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You can now give your members the option to receive community notifications directly from their browser! This is a great way to ensure they're always in the loop about important community activity.
ℹ️ Supported browsers:
- Google Chrome
- Mozilla Firefox
✅ Yes! How do I enable this for my community?
It's easy! Navigate to Settings → General and turn on the Enable browser notifications toggle.
Your members will now be given the option to enable browser notifications via the following banner.
If they click "No thanks", they won't be presented with this option again.
Your members will now be given the option to enable browser notifications via the following banner.
If they click "No thanks", they won't be presented with this option again.
🎛 Managing notification preferences
At any point, your members can manage their notification preferences from Account → Notifications. From there, they can specify which types of notifications they'd like to receive across email, in-app and iOS/browser.
Hey everybody! 👋 Here's some news
Sid Yadav
,
Rudy Santino
and I wanted to share with you today...
We've raised an additional $4M to help accelerate our vision here at Circle. Techcrunch covered our raise. And you can see the announcement when you scroll down below.
We did this fundraise differently.
We had a lot of opportunities to raise traditional venture capital from top tier firms.
Instead, we chose to raise money from well known angel investors, operators, community builders, and...our very own customers / creators. 🎉 🙌 ❤️
It's special to be able to add some of our customers and community members to the cap table this time around. We exist because of you.
Those investors/advisors are:
Anne-Laure Le Cunff
,
Tiago Forte
, Ankur Nagpal,
Nat Eliason
, Brendon Burchard,
Ben Tossell
,
Greta Eagan
, Elizabeth Yin,
swyx
,
Tonner
,
David Perell
,
Matthew Gartland (he/him)
and certainly others who I tried to tag but couldn't find 😂
This is a win for the whole community. Now we'll have more resources so that we can:
🏔 Execute on our product roadmap (which we're truly excited about)
👩🏻💻 Build the best community and education for folks building communities
🏅 Invest significantly in support and customer success
We've raised an additional $4M to help accelerate our vision here at Circle. Techcrunch covered our raise. And you can see the announcement when you scroll down below.
We did this fundraise differently.
We had a lot of opportunities to raise traditional venture capital from top tier firms.
Instead, we chose to raise money from well known angel investors, operators, community builders, and...our very own customers / creators. 🎉 🙌 ❤️
It's special to be able to add some of our customers and community members to the cap table this time around. We exist because of you.
Those investors/advisors are:
This is a win for the whole community. Now we'll have more resources so that we can:
🏔 Execute on our product roadmap (which we're truly excited about)
👩🏻💻 Build the best community and education for folks building communities
🏅 Invest significantly in support and customer success
On Monday February 22 at 12:01am ET, we're planning to rename "topics" to "posts" across the Circle platform. As a result, access to your communities will be limited for a maximum of 2 hours (though hopefully much less!). Everything will go back to normal right after the brief maintenance period by 2am ET at latest.
We're performing this work at our lowest traffic hours during the week, so we can ensure a smooth transition with minimum disruption. You can follow Circle Status to be the first one to know when the maintenance is complete.
We're performing this work at our lowest traffic hours during the week, so we can ensure a smooth transition with minimum disruption. You can follow Circle Status to be the first one to know when the maintenance is complete.
Why this change?
Over the past few months, we've heard from numerous customers about their confusion with the word "topic" — specifically, about how a "topic" differs from a "space". When we initially settled on the word "topic", Circle was a brand new platform. We didn't have paying customers, or even the concept of spaces!
But over time, it's become glaringly apparent to us that this confusion is worth resolving, and the best way to resolve it is by renaming it.
Additionally, "post" is more consistent with its usage on other social products: think of Facebook posts, Reddit posts, LinkedIn posts, and so on.
But over time, it's become glaringly apparent to us that this confusion is worth resolving, and the best way to resolve it is by renaming it.
Additionally, "post" is more consistent with its usage on other social products: think of Facebook posts, Reddit posts, LinkedIn posts, and so on.
Do I need to do anything on my end?
If you are using the word "topic" in any of your community content, we strongly recommend changing it by Monday February 22. For example, some communities refer to "topics" in their welcome instructions, community guidelines, and other places.
Additionally, if any of your customized CSS or JavaScript code snippets use the word "topic", don't worry! We're mindful of breaking CSS customizations, and will work to ensure that the majority of customizations are automatically updated. The same goes for API requests and Zapier flows.
If for any reason we anticipate breaking changes, we'll reach out to you with further instructions.
Additionally, if any of your customized CSS or JavaScript code snippets use the word "topic", don't worry! We're mindful of breaking CSS customizations, and will work to ensure that the majority of customizations are automatically updated. The same goes for API requests and Zapier flows.
If for any reason we anticipate breaking changes, we'll reach out to you with further instructions.
Questions?
Spaces are a great way to organize your content and discussions in Circle. But keeping up with activity across multiple spaces can quickly become overwhelming for your members.
That's where the Community Home comes in. It's a game-changing feature our team has been refining for the past few weeks, and we're very excited to launch it for everyone today.
That's where the Community Home comes in. It's a game-changing feature our team has been refining for the past few weeks, and we're very excited to launch it for everyone today.
🏠 A new home for your members
But, what is the Community Home? I hear you ask.
It's a personalized activity feed that helps your members stay on top of what's happening across the spaces they are a part of. No more bouncing around. Every member can now discover and engage with the posts that most matter to them –– all in one place.
In addition to the personalized feed, the Community Home features a list of trending topics on the right hand side. These are the topics that are getting the most engagement in your community. This way, your members never miss anything important.
It's a personalized activity feed that helps your members stay on top of what's happening across the spaces they are a part of. No more bouncing around. Every member can now discover and engage with the posts that most matter to them –– all in one place.
In addition to the personalized feed, the Community Home features a list of trending topics on the right hand side. These are the topics that are getting the most engagement in your community. This way, your members never miss anything important.
And for some added personalization, you can now greet your members with a custom welcome banner at the top of your home. The perfect spot for community-wide announcements too!
🤩 A few examples
Curious to see what it looks like in practice? Check out the new Circle Community home! Here are some other examples, courtesy of SPI Pro and Freelancing School:
Pretty neat, huh?
✅ How to turn it on for your community
It's very easy. Just head to Settings → Home. Once enabled, your members will see a new Home tab in the sidebar. Voilà!
For a little more customization, you can:
For a little more customization, you can:
- Control how recent a topic must be to appear in the Trending topics list.
- Set how topics will be sorted on the home feed by default. You can choose from Latest, Oldest, Most Popular, New Activity, or Alphabetical.
- Prevent activity from specific spaces to appear in your Community Home. To do this, head to the space settings → hide from featured areas.
Need a hand customizing your home? Check out this knowledge base article.
✨ Ready to give your members a new home?
Show us what yours looks like below. We'd love to get inspired with your welcome banners too! Finally, a massive thank you to all our Beta testers who contributed helpful feedback to make Community Home better for everyone.
To enable the community home, you can navigate to Settings → Home and turn on the "Enable Home" toggle, review the settings below it, and click "Save changes."
Once enabled, you and your members will see a new Home tab in your left sidebar. Here's what it looks like:
Overview
1. Manage your Home settings
You can manage settings by visiting the "Home" tab in your settings area.
2. Control the Trending Topics list
In your right sidebar, you'll see Trending Topics. These are popular topics ranked by engagement score, created within a set amount of days (see below.)
You can control how recent these trending topics are by setting a trending topics threshold. Topics older than the threshold will be removed from this list.
3. Hide specific spaces and topics from your home
To hide all topics in a space:
Navigate to a space, click the gear icon, and then click "Edit Space". Toggle on "Hide from featured areas" to ensure these topics don't appear on your home page.
To hide a specific topic:
Navigate to a topic, click the "..." dropdown, and then click "Edit Topic". Toggle on "Hide from featured areas" to ensure this topic doesn't show up on your home page.
Navigate to a space, click the gear icon, and then click "Edit Space". Toggle on "Hide from featured areas" to ensure these topics don't appear on your home page.
To hide a specific topic:
Navigate to a topic, click the "..." dropdown, and then click "Edit Topic". Toggle on "Hide from featured areas" to ensure this topic doesn't show up on your home page.
4. Set the default topic sort
You can set a default sort order for the topic on the homepage for your members. Currently, members can only temporarily customize the sort order. If they refresh the page, the sort order will default back to the order you set.
5. Set the default landing page for members
You can set a default landing page for logged-in members and logged-out members. When you turn on the Home feature, we'll automatically default to Home for you — but this can be adjusted if you'd like.
6. Greet your members with a welcome banner
You will have the option to greet your members with a custom welcome banner set by you. These welcome banners can be different for logged-in members and logged-out members. If you don't want the welcome banner to disappear, make sure to toggle "Allow members to close the welcome banner".
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Good news: Circle's iOS app is finally live on the App Store! 📱🎉
Here's an easy link to download the app or share it with your members: https://circle.so/ios. Alternatively, the app can be found by looking for "Circle Communities" on the App Store.
The app is completely free and available to admins or members of any Circle community.
The app is completely free and available to admins or members of any Circle community.
How do I submit feedback?
If you encounter bugs or have feature suggestions, please reach out to our iOS team at ios@circle.so.
What's next for the app?
The app may be out of beta, but it's far from done! Our iOS team of three will be hard at work to make Circle's iOS experience the best out there for any community platform.
Here are some things to expect in the coming months:
Here are some things to expect in the coming months:
- Design and UX improvements
- Homepages on iOS
- Member profiles
- More rich text and embed options for posts, comments, and DMs
- Administrative actions (editing posts, inviting members, etc)
What are you looking forward to the most? Let us know by reaching out to ios@circle.so 🙂
Will I be able to white-label the app for my own community?
Unfortunately, the app does not currently have the option of being white-labeled. We had to make this trade-off to be able to iterate on our iOS experience at the speed that we'd like to — we're a small team with big plans!
With that said, it's worth noting that once members sign in to your community on the app, they won’t see any Circle branding whatsoever — the app will use your community logo and brand color.
With that said, it's worth noting that once members sign in to your community on the app, they won’t see any Circle branding whatsoever — the app will use your community logo and brand color.
How can my members find this app?
You can simply point your members to https://circle.so/ios or ask them to look for Circle Communities on the App Store. We recommend making a post in your community or emailing them at large.
Additionally, members accessing your community from an iOS web browser will see an app download banner at the top of the page:
If you want to hide this banner from members, you can do so from Settings -> General:
Additionally, members accessing your community from an iOS web browser will see an app download banner at the top of the page:
If you want to hide this banner from members, you can do so from Settings -> General:
Can I opt my community out of being accessible from the app?
Yes, you can. You'll find a toggle to do this in Settings -> General which, when disabled, will make your community inaccessible from Circle's iOS app.
When is the Android app coming out?
We hear you! The Android mobile experience is important to us, too. While we're not actively working on an Android app just yet, we plan on starting it later in the year.
Thank you
A big show of gratitude to the 100+ communities which participated in the beta and were extremely patient with all of the rough edges 🙏
Thanks in particular to
Jay Clouse (he/him)
,
Buffy Owens
,
David Ferriol
,
Dan Fennessy
,
Alex Yungvirt
and
Jason Resnick
for bug reports and constructive suggestions 💪
And finally, thanks and congrats to members of our team who contributed to the app —
Codie Westphall
,
Darko Spasovski
,
Damir Stuhec
,
Rakesh Khicher
,
Puneet Sutar
,
Rudy Santino
, and
Karthik Ganesh
🍾 🎉
Thanks in particular to
And finally, thanks and congrats to members of our team who contributed to the app —
We've added some new customization options for topic cover images!
You can now upload a cover image file, enter the URL of an image from the web, or select a preset image from our integration with Unsplash, a repository for beautiful freely-usable images.
Image cropping
Images can now be auto-cropped to our recommended dimensions (840 x 300) with our built-in cropping tool.
Space-level control
And, last but not least — admins and space moderators now have space-level control on their members' ability to add cover images to their own topics.
Look out for the Prevent members from creating topics with a cover image toggle in space settings.
It's now possible for admins and moderators to share topics from private spaces & communities with a broader audience 🔓 ✅ 😄
To share a private topic, click on the Share button at the top right corner of the topic page, turn on the Share to web toggle, and copy the link to your clipboard by pressing Copy link.
Security
Of course — a feature like this isn't without its privacy and security considerations. So it's worth noting that:
- Private topics can only be shared by admins and moderators of the topic space.
- Anyone you share the unique link with will be able to access your topic, including members outside the space and logged out visitors.
- Non-members will not be able to see or post comments until they sign in, and unless they're a member of the topic space and community.
- The shared links are unique and non-guessable; as a result, they're only accessible by the people you share the link with. Think of these like links to a private Notion or Google Doc.
Layout customization
You can customize the layout of private topic links by turning on Minimal Layout. Since logged out visitors may not have access to the rest of your community, this mode lets your content shine front and center.
Here's an example of a shared private topic in minimal layout mode. (For full effect, make sure to view this in Incognito Mode.)
The Teaser only toggle lets you show just a teaser of the topic, enticing visitors to sign up or sign in with a call-to-action.
Here's something awesome: you can customize the call-to-action from Settings → General and point it to a custom landing page with your own copy.
Here's an example of a shared private topic in minimal layout mode. (For full effect, make sure to view this in Incognito Mode.)
The Teaser only toggle lets you show just a teaser of the topic, enticing visitors to sign up or sign in with a call-to-action.
Here's something awesome: you can customize the call-to-action from Settings → General and point it to a custom landing page with your own copy.
We can't wait to see what you do with this.
Happy new year from Team Circle! ❤️ 🎉
Happy new year from Team Circle! ❤️ 🎉
Circle now supports Single Sign-On (SSO) with Outseta, a powerful tool to help manage subscription businesses! This integration is available on every Circle plan. To set it up, please check out this tutorial.
This integration allows your members to use their Outseta login credentials to access their Circle account, allowing for a seamless experience between your Outseta site and Circle community. You can also automatically add new members or subscribers to your Circle community, so your community grows in tandem with your subscription business.
Since Circle supports Single Sign-On (SSO) via OAuth, you can now integrate Circle with Outseta, making it a seamless experience for your Outseta members to log in to your community!
These members won't have to sign up or log in with their Circle account — instead, they'll use Outseta credentials and access Circle from your log in page.
Outseta SSO is available on all plans.
🚨 If you plan to use a custom domain, set that up first as this will change your Callback URL. Not doing this first can potentially lead to being locked out of your account.
✅ Step 1: Set up Circle integration in Outseta
- Within Outseta, click on Settings → Integrations → OAuth. Then click 'Add Oauth Client'.
2. Name your integration, then jump into your Circle account and go to Settings → Single Sign-On to get your Callback URL. Enter the Callback URL back in Outseta, then click 'Add'.
2. Name your integration, then jump into your Circle account and go to Settings → Single Sign-On to get your Callback URL. Enter the Callback URL back in Outseta, then click 'Add'.
✅ Step 2: Copy Outseta SSO information to Circle
- Back in Circle, select "Outseta" as the OAuth provider by navigating to Settings → Single Sign-On.
- Then input the Client ID, Secret Key, and Outseta URL provided in Outseta. Click 'Save Changes'.
✅ Step 3: Enable SSO
🚨 As an admin, you will need to add yourself as a member on Outseta and use those credentials with Circle. We recommend keeping the "Allow members with a Circle account to sign in" toggle enabled to avoid getting locked out of your account while setting up your SSO integration. In the case this happens, you can easily sign in again with your Circle credentials.
Finally, toggle "Enable SSO" to "ON" at the top of the page.
- Allow members with a Circle account to sign in: If you have members that have already registered their email with Circle, they can still sign in with those credentials using a separate sign in button.
💡 What happens to Circle member accounts?
If this is toggled ON, Circle members can continue to login using the "Sign in with Circle" button. We will create accounts for Outseta members automatically on our backend if the email doesn't exist within Circle.
If this is toggled OFF, members with Circle accounts will no longer be able to sign in with those credentials unless the email of their Circle account matches the email of their Outseta account, in which case we'll link the two automatically going forward.
💡 What happens to my admin account?
If the email you use to log in to Outseta is different from Circle, we recommend toggling this ON to ensure you don't get locked out of your admin account. Once you grant admin rights to both accounts you can always toggle this off later.
If this is toggled OFF, you will only be able to log in under your email that is registered within Outseta.
- Allow members to sign up via a custom URL: After enabling SSO, members won't be able to sign up via Circle. However, you can keep the sign up button visible and point it to a custom URL.
🏁 If the setup was successful, you will now see your custom Single Sign-On option when trying to log in to your community!
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