Bytedance-owned social video platform TikTok is launching a one-to-many bulletin board messaging feature that lets creators share content directly with fans via in-app broadcasts. Bulletin boards support video, text and image posts, but recipients are limited to emoji replies, not comments. The new feature is rolling out globally for creators who are at least 18 years old with a minimum of 50,000 followers. Artists and musicians can use bulletin boards to share new material or send save-the-date invitations for new releases, among other things. Once subscribed, followers will receive inbox notices of new posts.

“Bulletin board has already been used by a wide range of creators to share news and updates during its beta testing phase, including a wide range of artists, publishers such as People Magazine, and the Paris Saint-Germain football team, among many others,” TikTok notes in a newsroom post.

“This feature changes the way creators can engage their audience on TikTok, moving from broad feed posts to opt-in channels where followers expect updates,” reports Digital Trends, noting that this may lead to creators sharing their best content through this direct channel, “increasing loyalty and potentially monetization without feed noise.”

Digital Trends posits that “for brands and creators, this is another lever for audience control.”

TechCrunch compares bulletin board to the broadcast channels feature Instagram launched in 2023, which also only allows creators to post.

TikTok cautions that “all content must adhere to our Community Guidelines, which we enforce using a combination of technology and human moderators.” Safety tools for muting, blocking, and reporting users and content are available within the bulletin board to help keep creators keep their communities “safe and positive,” TikTok explains.

Acknowledging that the requirement of 50K+ followers limits use of the feature, Social Media Today concedes “it could be a handy way for creators to keep their audience updated on key events and updates, while it also aligns with the growing use of DMs for connection, as opposed to in-feed updates.”

Tubefilter calls it a way “to complement its infinitely-scrolling feed of short-form videos” by adding “short-form text posts to the mix,” but adds that “forum-style threads aren’t the most natural fit on social video apps — hence YouTube’s one-to-many feature taking years to find its footing.”