Instagram Now Has Broadcast Channels, Exclusive to Creators

Telegram has a feature called channels that allows users to create rooms and share one-way information with a group of people. It’s not a chat room, as only the creator of the room can post things. Everyone else can only view content and react to it. This week, Meta is introducing the same thing for Instagram called Broadcast Channels.

Broadcast Channels is only available to creators for now, and with it, Meta hopes to brew even more interaction between artists/creators and their followers. For example, a musical artist can have a channel specifically for tour dates and performance updates. It’ll be up to the follower to subscribe to an artist’s broadcast channel.

Broadcast Channels supports all sorts of stuff. Creators can post polls, AMAs, feature special guests, and more. Basically, anything you could already do in a Story will be there in Channels. Part of me wants to call it what it is, that being bloat, but if this is used the way it’s designed to be and an artist updates it regularly with good information, then it could be useful.

This feature is live now inside of the Instagram app and the app only. It’s not currently supported on the web. Go see if your favorite US-based creator has been granted access.

// Instagram