A custom domain for a mini app: how it works
On the Pro and Studio plans an app can open at your own domain. Here is what it takes, what happens to the certificate, and what a custom domain will not do.
What to do
The domain is entered in the editor, after which a record is added at your registrar. The certificate is then issued automatically — nothing to buy and nothing to renew.
The service address, apps.build-mini.app/apps/<slug>/, keeps working. A custom domain does not replace it but joins it, so old links do not break.
What changes in Telegram and in MAX
In Telegram the menu button moves to the new address on the next publish — the platform does it with your token.
In MAX the address has to be changed by hand in the partner cabinet: they have no API method for it. Worth remembering in advance if the app is already published there.
What a custom domain does not give you
It does not turn the app into a website. At your domain a browser still shows the "opens in a messenger" screen with a link to the bot: the app runs inside Telegram and MAX, and that is a property of the product rather than a setting.
So there will be no search traffic into the app at your domain either — what gets found is this site, not the app. A custom domain is for something else: for the address to look like yours rather than like a service one.
Other questions
- Which plans include a custom domain?
- Pro and Studio. The right is checked on the server, so a request from a plan without it is refused before you go and edit DNS.
- Do I need to buy a certificate?
- No, it is issued automatically once the DNS record propagates.
- Can I point my main website domain at the app?
- Technically yes, but think twice: at that address a browser will show the "opens in a messenger" screen rather than your site. A subdomain is the usual choice.