Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced a new broadcast chat feature on Instagram called Channels. He used one of the new channels to announce this new feature. The feature lets creators share public, one-to-many messages. Channels support text, images, polls, reactions, and more. The feature will give creators a new way to update their followers and engage with them.
It is worth mentioning that the feature only works on mobile right now. So, you need to be on your phone to see a creator’s channel.
Channels can be used by creators to share their latest updates and behind-the-scenes moments with their followers. Followers can only react to content and participate in polls shared via broadcast.
Once a creator gets access to the Channels feature, he/she can broadcast a channel from their Instagram inbox. When a broadcast channel is live, the creator can ask their followers to join the channel by using ‘join channel’ in Stories. After joining the channel, it will start appearing in your Instagram inbox next to other message threads.
Even if a person doesn’t join the channel, he/she will be able to discover the channel and see the content, but channel members will receive instant updates whenever there’s a new update. Followers will also have options to leave or mute broadcast channels if they want. They can also control their notifications from creators by going to the creator’s profile page.
Instagram is also working on bringing other features to broadcast channels, such as collaboration with other creators for discussion or AMA sessions.
Instagram is now testing Channels with select creators in the U.S. and plans to expand it to other comities in the coming months. Creators who are interested in using this feature can sign up to be considered for early access HERE.
Meta has confirmed that it will also test broadcast channels in Messenger and Facebook in the coming months. So, the feature wil be more widely available.
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