Buy Now Pay Later, workflow improvements, and 15+ other updates
This month, we took a breather after a stretch of major back-to-back releases, focusing on quality-of-life improvements. Next month, we’ll follow up with a slew of big announcements — stay tuned!
In the meantime, let’s check out everything we launched recently 👇
Increase conversions with Buy Now, Pay Later
You can now drive higher conversion rates by giving your members Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options including Affirm, Klarna, and Afterpay with Circle paywalls.
Why enable BNPL?
✅ Boost new member sign-ups: You can reduce sticker shock by increasing affordability.
✅ Improve cashflow: You’ll get paid upfront while your members pay over time. No more defaulting payments!
✅ Flexible payment options: By allowing members to split their payments into smaller installments, you can offer them more flexibility and lower financial barriers.
✅ Enhance trust and credibility: BNPL providers like Affirm, Klarna, and Afterpay are widely recognized and trusted, giving your members confidence in their payment options.
✅ Seamless checkout experience: When toggled on in your community, these new payment options will be added to your checkout experience for a frictionless payment process.
How to enable BNPL for your community
Switching on BNPL is easy! Simply navigate to Paywalls → Settings and toggle on the payment providers you’d like to offer at checkout.
Important note: Once enabled, payment providers will review your business to ensure compliance with their policies. If your business does not meet a provider’s requirements, their payment option will be automatically removed from your checkout.
Learn more about buy now pay later →
Workflow improvements
Is empty / Is not empty filters
We’ve introduced powerful new filter options to help you quickly identify members with uncompleted profile fields—giving you better insight and control over your community data.
You can apply the Is empty / Is not empty filters to the following fields:
- Name
- Bio, location, headline
- Any text-based profile fields
- Any array-based profile fields (coming in ~2 weeks)
Use these filters under Manage audience and Broadcast audience to find members with missing information.
You can also use these filters to trigger workflows — making it easier than ever to keep member profiles complete and up to date.
Archive workflows
You now have the ability to archive workflows, giving you more flexibility in managing your automations.
When you archive a workflow, the automation is fully deactivated, preventing any future actions (e.g., sending emails or adding a member to a space etc.) to members. This differs from simply deactivating a workflow, which only stops new members from entering while allowing existing members to flow through the automation.
To archive a workflow, go to Workflows and click on the ellipsis menu of an active workflow and select Archive. You’ll be able to find a list of all archived workflows on the Archived tab.
Customize headline field
You can now tailor the built-in headline field to better fit your community’s needs with new customization options:
- Edit the label, placeholder, and description to match the information you’d like to collect.
- Set field requirements as optional or required.
- Choose whether and where the headline appears, including Create profile, Edit profile, and View profile.
Plus, there’s a new Visible in profile highlights setting. When enabled, the headline will only show in profile highlights and will be hidden from posts, comments, likes, leaderboards, search, and other areas.
To customize the headline field, navigate to Audience > Profile fields and click on Manage to open the profile fields modal.
New DM settings
We’ve introduced new controls to help you manage direct messaging (DMs) in your community. Here’s what’s new:
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Enable messaging: Allow members to send one-on-one messages and create group DMs. (Note: This does not affect chat spaces or live stream chats.)
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Enable member-to-member messaging: When turned on, members can DM each other and chat in chat rooms. When turned off, they can only message admins, and member chat rooms will be hidden. (Admins will always be able to message members.)
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Enable group messaging: Lets members create and participate in group chat rooms.
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Enable voice messaging: Allow members to send and receive voice messages in DMs and chat spaces.
To manage direct messaging in your community go to Settings > Messaging.
Additionally, we’ve updated how the Prevent members from messaging me toggle functions for admins. When enabled, you can still message members, but they won’t be able to initiate conversations with you or reply. To adjust this, click the bell icon in the header, go to Settings > Account Settings and scroll down to the toggle.
New live layout options
Hosts now have three layout options to enhance the viewing experience in live rooms and live streams:
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Speaker - top: Moves the speaker’s frame to the top of the screen, offering more horizontal space when in spotlight mode. Resembles Zoom!
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Speaker - side: Moves the speaker frame to the side of the screen.
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Gallery: Displays all speakers and participants in a tiled format for a more interactive feel.
Customize labels in courses
Admins now have the flexibility to customize their Lesson and Section headings in courses, making them better fit for your content.
You can choose from the below labels to match your course structure:
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Sections can be labeled as Chapter, Level, Module, Part, Path, Phase, Section Stage, Track, Unit or Week—or keep the default label Section.
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Lessons can be labeled as Activity, Assignment, Challenge, Class, Day, Exercise, Lecture, Lesson, Session, Topic, Tutorial, or Workshop—or keep the default label Lesson.
Easily update these labels at a global level from the Courses Directory, or customize them for individual courses by clicking on the ellipsis dropdown menu and selecting Edit Labels.
Permanently delete or ban member accounts
We’re making it easier to manage member access with two new options: Permanently delete or Ban member accounts.
On a member’s profile page, you’ll now see three options:
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Deactivate member accounts: Removes member access. The member won’t be able to log in unless re-invited by an admin. Their profile will remain inactive, but their posts, comments, likes, and chat messages will be visible in the community.
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(New) Permanently delete member account: Permanently removes the member’s account, including all their posts, comments, likes, and chat messages. They will not be able to rejoin the community unless invited by an admin.
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(New) Ban member account: Functions similarly to Permanently delete member account but also records and blocks the member’s IP address to prevent future access to the community.
Please note: If you ban a member, the IP addresses they’ve used in the last 30 days will be banned. However, they could still rejoin your community using a different IP address. To unban a member, you’ll need to contact Circle support.
These new options give you more control over your community experience, ensuring a safer and more engaging experience for everyone.
Learn more about how to manage member access →
Other updates
Streamlined paywall checkout for SSO communities: Now when a non-signed-in member reaches checkout on a single sign-on (SSO) enabled community, they’ll be redirected to authenticate seamlessly from your paywall checkout page. This improvement is available to all communities using Circle paywalls with SSO.
New member notifications: You can now choose to receive a notification whenever a new member completes their profile and joins your community. To enable or disable these notifications, click the bell icon, then the settings icon, and scroll down to New members join to adjust your preferences.
Faster processing times for bulk member invitations using CSVs: We’ve reduced the processing time for large CSV imports.
New image options in Marketing Hub email editor: Images in the email editor now retain their original size upon upload, giving you greater control over their appearance. Plus, you can choose from four alignment options—left, center, right, or full width and also attach links to images.
New Zapier actions for access groups: You can now manage member access with these new Zapier actions:
- Add member to access group: Adds member to selected access group.
- Remove member from access group: Removes member from selected access group.
Invite link page redesign: We’ve refreshed the invite link page with a new intuitive and sleek design.
iOS improvements
We also shipped a few improvements to Circle’s iOS app:
- Updated posts and events UI
- Admin support for member invitations
- Improved access to ongoing events and past event recordings
- Support for chat message pinning
- Re-enabled typing auto-correct
- Improved deep-linking to chat messages
- Support for GIFs in messages and comments
- Updates for embeds, events, courses, and live rooms and streams
- Performance, reliability, and UI/UX improvements
Android improvements
Plus, here are some improvements on Circle’s Android and Circle Plus branded apps:
- Support for New member joined notifications
- Real-time notifications
- HLS video on event recordings
- Support for multiple filters on Member directory
- Performance, reliability, and UI/UX improvements
🚀 February’s community challenge: Share your favorite workflow 🎯
Running a community can be tough without the right systems in place. That’s where workflows come in! They’re the secret to automating, scaling, and simplifying your community without the stress.
This month, we’re challenging you to show off your favorite Circle workflow!
Whether it’s an automation that saves you hours, a workflow that keeps your community engaged, or a system that has completely transformed the way you manage things, we want to hear about it!
By participating, you’ll not only help and inspire your peers, but you’ll also discover new ideas to make your own community even better.
Oh, and did we mention? There’s an awesome prize up for grabs! 👀🎁