Twitter Launches New Circle Feature for Private Sharing

Twitter’s new Circle feature is rolling out to all users this week following a short beta-testing period. The feature pretty much works like the similarly named feature on the late Google+, and it will let users send tweets to a limited group of followers.

According to Twitter, this new private sharing option was a “highly requested feature.” During the beta testing period, Twitter noticed that users who had access to the feature tweeted more and got a higher engagement rate on circle tweets.

Well, Twitter Circle is now available to everyone on Twitter.com and the iOS and Android apps. However, Twitter users who prefer using third-party clients are out of luck.

If you’re using the official apps, you’ll now see an option to share your tweets with everyone or a specific circle with up to 150 followers. You can edit who’s in your circles at any time, and the people in them won’t be notified if you make any changes. Tweets sent to a circle will also appear with a green badge in the official Twitter apps.

While this new private sharing option is a nice addition, what Twitter users have been asking for years is an Edit button. The feature is currently in development, and Twitter said earlier this year that it will first become available as a “Labs” feature for Twitter Blue subscribers.