Circles: audiences you curate

Circles are Seldeo's way of letting you share with a specific set of friends without either (a) leaving your whole friends list to see the post or (b) creating a separate private account. This article explains the mechanic; for the design philosophy behind Circles, see the news post Circles: audiences you actually control.

What's a circle?

A circle is a named group of friends. When you post to a circle, only those specific friends see the post. Common circles people create:

Close friends (median size: about a dozen)
Family
Roommates
Work colleagues — public-safe posts only
A specific event — "Rachel's wedding weekend," "Colorado trip 2026," "Nana's memorial gathering"

Circles are private to you. A friend can't see which circles they're in, or which circles exist on your account. Circle names never appear in notifications, reactions, share sheets, or in-app search.

Create a circle

Open Seldeo and go to Settings → Circles → New circle.
Give the circle a name (e.g. "Close friends") and, optionally, an emoji or icon.
Add friends. You can add or remove people at any time — they aren't notified.
Tap Save.

Your circles show up in the audience picker on every post composer. The most recently used circles appear at the top of the list under "Recent."

Post to a circle

Compose a post as usual.
In the audience picker at the top of the composer, tap the current audience and pick a circle (or multiple circles).
Publish.

The picker remembers your last audience choice for the next compose, so a run of posts to the same circle doesn't require re-selecting the audience each time. The one exception: after a Public post, the picker resets to Friends for the next composer. Widening back to Public is always an explicit tap.

Post to multiple circles at once

You can select more than one circle when composing. Friends who are in both circles see the post once, with no indication that you chose more than one audience. Friends in only one of the circles see the post as they would any other circle post.

Move friends between circles

Long-press a friend in Settings → Circles → [circle name] and choose Move to…. Friends can be in as many circles as you like at the same time.

Delete a circle

Settings → Circles → [circle name] → Delete circle.

The circle is removed from your device and stops being a target for future posts.
Posts you already published to the circle stay visible to the people who were in it at publish time.
If you also want to revoke access to those older posts, delete the posts individually or archive them.

Friends don't see circle membership

Circles are private to you. A friend cannot see:

Which circles they're in on your account.
Which circles exist on your account.
Which other people are in a circle they're in.

If you post to two circles and a friend is in both, they see the post once with no indication of the audience. Circle names never appear on any surface that isn't under Settings → Circles on your own device.

Auto-suggested circles

If you enable Suggest circles under Settings → Privacy → Personalisation, Seldeo suggests new circles based on who reacts to and replies to your posts.

The suggestion is computed on your device — the underlying data never leaves the phone.
Suggested circles appear with a "Suggested" chip in your Circles list.
Suggestions are advisory only. Nothing changes on your account until you save the circle yourself.

You can turn suggestions off at any time; existing circles are unaffected.

Change the audience of a post you already published

Tap the ⋮ menu on the post → Change audience.
Pick a new audience (public, friends, a different set of circles, or only me).
Confirm.

Widening a post to a larger audience always requires an extra tap of confirmation. Narrowing a post (removing an audience) does not; that direction is safer.

Circles and stories

The story composer has the same audience picker as the post composer. You can share a story to a specific circle without making it visible to your full friends list. Story circles work the same as post circles.

What circles are not

Circles are not lists that friends can join or request access to. Nobody is notified when they're added to a circle, and nobody can ask to be added.
Circles are not a follower model. Seldeo is a friends-of-friends network; circles filter within your friend graph, they don't extend it.
Circles are not shared. Two friends who each have a circle called "Family" are curating two independent audiences that happen to share a name.

Sharing a post
Product context: Circles: audiences you actually control
Product context: Stories vs. broadcast