# WhatsApp and Telegram: talk to it like you text a person. Source: https://www.onsecondbrain.com/guide/messaging Language: en Spanish version: https://www.onsecondbrain.com/guide/messaging.es.md --- The fastest way to get something into your workspace. What you write goes into today's note, voice notes are transcribed right there, a forwarded audio becomes a recap, and images go to Files. You can also ask what is due today, create a task or search what you saved — without opening the app. Telegram is on every plan; WhatsApp, on the Pro plan. ## Capturing ### Hooking it up: two minutes, once It starts in the app and it is confirmed from the chat. Two ends on purpose: a single proof is not enough to let a chat write into your workspace. ![If the chat and the app are on the same phone, the link the bot replies with does all three steps in one tap.](https://www.onsecondbrain.com/ai/diagrams/enrolar.en.svg) _If the chat and the app are on the same phone, the link the bot replies with does all three steps in one tap._ 1. **You open the chat from the app** — In Account settings → Messaging there is a button per channel that opens the conversation with the message already typed — on Telegram, with the Start button. If you are on another device, the bot's number or handle is right there to look it up by hand. 2. **You write it anything** — Sending the message that comes already typed is enough. You do not have to enter your number or anything else up front: the bot replies with a link and with an eight-character code that expires in fifteen minutes. 3. **You tap the link, or paste the code** — The link links by itself, with nothing to type. The code is for whoever wrote from another device: paste it into the app and that is it. It travels through the chat and never over the web, because it is what proves the conversation is yours. > **What you choose once it is linked** > > Where it writes: if you have more than one workspace, you pick one. Notes, tasks and whatever the assistant does land there. > > Where it can look things up: that one can span several. Reading has no ambiguity; writing does, which is why it is a single one. To check it is working, four messages: - **Write it one line** — "Ana from Acme called, they want the proposal on Friday." Open the app: it is in today's note, with the chat's icon at the start of the line. - **Send it today** — It replies with what is due today and what is overdue. It is the most used command, and the quickest proof that the link went through. - **Record it a voice note** — It transcribes itself into the daily note. The fastest way to capture while walking — Hobby and up. - **Ask it for a reminder** — "recordame en dos minutos probar esto". It pings you two minutes later, and you get to see which way it reaches you. From the phone it is the same errand, in More → Settings → Chats: see Mobile app. ![The WhatsApp linking screen in the mobile app, with the button that opens the chat and the bot's number](https://www.onsecondbrain.com/screens/guide/phone-chats.png) _Linking on the phone: the button opens the conversation with the message already typed, and the bot's number sits right below for looking it up by hand._ ### What you send, where it lands The default behaviour is to save, not to reply. If you write something that is not a request, it saves it — because losing something you thought you saved is far more expensive than one extra message. ![The four doors of the channel. Recording is dictating and forwarding is wanting to know what it says without listening: two different things, and that is why they end up in different places.](https://www.onsecondbrain.com/ai/diagrams/canal.en.svg) _The four doors of the channel. Recording is dictating and forwarding is wanting to know what it says without listening: two different things, and that is why they end up in different places._ - An attachment can be converted: the bot offers to keep it as a file or to process it so it enters your memory as a document. - Audio, images and files are Hobby and up. Text is on every plan: send an attachment without that plan and the bot says so, and still saves whatever you wrote with it. - Everything that lands in the daily note follows the same path as what you type in the app: detection, day close, tasks. ![Dictating to the WhatsApp bot and getting the created task back](https://www.onsecondbrain.com/screens/loops/whatsapp.jpg) _A voice note or a message: dictate it to the bot and it answers with the task created._ ### A link or an email: saved as a clip Send it a link and it does not end up as a loose line in your note: it is saved as a clip, with the page already fetched, read and classified — the same thing the Web Clipper does from the browser. - It counts as a link when it comes alone, or with a short phrase around it — "look at this". A long paragraph that happens to mention a link is something else: that is a note and it goes to the daily note. What separates them is how much of your own text is around it. - Sharing an email from your phone's mail client sends the forwarding block as plain text, and the bot recognizes it: saved as an email clip, with the original sender and subject. - The bot replies right away with the title it ended up with and the link to open it in Memory → Clips. - The same link sent twice updates the clip, it does not duplicate it. An email shared twice does come in twice: chat does not carry the message identifier, so there is nothing to recognize it by. If what you want is for the newsletter to come in on its own, without going through chat, your workspace also has its own email address. [Clips by email and by extension](/guide/clipper) ### Forwarded audio: the summary of what people sent you Somebody sent you three two-minute voice notes in another chat. You do not want to keep them: you want to know what they say. Forward them to the bot and what comes back is the summary — a recap with its transcript, not a line in your note. You do not have to tell it anything: WhatsApp and Telegram both flag forwarded messages, and the bot reads that flag. ![Every reply tells you how many audios it holds and how long they run: it is the only way to know you can still add another.](https://www.onsecondbrain.com/ai/diagrams/ventana.en.svg) _Every reply tells you how many audios it holds and how long they run: it is the only way to know you can still add another._ - The bot replies right away that it is building a recap rather than saving it into the note, with the title it took from the first sentences. - From the last audio to the summary is a couple of minutes: the ninety seconds it waits in case you send another, plus whatever the summary takes. It arrives through the same chat, with the link to open the whole recap. - Whatever you write along with the audio does not enter the transcript: it stays as the recap's notes. It is your context — "this is from the Acme meeting" — not something anybody said. - It is Hobby and up, and it transcribes just like a voice note: the same duration and hours caps apply. - Audio only. A forwarded image or file follows the usual path and lands in Files. - If the summary fails, the link still arrives: the full transcript is there in the recap. What comes out is a recap like any other: action items that turn into tasks, Atlas entities, and your workspace search. [How recaps work](/guide/recaps) ## Reminders and events ### Reminders: being told when the moment comes Tell it "recordame mañana a las 9 llamar al contador" and at nine the alert reaches you. There is no format to learn: it understands clock times —a las 3, 15:30, 8 de la noche— and relative ones —en un minuto, en dos horas, dentro de 3 días. The bot reads Spanish, so reminders are asked for in Spanish. What you asked for lands in three places at once, and all three matter: - **In today's note** — As a line with its time: ⏰ 15:30 — llamar al contador. It is what you see when you review the day, and it is the source of truth: delete the line and the alert is cancelled. - **As a task with a time** — With its due date and the clock beside it, among all your tasks. A reminder is not just another task: a task is due on a day, a reminder happens at an hour. - **And the alert, right then** — At the time you asked for, even with everything closed. If the task is already done, it stays quiet. Write recordatorios and it lists the ones still waiting, grouped by day. You can also write them straight into the daily note, from the web or the phone, and they work the same: see Daily notes. ### Turn on your phone notifications A reminder that does not go off is not a reminder. The alert goes out through the first path that can carry it, and the first on the list is the phone notification: it does not depend on your plan, it has no window that closes, and it goes off where you are, with everything shut. ![Cost decides the order: the notification never charges, and WhatsApp is free only within 24 hours of your last message.](https://www.onsecondbrain.com/ai/diagrams/avisos.en.svg) _Cost decides the order: the notification never charges, and WhatsApp is free only within 24 hours of your last message._ 1. **Install the app** — iPhone, Android, Mac or Windows, with the same account. They are all in Downloads. 2. **Accept the permission** — The system asks once, the first time you come in. If you said no, see what to do. 3. **You pick what you want** — On the phone, in More → Settings → Alerts; on the computer, in Account settings → Notifications. You choose by type of alert, not by channel: see Settings. > **And if you do not have the app** > > The reminder works the same on every plan: what changes is the way out. With no app the alert looks for the chat, and the bot writing to you first is Hobby and up. > > So on the free plan the alert arrives by email and in the app's notification bell. With notifications on, it arrives free on any plan. > > The confirmation the bot sends when you create the reminder says where it will ring, and it names the devices you actually have registered: "on your phone", "on your desktop", or both. With none registered it says it goes by email and offers you the app — and if you already have it on your phone, it does not repeat itself. It does not name the chat: the alert belongs to the app. [Notifications in the mobile app](/guide/mobile#notificaciones) ### Events: blocking out part of the day Tell it "agendame un evento mañana de 9 a 10 llamado kickoff" and it lands in your calendar. It is not a task and not a reminder, and the difference matters: a task is due on a day, a reminder happens at an hour, and an event takes up a stretch —from one time to another—. It reads the range the way people say it: de 2 a 3, entre las 14 y las 15, de 9 a 10:30, de 2 de la mañana a 3 de la mañana. Say only when it starts and it lasts an hour; say how long —a las 15 por media hora— and it uses that. Say the day and no time at all and it becomes an all-day event. The bot reads Spanish, so events are asked for in Spanish. > **It lands in the Secondbrain calendar** > > The event is created local, in the "Secondbrain events" layer, the one that is on by default on the web and on your phone. > > To have it show up in Google or Outlook too, open it in the app and pick the calendar: invitations are sent by the connected calendar, and from a chat there is no way to choose which of yours it should go to. The confirmation comes with an undo button, which is exactly what you need when you asked by voice and it heard a different time. [How the calendar works](/guide/calendar) ## How it understands you ### The commands Type them or tap them: there is a drop-down menu with the same options, and tapping a row does exactly what typing it does. | Command | What it does | | --- | --- | | today | What is due today and what is overdue | | tomorrow | What is due tomorrow | | pending | All your open tasks | | week | What is due over the next seven days, grouped by day | | agenda | Today's calendar events, with their times | | task … | Creates a task. "task send Acme the proposal Friday" parses the due date from the text | | recordame … | A reminder with a time: "recordame mañana a las 15:30 llamar al contador". It pings you right then | | reminders | The alerts still waiting, grouped by day | | colgados | What is slipping: overdue or stalled tasks and promises nobody moved | | evento … | Puts an event in your calendar: "evento mañana de 9 a 10 kickoff". From one time to another — not a task | | done … | Completes the task that best matches. If several are close, it lets you pick | | doc … | Creates a document with whatever you send. Write it over several lines and the first one is the title | | search … | Searches your whole workspace: notes, documents, recaps and tasks | | note … | Explicitly saves into today's note | | recap | The workspace's latest recap, with its action items | | who … | The Atlas card for a person, client or project, with their open tasks | | digest | The latest report for the period | | ? / preguntar … | Asks the assistant about your own material | | help | The menu with all of the above | On Telegram they autocomplete with the slash; on WhatsApp the tappable menu shows the ten most used ones — that is WhatsApp's limit — and the rest still work typed. The first time you open the chat, four starter shortcuts show up as well. The ones that take no argument are commands only on their own: if you write "today I called Juan", that is a note and it is saved as one. Same with done: if it does not match any of your tasks, it goes into your daily note instead of getting lost. ### How it knows whether you are talking to it or to yourself The real problem with this channel: "tomorrow search for the Acme contract" is a note, not a search. Telling those apart well is what makes the bot usable. 1. **Known phrases first** — "today", "task…", "recordame…" and their relatives are recognized instantly, and they cover most cases. 2. **Then the AI** — If no known phrase matches, the AI decides what your message looks like, and nothing else: no reply you read is written by it. 3. **When in doubt, it saves** — On a tie, the note wins. A misdetected "today" costs one extra message and you see it instantly; a misdetected capture loses something you believed you saved, and you never find out. ### The assistant, and confirmations With a leading ? you ask the assistant about your own workspace: "where did we land with Acme?", "what did I promise Ana?". It answers with your material, not with general knowledge. > **What the assistant wants to write, it asks first** > > If the answer to a question implies writing something — creating a task, changing something — the bot shows you what it is about to do and waits for a tap to confirm. Commands that create something — a task, a reminder, an event — are done right away instead, and come with an undo button. > > Tasks that detection proposed can also be dismissed from chat, with a button on the message itself. ### Limits and privacy - There is a cap on the messages per month you send the bot, WhatsApp and Telegram combined; how many, by plan, is on Pricing. Yours count, its replies do not, and it resets on the first day of the month. - Assistant questions also have a daily cap. - Everything else respects the same plan limits as the app: messaging the bot is not a way around them. - There are duration and size caps per attachment, and the bot tells you plainly if you go over. - The bot only writes into your workspace: it neither reads nor touches anything from another account. - Unlinking cuts access instantly and deletes that conversation's history; what you already saved stays. ### Integrations Both are official channels: you use them from the chat app you already have, with nothing to install. - **WhatsApp** — Through the official WhatsApp Business API. Tappable menu, autocompleted commands and starter shortcuts. - **Telegram** — Official bot with autocompleted commands, buttons and files up to the limit Telegram sets.