2024 review, access groups, segments, and more
It’s hard to believe we’re almost at the end of the year.
2024 was the most exhilarating year we’ve ever had at Circle.
We shipped over 150 improvements — including Circle 3.0, Marketing Hub, Developer Platform, and more.
To give everyone perspective, I made a short video to recap the year:
(The team and I also put together a fun 2024 Year in Review page I’d recommend checking out.)
Recently, I was also reflecting on the fact that it’s been 5 years since Andy, Rudy, and I started Circle.
When we onboarded our first customer in Jan 2020, we really couldn’t have imagined being where we are today. And yet, it feels like we’re still in the early innings of something pretty special.
I’m grateful to the Circle team for their immense contributions this year.
We work hard to build a product we can be proud of for the rest of our lives, and we’re not going to slow down or settle for imperfection.
On another note, thank you so much to the Circle community for your trust in us, and for pushing us to become better every day.
We do this for you — it’s really that simple. And the impact you created this year has been nothing short of incredible.
Cumulatively, we saw a 2x+ improvement in our key metrics, including active members, engagement, and earnings.
Congratulations and happy holidays 🎉
I hope you take the time to recharge, celebrate your wins, and reflect on everything you’ve accomplished this year.
But before you go — the year’s not over yet.
We’ve got one final product update to share.
Let’s dive in!
Introducing access groups
One thing we’ve consistently heard from you is how time-consuming it can be to manage member access.
In the past, you had to manually set permissions for each member, space, or event — which often became complex to maintain as your community grew.
We know how important it is to keep access management simple. You want to feel confident that your members have access to the right spaces — and when you want to make adjustments, it should be easy and flexible.
That’s why we’re introducing Access groups: one central place to manage who gets access to different spaces, events, and resources in your community.
The way it works is simple.
Start by creating and naming your access group. Then, choose the spaces that members of the group will have access to. Finally, add members to the group.
Once you’ve defined your access group, there are several ways to bring members into an access group — something we call entry points:
- Paywalls: Assign an access group to a paywall, so members are added to the right spaces as soon as they purchase.
- Invitation links: When creating an invitation link, you can assign it to an access group, so members are automatically added to the right spaces when they accept.
- Bulk action workflows: Create a list of members based on specific attributes and add them to an access group all at once.
- Automated workflows: Setup automations so members are added to an access group after a specific trigger in your community.
- API / Zapier: Use API endpoints or Zapier actions to add your members to an access group.
- Default access: Set up your community defaults so new members are automatically added to a specific access group after sign up.
What makes access groups powerful and flexible is that you can set up an access group once, and then reuse that group across entry points. This way, you don’t have to manually track lists of members and the spaces they should belong to across entry points — access groups can help you automatically group each membership tier, cohort, or access level.
Examples
- Membership tiers: A coaching community creates “Gold” and “Silver” groups, giving Gold members access to mastermind sessions and premium content, while Silver members get core resources.
- Cohorted experiences: A cohort learning community creates new access groups for every cohort they onboard, for example: “Spring 2023”, “Summer 2024”.
- Unlock access based on actions: A parenting group uses a “Workshop Attendees” group to grant participants access to webinar recordings and a private Q&A once they RSVP to an event.
And here’s the best part:
When you update the spaces that belong to an access group, you can have these updates reflected automatically for its members.
In the next few months, access groups will also enable you to control access permissions based on time intervals. For example, you’ll be able to use access groups to set up areas in your community to be locked or unlocked after a set number of days.
Access groups begin rolling out today, and will be live across all communities by early January.
Once it’s rolled out for your community, you can start creating Access groups by going to Audience → Access groups.
Questions?
For more information about access groups, scroll to the bottom of this post to read the FAQ
Learn more about access groups →
Segments
In addition to access groups, another paradigm we’re introducing is Segments — a dynamic filtering system to help you organize your audience lists and engage them in more targeted ways.
By grouping contacts or members based on specific attributes — like tags, spaces, profile fields, activity, location or access groups — you can now create dynamic segments that automatically update as the attributes of your members change. This keeps your audience organized and ensures your targeting stays relevant without any extra work.
Once you create a segment, it’s ready to be used across your community. Instead of building filters repeatedly, you can define a segment once, and reuse it to filter your audience lists for email broadcasts, member management, or bulk action workflows.
Segments allow you to target the right members with the right messages at the right time with a minimal amount of effort, and to deliver more personalized experiences as you scale.
Examples
- Personalized email broadcasts: A wellness community creates a segment for members who joined within the last month to send them tailored “Getting Started” tips. Members are added upon joining, but removed automatically from the segment dynamically after 30 days have passed.
- Audience filtering: A parenting community creates a segment for parents with toddlers and uses it to share targeted resources like “Sleep Training Strategies.” Members have a custom profile field where they denote the age of their child. If they have a child that’s a toddler-age, they’re added to the segment. If that changes, they’re removed from the segment.
- Upselling opportunities: A professional development group targets members who attended a free webinar with a follow-up invitation to join their premium leadership course.
- Re-engagement: A fitness group filters members who haven’t logged in for 30 days and sends a Segment-specific discount for their upcoming boot camp. Members are added when it’s been 30 days since their last login.
Segments are available on all Circle plans starting today.
The best part? Segments are also fully integrated with Marketing Hub, enhancing features like email broadcasts and the Audience CRM.
Soon, we’ll be bringing segment filtering into analytics, allowing you to filter dashboards by segment.
Questions?
For more information about segments, scroll to the bottom of this post to read the FAQ.
Visual workflow builder
We’ve redesigned Workflows with a new visual canvas builder that makes it easier to create and manage your workflows.
Our new builder gives you a clear, visual layout of how each step connects, making it simple to plan, edit, and refine your workflows. Zoom out to get a big-picture view of your entire journey, or zoom in to fine-tune specific actions like sending emails, assigning spaces, or adding members to events.
This update doesn’t just improve usability — it also lays the foundation for advanced workflow features like branching logic in coming months (hint!).
Learn more about the visual workflow builder →
Track member invitation status
You can now track your members’ onboarding progress to see exactly where they are in the journey. To view a member’s invitation status navigate to Manage > Audience, click on the ellipsis menu next to a member’s name and click Edit. On the Overview card, you can see the member’s invitation status, clicking on the dropdown will let you view:
- When a member was invited
- When they open their invitation email
- When they submit their credentials in the invitation form
- When they confirm their profile after signing into the community
Learn more about member invitation status →
Unsubscribe members from emails and notifications
Admin can now unsubscribe members from community emails and notifications directly from their profile or the settings menu. On a member’s profile, click the edit icon, then go to the Actions dropdown and select Unsubscribe. Or, in Audience > Manage Audience, click the ellipsis next to a member’s name and choose Unsubscribe.
We’ve also released a new workflow action: Unsubscribe from email marketing for bulk actions and automations which will allow you manage your members’ marketing preferences at scale.
Learn more about how to manage email subscriptions →
Hide spaces from sidebar
We’ve made it easier for admins to organize spaces by introducing the option to hide spaces from the community sidebar. To hide a space, simply go to Spaces, click the ellipsis menu next to the space you want to hide, and toggle on Hide from sidebar. You can also enable this option through the Customize settings in any space.
Other updates
Marketing Hub contact count: If you have over 10,000 marketing hub contacts, you’ll now be able to view an accurate count of email marketing subscribed contacts.
Email notification for new DMs after 24hrs: If a DM is received more than 24 hours after the last message was sent, an email notification will be triggered to keep users updated on any new activity.
iOS improvements
We also shipped a few improvements to Circle’s iOS app:
- Support for courses directory
- Improved picture-in-picture experience
- Support for invitation links
- Deep-linking improvements
- Improved one-time password entry
- Member directory updates
- New “Live now” banners
- Support for poll vote undo
- Support for pinned chat messages
- Improved in-person event location display
- Performance, reliability, and UI/UX improvements
Android improvements
Plus, here are some improvements on Circle’s Android and Circle Plus branded apps:
- Search 2.0
- Support for custom names on menu tabs
- Save progress on video lessons
- Additional filters on member directory
- New message disabled banner
- Support for pinned messages in chat
- Added Copy URL to comments
- Added Live now banner
- Support for hiding spaces from sidebar
- Supporting deep-link URLs in emails
- Performance, reliability, and UI/UX improvements
FAQ
Access groups
How do I create an access group?
Admins can create an Access group from the Audience → Access groups tab in your admin area. Simply name the group, add a description, and assign members to the group. From there, you can define what spaces or features the group has access to.
Can I use multiple access groups for one member?
Yes, members can belong to multiple access groups, allowing you to layer access rules.
What happens to existing access settings?
For now, existing space-level access remains unchanged. Admins can opt-in to switch to access groups at their own pace.
To change the way access is currently set up in your community, go to the administrative page of an existing entry point (i.e. Edit space, Edit paywall) and switch it to an access group. From that point forward, all new members joining through that entry point will automatically be added to the access group(s) you’ve defined.
If you want to add existing members to an access group, simply navigate to the access group dashboard and click Add Members in the top-right corner. This will allow you to filter and select the specific members you’d like to include in the group.
NOTE: If you need to convert members with active subscriptions to access groups, please contact our support team for assistance.
Can I assign timed access to a group?
Not yet — timed access will be introduced in early Q1! With timed access, access groups will also enable you to control access permissions for specific time-based cohorts. For example, you’ll be able to lock or unlock areas in your community after a set number of days for a given cohort.
Can access groups manage permissions like messaging or profile visibility?
No. Currently, access groups are intended to solve for space access. In the future, we intend to improve the experience of controlling access to other types of permissions in the platform, like direct messaging or profile visibility.
How does this affect member onboarding?
Access groups can enhance onboarding by ensuring the right spaces are unlocked automatically, but the onboarding flow itself remains unchanged until and unless you start utilizing them.
Segments
Who can create segments?
Segments are available on all Circle plans and do not require a Marketing Hub subscription. With that said, Segments are deeply integrated into Marketing Hub to enhance features like Email Broadcasts and Audience CRM.
Can I nest segments?
No, but you can chain and combine segments. Example: Filter for members across Segment A and Segment B.
Will there be default segments?
Not at launch, but soon we will introduce ready-made options to get admins started quickly, like segments for new members, moderators, admins, and more.
Visual workflow builder
Does this change any current workflow functionality?
No, the release does not affect the functionality of Workflows. It’s purely a design and user experience update with no impact on how workflows operate.
Do I need to do anything to convert my existing workflows?
No, all existing workflows will automatically appear in the new visual editor.
Can I revert to the previous workflow design?
No, we are fully transitioning to the new design and will no longer support the old version of workflows. All customers will see the new UI.
💬 We’d love to hear from you in the comments. What were some of your highlights from 2024, and what are you most looking forward to in 2025?