‘Circles’ lets you share posts that only a limited group of people can see, but the feature will be removed as of October 31st.
Table of Contents
X to remove ‘Circles’ feature
Circles, which Twitter launched a year ago, was one of Twitter’s various projects that aligned with the broader shift of social interactions to more intimate groups, as opposed to public posting.
A similar feature on Meta’s Instagram exists, in which you can add people of your choice to your ‘close friends’. Your notes, stories, and now even posts, can be shared just to close friends.
X owner Elon Musk has been talking about getting rid of Circles for some time now, but now the X team has set an official end date.
I agree
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 25, 2023
In a post on their help center, X announced “After this date, you will not be able to create new posts that are limited to your Circle, nor will you be able to add people to your Circle.”
X did not give a reason as to why the company has decided to shut down the feature. But Elon Musk stated in a post on his account that the company has recently been making more of a push around its Facebook Groups-like Communities feature.
We’re deprecating Circles in favor of improved Communities & DM group chat
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2023
With Communities, people can join and share tweets directly with others who share the same interests, such as crypto or tech, as they will be a part of the same community. Once people join a Community, they can tweet directly to other members rather than to just their followers. Only members of a Community can like or reply to tweets sent by other members.
Will your past ‘Circle’ posts still remain private?
This is a question several X users have now that Elon Musk has decided to remove ‘Circles’. While the Help Centre post does not provide any additional information, it does give users a step-by-step guide on how to remove people from ‘Circles’ so that they do not see your past posts. This is reason to believe past posts will remain private only to the poster and the people currently in the Circle.
Vote now
Are you in favor of shutting down Circles? Or do you prefer having them?
Stay updated on all of the latest news by subscribing to the ITP Live newsletter below and by clicking the push notifications.