Twitter's "Circle" feature is now available for the rest of the world or in the near future.
The popular social media company announced that Twitter Circle, a feature similar to Instagram's "Close Friends" list, has finally arrived for people using the app on their smartphones and those using Twitter.com.
The Twitter Circle feature first went through live testing in early May but was only limited to a few people due to being a novel idea.
What Is Twitter Circle?
Twitter mentioned on its support page that its Circle feature is a way to send people's tweets and thoughts to select people or a smaller crowd, providing people the flexibility to send a tweet they don't want most people to see.
This feature is particularly helpful to people who have a large following on the social media platform, most notably friends, family, colleagues, strangers, bots, and brand accounts that follow them, per Gizmodo.
The app works like Instagram's "Close Friends" function or Facebook's "Select Audience" feature, which allows users to list down the people allowed to see certain content.
For example, if a person wants to tweet something that only a select few could really understand, they only have to choose those people and put them on a Twitter Circle list.
Afterward, the user can conveniently tweet to the people included in the list if they choose to set that particular Twitter list as their only audience.
This feature eliminates the need for alternate or secondary accounts and helps users skip toggling between protected and public account settings.
As of the publication of this article, however, Twitter is only offering one Circle for users to use.
Although the feature is useful, Andrew Hutchinson of Social Media Today mentioned that it has some drawbacks.
Hutchinson mentioned that most users already have the discussions they need Twitter Circle for in their DMS, which maintains private group chats with their close friends.
As such, people are more comfortable discussing anything with confidence in their DMs thanks to the privacy it provides, making the new feature redundant.
Hutchinson also mentioned that Twitter already allows its users to keep in touch with their most important connections or narrow down their Following list to the most important profiles, making the Circle feature unnecessary.
How To Set Up Twitter Circle On iOS Android Devices,
To use Twitter on smartphones, open the app and follow these instructions:
- Tap on the Tweet Composer button on the app and tap "All Followers." Doing so will make a menu appear named "Choose Audience" with two options: "All Followers " and "Twitter Circle."
- From the new menu, tap on the edit button across the "Twitter Circle option" and Tap on "recommended." This will lead you to a list containing everyone that follows you.
- Select the people you want to be in your Circle and tap on the "Done" button, saving your choices and sending you back to the Tweet Composer. It will also set your audience to "Twitter Circle" automatically.
Setting up Twitter Circle on the PC is almost the same as on its smartphone version. To do so, go to Twitter's official website and follow these instructions:
- On the Tweet Composer section of the website, click on the "Choose Audience" drop-down menu, which is put at "Everyone" by default. Clicking this drop-down menu will make a menu appear named "Choose Audience" with two options: "All Followers " and "Twitter Circle."
- Click on the "Edit" highlight and proceed to "Recommended" to a list containing everyone that follows you.
- Select the people you want to be in your Circle and click on the "X" button at the upper left corner of the list, saving your choices and sending you back to the Tweet Composer. It will also set your audience to "Twitter Circle" automatically.
Related Article: Twitter's Latest Mac Update Adds Support for its 'Circle' Feature
