What are Instagram Broadcast Channels and how to use them?
Like Telegram, Instagram has just launched its Broadcast Channels feature, a tool for influencers and creators to disseminate information, news, and content of interest to their followers. In this article, we'll explain how they work and how to subscribe to them.
What are Instagram Broadcast Channels?
The channel function is already present in other networks, such as Telegram, or WhatsApp. Basically, it is a group chat in which only the creator can publish and share messages. Similar to newsletters, they are closer to being a unidirectional means of information. However, in the broadcast channels, the information flows in real-time, and, in addition, it is allowed to react to the contents published using emojis.
This form of communication between creators and followers has the advantage of being more fluid than others, as creators' publications are not lost in a tide of messages and responses. Creators can post text, photos and other images, videos, audio notes, and polls, although Meta has announced it will soon include more options.
How to access or subscribe to a Broadcast Channel?
To access and subscribe to a broadcast channel on Instagram, you need to click on the link provided by a creator on their profile or story, or, in case you were already following them previously, through the notification you will receive if a channel is created by clicking on Join Channel. Remember that you must follow the creator to join. You can also go to the DM section and see the Suggested Channels section to look for the channels you can join.
Once you have subscribed, it will appear in your DM inbox as if it were just another conversation. You will receive a notification whenever there is new content as if it were a new message (although you can mute it if you wish). Remember that although it is impossible to write in the conversation, you can react to the publications using emojis and vote when the creator launches polls.
Note: For now, you can only subscribe to broadcast channels from cell phones.
How to create a channel?
Creating a broadcast channel is a feature intended only for celebrities, creators, and influencers, i.e., for people with many followers in the thousands or millions.
Currently, Meta is testing this feature in beta mode with a restricted number of creators in the United States. The first to open a channel - Meta Channel, for now, available only in the U.S. - has been Mark Zuckerberg himself, who has also announced that this will be, from now on, the first medium, in which he will share his major updates and news.
With your first message, your followers will receive an invitation to join. Subsequently, you can encourage others to subscribe by using the Join Channel tag in your Stories or by anchoring the subscription link in the bio on your profile.
Where else can you follow Meta channels?
While the channels have first arrived on Instagram, Meta has said it plans to test them in the coming months on its primary social network: Facebook and Messenger. What it does not plan at the moment is to bring them to WhatsApp. In any case, we will have to see how they are received on Instagram for the company to decide its next moves.