Circles, akin to Instagram's beloved 'Close Friends' feature, has been a cherished favourite as it enables users to establish private groups for intimate conversations. However, to the surprise of many, Elon Musk, via his app X, has announced the discontinuation of Circles.
After a few experiments made by Elon Musk over a couple of months, X continues to make changes again and this time, it seems like it’s for real. Starting from October 31, users are reportedly no longer able to add people to their Circles or create new posts for exclusive sharing with a close-knit group. This means you now have to be more careful about what you write again or simply opt for the private mode.
If you’re wondering what will happen to your previous private tweets (yes, we’re not calling them posts), you’ll probably feel relieved knowing that they’ll still be kept private within your Circle. Based on X’s official website, the users still retain the ability to remove people from the group if they no longer want certain accounts to be able to see their old limited posts. While this change might feel like a significant loss to some users, at least you can maintain control over who has access to your past shared content.
The shift away from supporting Circles is rooted in the company's recent pivot towards prioritising Communities, a feature similar to Facebook Groups. In case you forget what’s that again, it’s basically a feature that brings together people of the same interests, creating a sense of belonging among users in a close-knit online community.
As far as we can tell, it’s a cool addition to the expanding user base but we can see why people get frustrated from the shift, given that private-focused features tend to resonate more with users on microblogging apps like X. But that’s from us. What do you think?