Twitter started testing Circle earlier this month with a limited group, and now it seems to be starting to roll out more users (via Android Police). The feature works much like Instagram’s close friends, as it allows users to tweet to a specific group of people instead of Twitter.
To check if you have access to Twitter Circle, update your Twitter app or go to Twitter in a web browser. When you start writing a tweet, you’ll see a drop-down menu at the top that says Everyone. From here, you can choose 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 delete them.
Choose “Twitter circle” to limit 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. Your Circle users will see a note attached to tweets only for the Circle (and vice versa), which says: “Only @ people[yourusername]The Twitter circle can see this tweet. “Tweeting in your circle is almost like having a private account, just privatizing certain tweets instead of restricting access to your entire profile.
People in your circle won’t be able to retweet anything you post, but they can still take screenshots and download your tweets. It’s also important to keep in mind that Twitter community guidelines still apply even if you send your tweets to a smaller audience.
While it looks like more users have access to the feature, Twitter spokesman Joseph Nunez told The Verge that it is still being tested. “We’re currently testing Twitter Circle with a group of people across iOS, Android and the web globally,” Núñez said. “The feature has not yet been widely extended to everyone, as we continue to gather feedback.”
Right now, it’s unclear how many people have access to Circle. It seems like more users (myself included) are finally seeing the feature pop up when they start writing a tweet, but some users are still reporting that they don’t have access to it yet.
Updated 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 distributed to everyone.