🎤 August release: Voice notes, AI actions, and more

This month’s releases focus on making conversations more dynamic, and giving your AI Agents new ways to engage members. Alongside a handful of other improvements to make community management smoother.

We're hard at work on our next big release, coming in September, and we can't wait to share.

Let’s see what’s new this month.

Voice notes in posts and comments

You’ve been asking for it. Voice notes are no longer limited to chat: you can now record them directly in posts and comments. Whether it’s leaving quick feedback, sharing a more personal message, or capturing nuance that text can’t, voice adds a new layer of connection to your community conversations.

To try it, use the /record slash command or click the mic icon in the editor when creating a post or comment.

Voice notes are available on all Circle plans.

Bonus tip: If automated transcriptions are enabled, your voice notes will also display a transcript, making it easy for members to skim the note.

New AI actions to power your automations

We’ve added three powerful new AI actions to help you engage members, keep your community organized, and save time:

1. Agent sends a DM: Automatically send personalized direct messages triggered by specific member activities — from joining a course to completing a lesson, RSVPing to an event, or subscribing to a paywall.

A few examples of what you can now do with this action:

• Welcome new members to a space or course and offer tips
• Send event reminders the day before
• Nudge trial members to upgrade before their trial ends
• Encourage quiz retries with hints after a failed attempt

2. AI renames post titles: Automatically rewrite post titles based on your style guide or a custom prompt (e.g., “Make vague titles more engaging”). This helps you improve discoverability while maintaining your brand voice.

3. AI edits post settings: Automate moderation tasks to keep discussions tidy and focused. This allows you to close comments on resolved threads, hide irrelevant posts from featured areas, and hide meta info (like author name).

Improvements to AI knowledge engine

You can now curate what your AI Agent knows by limiting to admin content, excluding hidden posts, or only using knowledge after a specific date.

We’ve also expanded your agent’s learning sources. It can now pull insights from video transcripts in posts and SRT files, so you no longer need to convert transcripts before uploading, making responses even more accurate and context-rich.

Other updates

Media manager: A central hub for all your community’s media. See total storage usage, browse uploaded files, and get alerts when you’re approaching plan limits. (Delete capability coming soon.)

Tax ID in member profiles: Members and admins can now add or update Tax ID information anytime from the member profile. Includes special handling for Brazilian communities where Tax ID is required.

Course improvements: You can now duplicate individual lessons and quizzes instead of copying an entire course, making iteration faster and easier. Click here to learn more.

Course member onboarding: A refreshed onboarding flow guides course members through getting started so they’re more likely to stay engaged.

Coupons for paywalls and paid events: Now you can choose exactly where coupons apply — to all paywalls/events, specific ones, or exclude them entirely. Works with subscriptions, installments, and one-time purchases, making it easy to run targeted promotions without discounting premium content. Click here to learn more.

Business name field in paywall checkout: Members can now add or update their business name during checkout. Once entered, it will appear on their invoice and can be updated under Account Settings > Billing.

Update schedule for recurring events: Managing your recurring events is now more flexible. You can adjust the date, time, or repeating schedule, and choose whether the changes apply to just one event or the entire series. Once updated, your members will automatically receive email notifications and refreshed calendar invites.

Full-page notification view: Stay on top of everything happening in your community with a dedicated notifications page. View all your updates in one convenient place, making it easier than ever to keep track of activity.

Deep linking to comments in chat: You can now reference specific comments by copying and pasting their URL directly into chat spaces.

Auto-join live streams: Attendees who join live streams early can now enable an option to automatically enter the live stream as soon as the event begins.

iOS improvements

We also shipped a few improvements toCircle’s iOS app:

• Support for AI summaries in post comments
• New sorting options added to navigation bar
• Improvements to media playback progress
• “Near me” filter added to member directory
• Support for custom pages
• Refreshed course overview page
• Support for deep-linking to specific chat messages
• Performance, reliability, and UI/UX improvements

Android improvements

Plus, here are some improvements onCircle’s Android andCircle Plus branded apps:

• Support for AI Summaries in feed and spaces
• “Near me” filter added to member directory
• New sorting options added to navigation bar
• Added new (+) button for creating posts and going live
• Performance, reliability, and UI/UX improvements

Circle on CBS’s Economy 4.0

We’ve been keeping this under wraps, and I’m so excited to share: Circle is featured in CBS’s documentary series, Economy 4.0, launching globally this August.

The episode highlights how Circle empowers creators to build on their own terms, featuring the incredible story of Anne-Laure Le Cunff and her thriving Ness Labs community.

It’s an honor to see Circle recognized alongside some of the world’s most innovative companies, and we’re grateful to share this journey with you.

Watch documentary

📚 New Circle Academy course: Member onboarding

Your onboarding sets the tone for everything. Done right, it sparks engagement, helps new members see value from day one, and turns them into true champions for your community.

That is why we’ve added a Member Onboarding course to Circle Academy. It’s a step by step framework packed with examples, templates, and guidance to help you design an onboarding journey that works.

As a bonus, the first 50 people to complete the course will be invited to an exclusive office hours session, and the first 10 will receive personalized 1:1 feedback on their onboarding map.

Take course now