Link buttons in a funnel — through Craft or direct
How to make a button in a Telegram funnel open a bot, channel or another funnel's step right away, with no browser, and what stops working when you do.
How it works#
A link button in a Telegram funnel message has two modes, just like broadcast buttons.
- With stats: the tap goes through Craft. We count it on the funnel map, apply click tags, run the action and send the person on to your link. The downside: a Telegram link first opens in the built-in browser instead of going straight to the bot or channel.
- Direct puts your link into the button as is. Telegram opens
t.me,telegram.meand@namelinks right inside the app, with no browser.
🔴 On a "Direct" button, click tags, the action on tap and click counting don't work: the tap doesn't go through Craft, so we never hear about it. If you need tags, keep "With stats" or set the tag on the next funnel step.
💡 Buttons created before September 13 work as before: without tags or an action they open directly, and the panel shows them as "Direct". To see their taps, choose "With stats".
How to choose the mode#
- Open the funnel in the builder and click the button in a message.
- In the panel on the right, choose the "Link" action and paste the address.
- A "With stats / Direct" choice sits under the address field from the start. Pick the one you want — even before you paste the link.
🔴 Paste the link in full: https://t.me/your_bot, t.me/your_bot or @your_bot. The editor highlights a broken direct link in red, and when sending we still route it through Craft — otherwise Telegram would reject the whole message.
A button that leads to another funnel's step#
- In the same panel, click "Funnel step".
- Pick a funnel, then a step or "From the start".
The button gets that step's link and its mode switches to "Direct". The person taps it and the bot sends the chosen step.
⚠️ A funnel that's turned off doesn't start from a link — it's marked in the list, so turn it on.
🔴 A step link skips everything before that step — tags, actions, conditions. If the funnel later picks a branch by a tag the person normally gets earlier (say, a price tag before payment), someone arriving by the link won't have it and will take a different branch: the message says $49, but the invoice is for $35. Set the tag on the step itself — an arrow from its button to an "Action" with that tag. When this risk exists, the builder warns about it under "Link to this step" and in the step list.
In an Instagram funnel the same button is called "Insert Telegram funnel link": it takes the person from Instagram to your Telegram bot at the chosen step. Instagram buttons have no "Direct" choice — Instagram opens links in its built-in browser anyway.
If it doesn't work#
| What you see | Cause and what to do |
|---|---|
| A Telegram link opens in the browser | The button is set to "With stats" and has tags, an action or click counting. Choose "Direct". |
| The tag wasn't applied on tap | The button is set to "Direct". Switch back to "With stats" or set the tag on the next step. |
| The step button doesn't start anything | The funnel is turned off. Turn it on. |
| Someone who came by a step link got the wrong price or branch | The link skipped a tag that's set before the step. Set it on the step itself with an "Action". |
| The link field is highlighted in red | The address is incomplete or has a space in it. Paste it in full. |
Button order and how many you can add#
Click the message — in the right panel every button has Move up / Move down arrows to move it. Button links, tags and click stats stay intact when you reorder.
In Telegram and VK a message can have up to 6 buttons, in Instagram up to 3. Claude or ChatGPT can reorder buttons and add up to 6 too: just ask, for example, “put ‘Watch video’ first”.
Go to a step after the tap#
Drag an arrow from the link button to any step of the funnel. The tap then doesn't just open the link — it also continues the funnel from that step.
Example: a "▶️ Watch the video" button opens YouTube, and its arrow leads to a 5-minute wait and then "Finished watching?". The timer starts from the actual tap, not from when the message arrived. Send dozhims to people who didn't tap with the message's regular arrow (the bottom-right one).
- Once they tap, this funnel's scheduled follow-ups are cancelled — no "you still haven't opened the video".
- Tapping again doesn't repeat the step. If someone goes through the funnel again and gets this message again, the tap works again.
- A click tag and the arrow work together: you can tag the person and start the step.
- An arrow to an Action block works as before: the action runs on tap.
- YouTube links on a phone first try to open the YouTube app, then fall back to the website.
🔴 The button must be in "With stats" mode. A "Direct" button bypasses Craft — neither the tag nor the step will fire.
💡 A button that goes through Craft can be closed on a timer: the funnel deletes the message, and the link from it stops opening. How to build it: Close access to a message on a timer.