automationeventstechnical

Event Automation: Replacing Horizon Workrooms with Telegram-First Workflows

ttelegrams

2026-02-01

11 min read

Replace Workrooms with Telegram-first event automation: registrations, reminders, recordings and AI-driven post-event assets — step-by-step technical guide.

Hook: Your VR meeting pipeline just vanished — build a Telegram-first replacement that actually saves time

Meta discontinued Horizon Workrooms as a standalone product on February 16, 2026. If you ran registrations, reminders, or asset delivery inside Workrooms, you need a replacement that lets you keep attendees, automate touchpoints, and repurpose recordings — without rebuilding everything from scratch. This guide gives a practical, technical blueprint to replace Horizon Workrooms with Telegram-first event workflows using bots, webhooks, and common integrations.

The 2026 context — why Telegram-first makes sense now

Late 2025 and early 2026 accelerated two trends that matter to event organizers and creators:

Major VR and managed services consolidations. Meta's closure of the standalone Workrooms app (Feb 16, 2026) and reduced Reality Labs investment forced many teams to export attendee lists, recordings, and schedules quickly.
Messaging platforms consolidating creator tools. Telegram continued to expand channel live streaming, large file delivery, bot APIs and deep linking, making it a reliable low-friction distribution layer for live and recorded events.

Meta announced discontinuation of the standalone Workrooms app on February 16, 2026, shifting focus toward Horizon apps and wearables.

For creators and publishers, Telegram offers three practical advantages in 2026: high deliverability and discoverability for audience-first communication, a mature Bot API for automation, and native support for large binary assets and live broadcast links.

How to think about an event automation architecture

Replace a monolithic VR tool with a modular automation stack that separates: attendee capture, payments/ticketing, event delivery, reminders/scheduling, recordings/transcripts, and analytics. Each piece can be automated and orchestrated by a Telegram bot plus integration middleware.

Core components (high-level)

Front door: Landing page with Telegram Login Widget or deep links (t.me/YourBot?start=event123)
Bot: Telegram bot handles registration, ticketing confirmation, reminders, gated asset delivery and in-channel interaction
Backend: Webhook receiver, database (Postgres/Airtable), job scheduler (cron, queue), and integrations (Stripe, YouTube/RTMP, OpenAI/Whisper)
Automation layer: Zapier/Make/n8n/Pipedream or a serverless orchestration for cross-service events
Storage & delivery: S3-compatible storage (AWS, Wasabi), CDN, then send via Telegram (sendDocument/sendMediaGroup) or private links
Analytics: UTM tracking, Airtable/Metabase, channel metrics

Step-by-step technical blueprint

Options, in order of friction (lowest first):

Telegram deep link — use t.me/YourBot?start=event123 to route signups into the bot flow. Users must click in Telegram, so they’re already within your distribution channel.
Telegram Login Widget — embed on landing pages for users who arrive by web. The widget returns a verified Telegram user ID and basic profile (username, name). Use it to create or match records.
External form (Google Form / Typeform) — only when you need complex fields; wire it to your automation layer to push results into your database and then trigger a Telegram message with a deep link or invite.

Technical tips:

Always store telegram_user_id as canonical identifier. It enables direct messaging without email.
Use start payloads (e.g., ?start=event123_sourceX) to track UTM-like sources per attendee.
If you accept payments, create a provisional record and mark status pending until Stripe/PayPal webhook confirms.

2) Payment & ticketing (optional)

Two common approaches:

Telegram Payments — Telegram supports payments via bot in some regions. This is the lowest-friction option if available for your location and provider.
External checkout — Stripe Checkout or PayPal link. After payment success webhook, call your bot API to deliver a ticket and confirmation message.

Workflow example (external checkout):

User clicks buy → redirected to Stripe Checkout
Stripe success webhook hits your backend → mark attendee as paid in DB
Backend calls Telegram Bot API: sendMessage(chat_id, "Your ticket: ...") and sendDocument(ticket.pdf)

3) Delivering tickets and access tokens

Ticket formats and options:

Simple text confirmation with unique code (generated UUID)
QR code image containing a unique URL to attendee portal (generate PNG, upload to S3, deliver via sendPhoto/sendDocument)
Passes as PDF (generate with server-side template engine)

Use the Bot API method sendDocument to deliver PDFs/images. Telegram supports large files — historically up to 2 GB — allowing direct delivery of recordings or full asset bundles later.

4) Automated reminders: schedule and customize

Reminders are the highest-impact automation. Standard cadence:

T-minus 72 hours: preparation checklist
T-minus 24 hours: event reminder + join link
T-minus 1 hour: immediate reminder
10 minutes before: final checkpoint

Implementation patterns:

Server scheduler — queue jobs at registration time with timestamps; worker processes send messages using Bot API at scheduled times.
Middleware scheduling — use Pipedream/Make/Zapier scheduled actions to call sendMessage when triggered.
In-channel pinned messages — post the primary join link to the event channel and pin it; bots with admin rights can update pinned messages if the URL changes.

Message templates (short, actionable):

72h: "Reminder: [Event Title] — resources uploaded: [link]. Need help? Reply here."
24h: "Tomorrow at 11:00 UTC. Join via this link: [join_link]. Save it — we’ll post a final reminder 10 min before."
1h: "Starts in 1 hour. Quick test: open [join_link] and confirm audio/video."

5) Event delivery: streaming, voice chat, or external rooms

Options for live delivery:

Native Telegram live stream — if your channel supports Live Streams, schedule within the channel and share the announcement via the bot. Advantage: attendees stay inside Telegram.
RTMP to YouTube/Custom — stream via OBS to YouTube or a webinar provider, then share the YouTube link in Telegram. This works well if you need multi-feed production tools.
Third-party rooms (Zoom, Meet) — use generated meeting links and post them in the channel and DM through the bot for registered attendees.

Best practice: post the canonical join link to the channel minutes before the event and DM it to registered users. Use an inline keyboard with a single ‘Join Event’ button to reduce click friction.

6) Capture and automate post-event assets

Automate three deliverables immediately after a live session: recording, transcript, and highlights package.

Recording capture: if you streamed to YouTube, use the YouTube API to fetch the video ID once it finishes processing; if local, upload the MP4 to S3 and mark status as ready.
Transcription: send audio/video to an automated transcription pipeline (OpenAI Whisper/other STT) and store the generated VTT/SRT and plain text.
Highlight generation: run an AI summarization model to produce a 90-second summary, 5 key quotes, and 10 social clips timestamps. Optionally use speaker diarization to tag segments.

Delivery strategy:

Send a single post-event package DM with download links (sendDocument for small bundles) and a short summary. For large bundles, send a private S3 link and require a second interaction (button press) to confirm download.
Post an announcement to your channel with a summary and link to the full recording. Gate full downloads via membership level or payments if required.

Integrations & tooling — practical options for 2026

Choose based on skill level:

No-code / low-code: Zapier, Make, or Pipedream for handling webhooks and connecting Stripe, YouTube, Airtable and Telegram. Good for quick setup and iteration.
Pro / custom: Serverless functions (AWS Lambda/Cloud Functions) + Postgres or DynamoDB + Redis queue + n8n or direct webhooks. Gives full control and better rate-limit handling.
AI & transcription: OpenAI Whisper or commercial speech-to-text services; chain to summarization and clip generation using GPT-4o or later family models available in 2026.

Sample architecture diagram (text)

Landing page → Telegram Login / Deep Link → Bot Webhook → DB (Postgres/Airtable) → Payment (Stripe) → Scheduler (cron/queue) → Send messages via Bot API. Post-event: Recording → Transcoding → Storage (S3) → Bot sends assets.

Security, privacy, and compliance

Store the minimal personal data you need. Use telegram_user_id + email only if necessary.
Follow GDPR/CCPA rules for EU/CA attendees — provide export/delete endpoints for user data.
Secure webhooks with signed secrets and verify Stripe/YouTube callbacks before marking an attendee paid or asset-ready.
Be mindful of copyright for recorded sessions — get clear consent during registration and record consent via a checkbox stored in your DB.

Operational pitfalls and how to avoid them

Rate limits — Telegram Bot API has limits on messages per second per bot. Use queues and stagger DMs; use channels for high-volume broadcasts. See best practices for observability and rate handling.
Deliverability — users who registered via email but never joined Telegram won’t receive DM delivery. Always send a fallback email with the join link.
File-size surprises — very large raw recordings may exceed your upload limits; transcode to web-friendly formats before upload. File handling and storage considerations are covered in the Zero-Trust Storage Playbook.
Broken links — pin a canonical link and update it rather than sending multiple, potentially conflicting links.

Automation recipes — ready-to-deploy sequences

Recipe A: Lightweight — No-code (Zapier / Make)

Trigger: Web form submitted or Telegram deep-link event (Make can capture Telegram messages)
Action: Create record in Airtable
Action: Create Stripe Checkout Session (if paid)
Action: On Stripe success webhook, use Make to call Telegram Bot API sendMessage and sendDocument
Scheduler: Use Make’s scheduled module to send reminders at T-72h, T-24h, T-1h

Recipe B: Pro — Serverless + Worker Queue

Landing: Telegram deep link hits your webhook (Express/Lambda). Create attendee in Postgres.
Payment: Create Stripe Checkout; on success, webhook updates attendee row.
Scheduling: Insert reminder jobs to Redis Queue (BullMQ or Sidekiq equivalent). Worker reads queue and calls Telegram Bot API.
Streaming: On-stream-end webhook from YouTube triggers a transcoding job; transcription job posts assets back and a worker notifies attendees with sendDocument/sendMessage.

Message templates & bot flow examples

Registration flow (conversation)

Bot: "Welcome! To register for [Event], tap Confirm." [Inline keyboard: Confirm]
User taps Confirm → bot asks: "What name should we use on your ticket?"
User replies → backend saves name and replies with: "Thanks, [Name]. Your ticket ID is ABC123. You'll get reminders 72h, 24h, and 1h before the event."

Post-event DM template

"Thanks for attending [Event]! Recording and transcript are ready: [download link]. Here are 3 highlights: 1) [quote], 2) [quote], 3) [quote]. Reply 'ASSETS' to get the full assets ZIP."

Case study (example)

Creator Lab, a 3-person events team, migrated 12 monthly VR meetups to Telegram-first workflows in 6 weeks after Workrooms ended. Key outcomes in month one:

Registration conversion increased 18% by removing friction and using deep-link DMs.
Manual coordination time dropped by 72% after automating reminders and asset delivery.
Paid ticket revenue stayed flat while attendee retention improved because recordings were delivered inside the channel.

Their implementation used: Telegram deep links, Stripe Checkout, Postgres + Redis queue, AWS S3, and Whisper for transcription.

Advanced strategies & future-proofing (2026+)

Progressive enhancement: Start with a simple bot + scheduled messages, then add AI-driven highlights and auto-clipping when you have data to train against. See the Micro-Event Launch Sprint for a fast rollout playbook.
Membership gate: Use Telegram Channel + bot to check membership before delivering premium assets. Combine with Patreon/Stripe Connect or creator commerce patterns where available.
Cross-platform presence: Simultaneously broadcast to YouTube and Telegram Live, but keep the canonical join pinned in your Telegram channel.
Data portability: Export attendee lists in CSV after each event to avoid vendor lock-in and to support follow-up campaigns.

Checklist: 10 things to do in the first 2 weeks

Export all attendee and recording data from Horizon Workrooms before shutdown.
Create or update a Telegram bot; set webhook endpoint and store bot token securely.
Build a landing page with Telegram Login and deep-link CTA.
Wire Stripe Checkout (or Telegram Payments) and test webhooks.
Implement basic registration flow and deliver a PDF ticket via sendDocument.
Set up a scheduler/queue to send T-72/T-24/T-1h reminders.
Decide on streaming: native Telegram Live or RTMP to YouTube. Test at least one rehearsal.
Automate recording upload and transcription pipeline.
Create post-event message template and gating rules for asset access.
Document the process and run a full mock event with team and a small audience.

Final recommendations

Transitioning from a VR meeting tool like Horizon Workrooms to a Telegram-first setup is less about replacing features and more about rethinking workflows: focus on audience access, friction-free signups, and automated content delivery. Start small (deep-links + reminders), iterate with data, and progressively add AI-driven post-event automation for transcripts and highlights.

Call to action

Ready to convert your next event? Start with a free checklist and a Telegram bot starter kit tailored for creators and publishers. Subscribe to our automation newsletter or request the starter repo — DM @YourSiteBot on Telegram with the message "EVENT KIT" and we’ll send setup templates, scheduler code samples, and message copy you can use today.

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