Photo credit: Meta
Instagram is expanding its “broadcast channels” for a global launch. Here’s how they work and what that means for musicians.
Meta started in February unroll His broadcasting channels are represented on Instagram. The feature started as a test run available to a handful of creators in the US and has gradually expanded to more creators. Now, the company is rolling out global broadcast channels, allowing creators around the world to use the feature to reach fans.
What are broadcast channels and how do they work? broadcast channels are a one-to-many public messaging tool that allows creators to invite all of their followers and share text, video, and photo updates. Only creators can post messages in broadcast channels, and followers can respond to content and participate in polls.
When creators are granted access to broadcast channels, they can send their first message from their Instagram inbox and their followers will receive a one-time notification to join the channel. Anyone can discover the broadcast channel and view the content, but only followers who choose to join the channel will receive notifications when there are updates.
Followers can leave or mute a broadcast channel and control their notifications from creators at any time by going to a creator’s profile and tapping the bell icon before selecting Broadcast Channel. Notifications are set to “some” by default, but can be changed to “all” or “none”.
Followers will not receive notifications about a broadcast channel other than the invite notification unless they add the channel to their inbox. Once a channel has been added to their inbox, they will appear alongside other message threads. Notifications are turned on and work like any other chat.
Once a broadcast channel is live, creators can encourage their followers to join by using the join channel sticker in Stories or pin their channel link to their profile.
After joining a channel, followers can react to content and participate in polls, but cannot send messages. They can share links to their favorite broadcast channels to encourage friends to follow and join them.
In addition to broadcast channels launching globally, creators with the Contributor feature can also invite other creators (or fans) to join their broadcast channel. With this feature, creators can invite special guests or easily collaborate with other creators.
In the future, new features will be introduced to improve the broadcast channels, e.g. B. adding moderators, a dedicated channels tab in the inbox and much more.