You do not need to be an admin, and the channel owner does not have to do anything. PipSync logs into your own Telegram account (phone number, login code and, if you use one, your two-step verification password) and reads the channels that account can see. If you can read the channel in Telegram, PipSync can read it too. There is no bot to add and no permission to ask for.
What you need
- Be a member of the channel or group with the Telegram account you log in with. For a private channel, join it in Telegram first.
- Connect it in PipSync: Channels → Add channel → Telegram. The Choose a channel step lists the channels and groups your account is in; search by name. The full steps are in Connect a Telegram channel.
Edge cases
- The channel is not in the list. Your Telegram account is probably not a member, or you logged in with a different Telegram account than the one that joined. Join with the right account, or log in with it, and try again.
- You left or were removed from the channel. Telegram then stops sending its posts to your account, so PipSync stops receiving them. Rejoin in Telegram, then use Channels → Sources → Reconnect all channels.
- Your Telegram session ended. If you terminated the PipSync session under Settings → Devices in Telegram, or Telegram ended it, no channel delivers any more. Log in again under Settings → Telegram → Connect Telegram Account.
- The provider posts screenshots instead of text. PipSync can read them with AI when AI features enabled is on under Settings → AI, but a signal read from an image always waits for your approval. See A message arrived but no signal was created.
A relay channel is not needed
Older advice was to forward the provider's messages into a private channel you own and add a bot there. You can skip that and connect the provider's channel directly. If you already use a relay, it keeps working — PipSync reads forwarded messages like any other — but a forwarding delay is a trading delay, and a direct connection avoids that extra hop.