How to connect and use it
What you need
- Telegram and WhatsApp on the same phone, with the same number.
- For the satellite connection: an Android smartphone with 4G, a Kyivstar SIM card with the "Ye Zviazok" package, and data roaming switched on. The terms of the package and the phones that fit are on the site of Kyivstar. Over a satellite an iPhone has only SMS for now, so WhatsApp does not help there.
Connecting, in advance
- Open the Afargram bot in WhatsApp and write "start". Your WhatsApp number must be the number your Telegram belongs to: Afargram connects only the account of your own number.
- The bot gives a link. Open it in a browser and press "Send me the code": Telegram sends a login code to the Telegram app on your other devices.
- Enter the code, and your cloud password if Telegram has one.
- Telegram tells you about a new login: device "Afargram server", location the Netherlands. That is the server of Afargram.
- The page shows a code of six digits. Send it to the bot within 10 minutes: only then is your Telegram connected. Without the code the session ends by itself.
If no code comes, the page may offer to send it another way, such as an SMS. A link works for 15 minutes; "connect" gives a new one.
Never give anybody your login code or the code of the page, and do not open a link to connect that somebody else sent you: that person would get your Telegram. If it happened, press "End the session" on the page.
Using it over a satellite
- Go out under the open sky and wait for the satellite connection.
- Write "start" to the bot: it sends what you missed.
- From then on the bot sends new private messages, the posts of important channels and what concerns you in groups on its own.
The link is narrow, so the bot sends at most one message a minute, and photos only on request. WhatsApp lets a bot write to you for a day after your last message, so write something to it now and then. When a message has more buttons than fit under it, they are in a list that one button opens.
Commands
start | begin, and what you missed |
chats | private chats |
channels | channels; mark a channel as important here |
groups | groups |
search and a query | find channels, groups and people |
settings | whether photos come on their own, and the language of the bot |
status | your trial or paid time |
pay, stop paying | pay; stop the monthly charge |
privacy, my data | what Afargram keeps; a copy of your data |
stop | disconnect Telegram and delete your data |
ukrainian | the bot in Ukrainian; it speaks Ukrainian unless you choose English with english |
help | the list of commands |
To answer, press "Reply" under a message, or open a chat and simply write. A text with no chat open is sent nowhere.
How to disconnect
Write "stop" to the bot and confirm: the session in Telegram is ended and your data deleted. Or end the session "Afargram server" in Telegram: Settings → Devices.