Musk-Owned X Shuts Down Circle Feature
Elon Musk-owned X, formerly known as Twitter, is shutting down its Circle feature, effectively bringing an end to its glitchy history. The Circle feature was the social network’s take on Instagram’s “Close Friends” feature, allowing users to share posts with a select group of people.
The company has announced that the Circle feature will no longer be available starting October 31. Users will no longer be able to add people to their Circle.
“X is deprecating Circles as of October 31st, 2023. 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. You will, however, still be able to remove people from your Circle by unfollowing them,” stated X on its support page.
Although the Circle feature is being discontinued, X will still allow users to access their historical Circle posts after the deadline has passed.
A Troubled History
Twitter initially launched the Circle feature in August 2022 following a beta testing period. This feature allowed users to add up to 150 people to their Circle, with the restriction of creating only one Circle.
However, earlier this year, users began noticing that their Circle posts were not labeled with a green flag, causing concerns that the posts were being broadcasted to all of their followers. In April, users reported that some Circle posts were appearing on other people’s algorithmic timelines. The company later confirmed this as a “security incident” that allowed users outside of the Circle to view Circle posts.
