One product family, two live channels.
Telegram and WhatsApp share the same broker and the same payment rail. They differ only in what the chat API allows. Pick the channel where the seller already talks to the customer.
Pick by the channel the merchant already uses.
There is no abstract right answer — there is the channel the seller is in.
Telegram
@miaposbotThe bot lives in 1:1 chats, group threads and channels — and supports inline mode in any chat (the seller types @miaposbot 245 #tag directly in the customer's thread). No 24-hour reply window. Status updates can land at any time.
The bot lives in a 1:1 chat with its WhatsApp Business number. The seller's phone is the identity — no contact-sharing handshake. Five locales. Subject to Meta's 24-hour customer-service window for free-form replies; the payment link itself works regardless.
See WhatsApp acceptance →What stays the same across channels.
Both channels are surfaces of the same product — not two products that look similar.
- Same backend broker — the merchant resolves through the partner bank by phone, regardless of channel.
- Same payment rail — funds settle on the same IPS rail in the same time.
- Same merchant portal — reconciliation, refunds and reporting are channel-agnostic.
- Same locale set — RO · RU · EN · FR · DE on both channels.
- Same security posture — the buyer authorises in their own banking app; miaPOS never handles card data, because there are no cards.
"Same payment, two front doors. The merchant doesn't pick a technology — they pick a conversation."