Instagram’s added a new element to its Broadcast Channels one-to-many messaging feature, which will now enable channel hosts to invite other participants as guests to join their chat channel for a conversation.

As you can see in these screenshots, the new guests option will enable channel managers to add another voice to the chat, which will then see the subsequent conversation shared to all channel subscribers.

As per Meta:

“Collaborators makes Broadcast Channels more fun and informative for fans, whether the conversations are expert interviews, guest Q&A’s, or even a casual chat among friends. Once a creator adds another participant, they can post new messages, including via text and voice notes as well as through photos and links.”

So now, you can add another element to your broadcasted chats, which could help in providing more entertaining content, while also adding another way to promote fellow creators or experts in the app.

Broadcast Channels is another means for Meta to lean into evolving app usage behaviors, with internal insights showing that, over time, more and more interaction is migrating to private chats, as personal posting in the main feed continues to decline.

Over time, social apps are increasingly becoming discovery surfaces, with discussion of content then reverting to DMs instead. TikTok has effectively led the charge in this respect, becoming an entertainment option within itself, as opposed to a social networking tool, and now, every other app is catching up, and looking to integrate more video, in particular, to prop up usage.

Broadcast channels will ideally help creators and notable people tap into this shift, by giving them a way to stay connected to fans who are engaging more in private. It’s yet to be seen whether this becomes a viable, valuable channel, but given the trends, it makes sense, and it’s worthy of investigation by those looking for ways to tap into this shift.

And now, you’ll also be able to spark more interest by promoting private interviews and collaborations in your broadcast channel. It could be a good way to help spark more interest, which will then, ideally, keep that messaging stream open for future announcements.

The new Broadcast Channel guest feature is rolling to selected US creators from today, before being expanded to more users/regions.