Instagram's Telegram-Inspired Move? Facebook Parent Rolls Out Broadcast Chat Feature

Meta Platforms Inc. META has rolled out a new broadcast chat feature for Instagram channels, which dramatically resembles Telegram broadcast groups. 

What Happened: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new feature on Instagram that brings one-way messaging to the app — just like how Telegram broadcast groups work. 

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Zuckerberg said, “I’m starting a channel to share news and updates on all the products and tech we’re building at Meta. It will be the place I share Meta product news first.” 

According to the company, the channels support texts, images, polls and reactions, among other things. It will soon be able to support collaborations with guest appearances, “Ask Me Anything” and more. 

Meanwhile, channel members can read, react and vote in polls.

As of now, Meta is testing the feature with a handful of creators, including snowboarder Chloe Kim, Jiu-Jitsu fighter Mackenzie Dern and meme account Tank Sinatra. The company plans to bring the Telegram-like functionality to Facebook and Messenger in the coming months. 

At the time of writing, Zuckerberg’s broadcast channel had 301K members. 

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