The struggling Meta is launching a new feature on its Instagram service that may be familiar to many folks. Today, Meta announced Instagram broadcast channels, which will let creators have more direct contact with their followers with special events and notifications. Yes, this new feature is similar to the Channels feature that"s been already available for a while on Telegram.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the first official public user of Instagram"s broadcast channels. In a post on his Facebook page, Zuckerberg said his broadcast channel will be the first place he will share news about upcoming Meta products. Right now, the service is for mobile Instagram apps only, and you have to follow the person who has the channel.
Instagram creators can launch their channel and sent out texts, voice notes, polls and videos that can be interacted with by their followers. Those same followers can get update notifications from the channel as well. Creators with Instagram subscriptions can also create events on their broadcast channels that are only available for their subscribers.
At the moment, the new feature is only available for a select group of Instagram content providers, but more will be added in the coming months. Channels will also be added to both Facebook and Messenger in the future as well.