Now that Twitter Circle has officially launched globally, you’re probably wondering how to use it and what it actually lets you do. A Twitter Circle essentially allows you to tweet to a designated audience on Twitter, an audience where all the members are selected by you. That way you don’t have to tweet your shower thoughts and hot shots everyone in the bird app. You can keep it just between you and a group of your favorite fellow Twitter users.
In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about Twitter Circle, including what it is, how to set it up, and how to send a tweet to your own Twitter Circle.
Twitter Circle: How it works
As we said earlier, Twitter Circle allows you to tweet to a limited audience whose members are chosen by you. This limited audience is known as a circle. However, there are some things you should know about how these circles work:
- You can add up to 150 people to your circle, and you can add anyone, even people who don’t follow you.
- Each user only has one circle, but you can always add or remove people from it.
- When it comes to your tweets in the Twitter Circle, members of your circle can see your tweets in the Circle and any replies to those tweets, provided those replies don’t come from a protected account. Protected accounts can participate in circles, but their replies are only visible to circle members who are also their followers.
- Although your circle members can’t retweet your tweets in the circle, they will still be able to screenshot or download them.
- According to Twitter’s help guide on the matter, you can’t really leave someone else’s circle on Twitter, but you can force removal from their circle by blocking or unfollowing the owner of that circle. Just remember, though, that if you unblock them later, you’re opening yourself up to being added back into their circle. In this case, they don’t have to wait until you follow them back to add you again.
- Mute should still work for Twitter Circle tweets you don’t want to see.
- People aren’t notified when they’re added or removed from a circle, but the circle’s tweets themselves display a message that says “Only people in @[Twitter username]The Twitter circle of can see this tweet.”
How to set up your Twitter Circle on a desktop network
You will first need to set up your Twitter circle before you can tweet to your chosen followers. In the following instructions, we’ll show you how to do it via the Twitter desktop website.
Stage 1: Open your web browser and go to Twitter.com and then sign in to your account if you haven’t already.
Step 2: On your home page, select | More ▼ option from the sidebar menu on the left side of the screen.
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Step 3: From the menu that appears, select Twitter Circle.
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Step 4: Now you have to look at Edit your Twitter circle screen. Choose It is recommended section.
In this section you can use Search for people bar to find specific Twitter users you want to add to your circle, or you can just start adding people from the already populated list of recommended users. Either way, to add someone to your circle, select Add button. After you successfully add someone, the appropriate Add the button should turn into a Removal button.
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Step 5: You can see all the people you’ve added to your circle by selecting Twitter Circle section of Edit your Twitter circle screen.
When you’re done adding people, tap x icon. It is!
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How to Tweet to Your Circle: On the Desktop Web
Once you’ve set up your Twitter Circle, you’re ready to start tweeting to your favorite bird app friends. Here’s how to do it on the desktop network:
Stage 1: Go to Twitter.com and sign in to your account if you are not already signed in.
Step 2: On the home page you can choose What is happening? at the top of the screen or by selecting the large one Tweet button on the left side of your screen. Either method will open/activate the Tweet composer for you.
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Step 3: Once the Tweet Composer is open or active, you’ll notice a small drop-down menu near the top Everyone. Select it.
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Step 4: From Select an audience the menu that appears, select Twitter Circle.
You will then be taken back to the Tweet composer where it is now displayed Twitter Circle as your chosen audience. Now you can compose your tweet as usual and then select Tweet button to send it to your circle members.
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How to set up your Twitter Circle on the mobile app
You can also set up a Twitter Circle using the mobile app. The mobile app method may vary slightly depending on the mobile device you are using, but the following general instructions should still apply:
Stage 1: Open the mobile app on your device and tap your Profile photo icon to open the main menu.
Step 2: From the menu that appears, select Twitter Circle.
(If you are an iOS user and your main menu doesn’t seem to offer Twitter Circle option, you can still access it through the tweet composer when you compose a new tweet. So do this: Open the Tweet composer as usual and then tap Public drop down menu. IN Select an audience the menu that appears, select editing button to Twitter Circle option. This should take you to the screen you’ll need for step 3.)
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Step 3: You should now be looking at a screen called Edit your Twitter circle. On this screen, select It is recommended section.
In this section, you can either search for specific users by Search for people search bar or simply add the users that appear in the list of recommended followers. Regardless of the method, you will choose the appropriate one for the users Add buttons to add them to your circle.
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Step 4: To see everyone you’ve added to your circle so far, select Twitter Circle section of Edit your Twitter circle screen.
After you finish adding people, select Back arrow icon to exit and return to your history. And that’s pretty much all you need to do to set it up.
On iOS: Instead of Back arrow icon, you may need to select Done.
How to tweet to your circle from mobile app
Now that you’ve set up your Twitter circle, it’s time to start tweeting to it. Here’s how to do it through the mobile app. Again, the method may vary slightly depending on the type of mobile device you are using. But the instructions below should still apply in general.
Stage 1: Open the mobile app on your device and then tap Plus sign icon.
Step 2: From the menu that appears, select Tweet.
iOS users: You can skip step 2. Go to step 3.
Step 3: You should now be looking at the Tweet Composer screen. On this screen select the drop down menu that says Public.
(On iOS: This can be Public or All followers.)
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Step 4: On Select an audience screen, select Twitter Circle.
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Step 5: You will then be taken back to the Compose Tweet screen, but the screen should now be displayed Twitter Circle as your chosen audience.
At this point, you can simply write your tweet as normal and then select Tweet button to send it to your circle members.
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