In an effort to be more brand and creator friendly, TikTok is launching a broadcast channel feature called Bulletin Boards that shares in-app message updates. Essentially serving as one-to-many DM chats that fans can follow, Bulletin Boards can include text, images and video, with text limited to 1,000 characters and 20 bulletins daily. While fans can react by posting emoji to Bulletin Board posts, they cannot otherwise reply. The move comes as TikTok seeks to expand its brand toolkit, even updating its Symphony advertising suite to allow brands to create content that mimics material posted by influencers.

The aim of the Bulletin Boards feature “is to allow creators and brands to share updates and behind-the-scenes content and to engage with their followers in a more direct way,” reports TechCrunch, noting it is an alternative to “sharing material through a Story or regular post on TikTok.”

“Creators with access can create a Bulletin Board directly from their inbox by tapping a plus sign” explains social media expert Lindsey Gamble via Social Media Today, adding that “from there, they can name it, write a description, and decide whether to display a ‘Join’ button on their profile.”

Gamble, who has his own social media newsletter, says that so far, access to TikTok’s Bulletin Boards is “currently limited to mostly high-profile accounts in publishing, sports, music, celebrity, and mega-creators,” listing People magazine and the Jonas Brothers as early adopters.

The message-like feed display of Bulletin Boards has drawn comparisons to the Broadcast Channels Instagram launched in 2023 that is now among the platform’s top three engagement options. “Broadcast Channels, then, provides a valuable connective option, and TikTok is now leaning into the same, as it looks to expand its usage,” Social Media Today points out.

YouTube similarly lets accounts share broadcast messages through Communities, a feature it expanded earlier this year.

Picking up on a TikTok announcement at Cannes Lions about adding more generative AI capabilities to its Symphony AI suite for advertisers, The Verge writes “here comes the sponcon,” explaining that the new Symphony features “go beyond generating basic videos and images — instead, the system’s new output mimics what audiences are used to seeing from human influencers.”

Bloomberg explains that Symphony, which was launched in 2024, now lets marketers “upload an image of a product they want to feature, or write a short text prompt describing the kind of video ad that they want, and TikTok’s AI tools will produce various five-second clips that can then be used in an ad.”