Circles

Starting a circle, posting by email, text, phone call, or the website, and choosing how you hear from it.

• Share family photos by text or email

  A circle is a private space for your family or group. Text or email a photo, or post on the website, and everyone in it sees it.

• Start a circle for your family or group

  Start a private circle for your family or group, give it a name, and invite people by email or text. There's no app to download.

• Add a picture for your circle

  Give your Circle a picture so everyone can spot it at a glance — on your shelf and at the top of the Circle's page.

• How do I leave a circle?

  Step out of a Circle whenever you like — and if you're the person who set it up, hand it to someone else first.

• I was invited to a circle but nothing arrived

  If a circle invitation hasn't reached you, check spam and filtered texts, then ask the person who invited you to send it to the address or number you use.

• Manage your circle's posts and members

  Edit or delete your own posts, invite or remove people, and share the right number with everyone.

• Rename or close a circle

  Change your Circle's name, or close one you're finished with — everything you've shared stays right where it is.

• Change your profile picture by text or email

  Send a photo to your Circle captioned "profile" and it becomes your profile picture — no app needed.

• Hide a post from your own feed

  Hide a post from your own view of the circle. Nobody else sees a change, nobody is told, and you can show it again any time.

• React to a post with just an emoji

  Reply to your circle by text or email with nothing but an emoji, and it shows up as a reaction on what you're replying to.

• Switch between your circles

  In more than one circle? Switch between them from the circle's name in the top bar, or start from your shelf.

• Add the real date to an old photo

  Sharing an old photo today? Tell us the date it's actually from, separate from the day you're posting it.

• What a circle subscription includes

  What a circle subscription adds, how any member can start one, and what happens when it renews, is cancelled, or ends.

• Download all of your circle's photos

  A complete download of everything shared in a Circle, for the Circle's owner. It works the same whether the Circle is free, paused, or subscribed.

• Browse your circle's photos full screen

  Open any photo full screen, move between them with a swipe, and save one to your own device.

• Call your circle and leave a voice message

  Your circle's phone number takes calls too. Leave a voice message after the tone, and it's shared with everyone, with a written transcript.

• Why are my photos grouped into a chapter?

  A weekend or a trip that brought lots of photos at once appears as a single cover tile you can tap into.

• Create your own chapter in a circle

  Gather photos already in your circle into a chapter of your own, with a name, a cover, and the days it covers, up to 200 photos.

• Pin highlights and fix a chapter's dates

  Pin the best photos to the top of a chapter, and set or correct the days the chapter covers. Anyone in the circle can do both.

• Read what was said in a video

  Videos and voice notes get written down automatically, and the person who shared one can correct the words.

• Choose how you hear from your circle

  Choose how often we email or text you about a Circle — the moment something happens, a daily or weekly summary, or not at all.

• When someone new joins your circle

  When someone new joins your circle, a short line appears with the photos and notes so everyone can say hello or react.

• Share web links in your circle

  Text or email a link to your Circle and it shows up with a picture and a title, ready to tap.

• Tagging people in your circle

  Name the people in a photo or post shared to your circle. Members you tag get a notification; anyone else just gets their name on the post.

• Getting started with your circle

  The first steps in a new circle: make your first post, choose how you hear from it, and catch up on what's new since your last visit.

• Search your circle's posts and comments

  Search the posts, captions, and comments in your circle by keyword, put a phrase in quotes, and open any result to read it.

• The People page in your circle

  See circle members and the people and pets named or tagged in posts, fix a name, and tell us when two entries are the same person, or not.

• Can I undo something I sent by text?

  Sent the wrong photo to your Circle? Text back the word "undo" and it comes straight back off.

• Edit a post you shared in your circle

  Fix a typo or finish a thought. Change the words on a post you shared while keeping its photo and comments.

• See your circle's places on a map

  See the places your circle has written about on a map, and put a place on the map, move its pin, or take it off.

• The Places page in your circle

  See the places your circle has talked about, open one to find the posts and photos that mention it, and put a name right.

• How much of your location your circle sees

  For each circle you belong to, choose whether your posts show the exact spot, the general area, or nowhere at all.

• How we suggest where a place is

  Sometimes ShareLocket asks whether a place is the right one. Here is what it looks at and what you can answer.

• How ShareLocket organizes your circle

  How ShareLocket gathers shared posts into collections, how you decide on a suggested one, and how to turn this off for your own posts.

• Ask About Counts, Dates, and Ages

  Ask how many, when, or how long ago, and get an answer worked out from your circle's own posts, with the posts it used so you can check.

• Ask Your Circle a Question

  Type a question where you'd normally search, and get an answer from your circle's own posts.

• Reading a collection

  Read a collection of letters and stories a page at a time, in the words people wrote, with text you can enlarge and a list of contents.

• Saving a collection as a book

  See a whole collection as one document, with a cover and contents, then save it as a PDF or print it to keep.

• The Timeline in your circle

  See every post on the day it happened, find the ones without a date, and check your family's birthdays and anniversaries.

• Music in your circle

  Listen to the music in a collection, and choose whether an audio post is filed as music, a voice recording, or unknown.

• Relationships in your circle

  Explore how the people in your circle are related, with the posts each link comes from, as a diagram or as a list you can read.

• Tables in your circle

  See a collection as a table you can sort by any column, load more rows, and open the post each value came from.

• Find people, collections, chapters, and albums

  Everyone in your Circle, everything you've talked about, and every album made there — all in one place under Collections & more.

• Gift ideas in your circle

  Add, edit, and remove gift ideas for people in your circle, with clear labels showing who added each one or which post it came from.

• Write a family story in your circle

  Write something longer than a caption, with a title and formatting, and share it with everyone in your circle.

• Find your unfinished drafts in a circle

  Everything you start writing in a Circle is saved as you type. Here is how to pick it back up or throw it away.

• Show family photos on a digital frame

  Picture frames need a Circle subscription. Your frames stay listed if the subscription ends.