Circles and invitations
Gathering people into a group, inviting them, and who can do what.
A circle is a group of people who share with each other — one family, one set of friends, one office exchange. You can be in as many as you like, and what you share with one is invisible to the others.
Creating one and inviting people
Create a circle from Circles, then invite people by email address. They get a link. When they accept, they're a member.
The circle's page shows you exactly where everyone stands:
- Members — who's in
- Waiting on — invited, hasn't answered yet. You can Resend if it's been a while, or cancel the invitation.
- Declined — said no. Shown so it doesn't look like you forgot to invite them.
- Expired — the link ran out before it was used. Resend to try again.
If someone's invitation went to the wrong address, cancel it and send another.
Hosts
Whoever creates a circle is its host. Hosts can invite and remove people, share and unshare, run a name draw, and close the circle.
A host can make another member a host — useful so a circle doesn't depend on one person being available. A host can also step down, as long as somebody else is still hosting.
Leaving and closing
Any member can leave a circle. You stop seeing what's shared there, and anything you reserved stays claimed so nobody double-buys — you'd need a fresh invitation to come back.
A host can close a circle entirely. That disconnects everyone, cancels outstanding invitations, and unshares everything shared there. The lists themselves are untouched; they just stop being visible to that group.
What a circle can see
Only what's been shared into it. Being in a circle with someone doesn't show you their lists — they choose, list by list, circle by circle. See sharing and surprises.
Still stuck, or spotted something wrong? Get in touch — a real person reads it.