X to discontinue ‘Circles’ feature by October

MANILA, Philippines — X, formerly Twitter, has announced its plan to retire its Circles feature by Oct. 31, 2023. 

This development, revealed on September 22 (PST) via a Public Service Announcement by X Support, marks the end of selective sharing on the platform.

Launched on Aug. 30, 2022, Circle is a feature that lets users limit who can read their tweets — or now, posts— to a smaller audience of up to 150 people.

Although X did not provide a specific explanation for the shutdown of the feature, Elon Musk had already hinted at the company's intentions back on July 8.

"We're deprecating Circles in favor of improved Communities & DM group chat," Musk posted, in response to a concern regarding the engagement of X's community features. 

Following X’s decision, users will no longer have the option to create new posts limited to their Circles by November, nor will they be able to add new members to these exclusive groups.

However, according to X’s post in its help center, the ability to manage Circles will remain available as users can still remove individuals from their Circles by simply unfollowing them.