San Francisco, Feb 17 (IANS): Meta has introduced new broadcast channels on Instagram, which is a one-to-many messaging tool that will allow creators to engage directly with their followers at scale.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement on the social networking platform with his own "Meta Channel."

"Creators can also use voice notes to share their latest updates and behind-the-scenes moments, and even create polls to crowdsource fan feedback," the company said in a blogpost on Thursday.

However, only creators can send messages in the broadcast channels and followers can react to content and vote in polls.

The company further mentioned that more features will be added to these channels in the coming months, such as the ability to bring another creator into the channel to discuss upcoming collaborations, crowdsource questions for an "ask me anything" and much more.

Once a creator gets access to broadcast channels and sends the first message from their Instagram inbox, their followers will receive a one-time notification to join the channel," it added.

Moreover, followers can leave or mute these channels at any time and can also control their notifications from creators.

Creators can also encourage their followers to join by using the "join channel" sticker in Stories.

"We're currently testing broadcast channels with a handful of creators in the US and plan to expand in the coming months," Meta said.

"We'll be testing broadcast channels in Messenger and on Facebook in the coming months," it added.