Instagram broadcast channels: how to create and use one for business

A channel lives in Instagram messaging. Instagram suggests using it for announcements, behind-the-scenes content, event details and upcoming collaborations. Members can react and reply to your messages, vote in polls you create and engage with other content you share, but they can't send messages themselves.

Channels are public and discoverable by anyone on Instagram, and members' reactions, replies and poll responses are visible to anyone too. They're still being released gradually: Instagram says they aren't available to everyone yet, and only public accounts with more than 1,000 followers can start one.

If you share organic branded content in a channel, Instagram requires the paid partnership tool to show the commercial relationship.

Sources: Instagram Help Centre: Create a channel on Instagram, checked 15 October 2026; Instagram Help Centre: Join a channel on Instagram, checked 15 October 2026

In the Instagram app for Android or iPhone:

1. Tap Messages at the bottom.
2. Tap Compose in the top right.
3. Tap Create channel.
4. Enter a channel name, choose an audience, choose when the channel ends, and choose whether to show it on your profile.
5. Tap Create in the top right.

• To find your channels later, tap Messages, then Channels at the top

Source: Instagram Help Centre: Create a channel on Instagram, checked 15 October 2026

When you send the first message in a new channel, all your followers get a notification inviting them to join. After that, you can invite people by:

• Sharing the invite link. It can't be turned off, but you can reset it to make a new one
• Sharing the channel to your story: tap Share to story at the top of the channel, choose a background and tap Your story
• Sharing one message to your story: tap and hold it and tap Share to story. Viewers tap the image to find and join
• A QR code: tap the channel name at the top, then QR code, and put it on a counter card, receipt or flyer

Sources: Instagram Help Centre: Create a channel on Instagram, checked 15 October 2026; Instagram Help Centre: What admins of channels on Instagram can do, checked 15 October 2026

As the creator you're the channel admin. You can rename it, change the theme, invite moderators, unsend your messages, manage reactions and replies, and add up to 5 collaborators, who can send messages like you. To add a collaborator:

1. At the top of your channel, tap the channel name.
2. Tap People.
3. Tap Add next to Collaborators.
4. Select people from the suggestions, or search for a username.

• To delete a channel: tap Messages, then the Channels tab and the channel name. Tap Options, select Delete and tap Delete to confirm. It disappears from everyone's inbox
• A collaborator you remove stays a member but can no longer send messages

Source: Instagram Help Centre: What admins of channels on Instagram can do, checked 15 October 2026

Our suggestions, built on how channels work: members see your messages in their inbox and can only react, reply or vote, so treat it as a short newsletter for your keenest customers rather than a second feed.

• First news: new stock, a new menu or a date for an opening, before it goes on the feed
• Polls: let members vote on the next flavour, colour or product, then show the result
• Behind the scenes: a quick photo of a job in progress or a delivery arriving
• Event details: times, location and reminders on the day
• One message at a time: short updates are easier to read in a chat than long ones

• Your account is private, or has 1,000 followers or fewer. Channels need a public account with more than 1,000 followers
• Channels haven't reached your account yet. Instagram says they're being released slowly
• You're on a computer. Admin controls are in the Instagram app for Android, iPhone and iPad, and joining a channel is app-only
• The app is out of date. Update it and look again under Compose in Messages

Sources: Instagram Help Centre: Create a channel on Instagram, checked 15 October 2026; Instagram Help Centre: What admins of channels on Instagram can do, checked 15 October 2026; Instagram Help Centre: Join a channel on Instagram, checked 15 October 2026

Disclosure: this is our product. A channel works best when the feed behind it is busy too. Zolyp plans, writes and designs your Instagram posts and publishes them once you approve, so there's always something new to point members to. There's a 3-day free trial, no card required.