Twitter started testing Circle earlier this month with a limited group and now appears to be spreading to more users (via Android Police). The feature works a lot like close friends of Instagram, as it allows users to send tweets to a specific group of people, not to the whole of Twitter.
To check if you have access to Twitter Circle, update your Twitter app or target Twitter in a web browser. When you start tweeting, you’ll see a drop-down menu at the top that reads Everyone. From here, you can select Twitter Circle to limit your tweet to a selected audience, or you can click Edit to add or remove people from your circle. Twitter will not notify users if you add or remove them.
Select Twitter Circle to restrict your tweets. Add or remove users from your circle.
You can add up to 150 users to your circle, whether they follow you or not. Users in your circle will see a note added to the circle-only tweets (and vice versa) that says, “Only people in @[yourusername]Twitter Circle can see this tweet. ” Tweeting in your circle is almost like having a personal account, only it privatizes certain tweets instead of restricting access to your entire account.
People in your circle won’t be able to retrieve anything you post on it, but they can still take screenshots and download your tweets. It’s also important to keep in mind that the Twitter community guidelines continue to apply, even if you’re sending your tweets to a smaller audience.
Although more users appear to be gaining access to the feature, Twitter spokesman Joseph Nunes told The Verge he was still testing. “We are still testing Twitter Circle with a group of people on iOS, Android and the web worldwide,” Nunes said. “The feature is not yet widely available to everyone, as we continue to collect feedback.”
It is unclear at this time how many people currently have access to Circle. It seems that more users (including me) finally see the pop-up feature when they start tweeting, but some users still report that they don’t have access yet.
Updated on May 28, 5:27 PM ET: Updated to add a statement from a Twitter spokesperson, as well as to reflect that Circle has not yet been released to everyone.
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