Today we’re starting the process of merging the best features from Groups and Circles into a single community feature called… Groups. (In this article we will refer to the new Groups as Groups V2 and the existing groups as Groups V1). This is a very complex piece of work and so we kindly ask for your patience. The project has been split into two phases.
Phase 1: Prepare Circles for the merger.
Rolling out progressively in October
To migrate Circles into Groups V2 we need to add functionality to them first (things like forums and moderators) so they are compatible with Groups V2. This means your Circles will look different soon. They will have a new primary “Feed” which contains Posts & Replies (identical to Groups V1 functionality), and chat will be moved to a secondary tab. This change ensures people can post questions and replies for much more in depth conversations, but also continue to chat in real time if they wish.
Circle Administrators will also be able to assign Moderators and specify who has permission to create new Posts and/or Recommend content.
Read FAQs about Circle Admin and Moderator permissions.
In phase 1, your Circles will still be called Circles and remain on the fourth tab of the app. There are no changes to Groups V1 during this phase.
This is what your Circles will look like for Phase 1.
Phase 2: Launch Groups V2
Rolling out late November
Once we have finished preparing Circles, we will then release Groups V2. This phase is part of a much larger release coming in November, which involves an entirely new Insight Timer experience. Our CEO Christopher will have more to say about this in a few weeks time.
Groups V2 will breathe new life into our community. They look nicer, they load faster, they’re more discoverable, they have better privacy tools, and they give admins and moderators more control. We will be adding many more features to Groups V2 throughout 2022.
Many thanks,
Insight Timer
