its own button, not the video. If the person has already opened the video, the YouTube address stays with them — in the browser history or in the app. To make the video impossible to open at all, restrict access where it is hosted.
- Only messages of Message and Question steps are deleted. Payment buttons from a Payment step can't be removed with this action.
- Own funnel only. The action deletes a message of a step from the same funnel it sits in.
Through the MCP connector an AI assistant can set this action up for you — ask, for example: "after a day, delete the video message for people who haven't opened it".
Button modes are covered in Link buttons in a funnel.