A WhatsApp inbox lists people one by one, but the people you deal with do not work one by one. The five staff at a client company, a family that books together, a school committee, a project team: when one of them writes, the chat in front of you knows nothing about the other four, or about who among them decides and who only asks.
A circle puts those people together and gives each one a role that only means something inside that circle. Open any member’s chat and the others are listed beside it, with their roles, one click from their own chat. It is a way for your team to organize contacts, and the rest of this page is exact about what it does and where it stops.
What a circle is
A circle is a named group of contacts that belongs to your account, for example "Acme Ltd" for the people you deal with at one client company. Each member can have a role in that circle, such as Boss, Secretary, Tech or Accounting, or any role you type yourself. The role describes the person inside that circle only: someone can be the Boss in one circle and an ordinary member of another.
A contact can belong to several circles, and a circle can hold up to 200 people. Every circle has a name, unique within your account, and can have a color and an icon so it is easy to recognize at a glance.
- Members are people: saved contacts, or chats with a person. WhatsApp groups, newsletters and Spun chats cannot be added.
- Adding a chat whose number is not saved yet creates an unsaved contact named with the phone number, so nothing has to be prepared first.
- Circles sit alongside the contact’s company, department and job title fields. They do not replace them.
- A deleted contact leaves its circles. An archived contact stays listed.
What you see when a member writes
Open the chat of anyone in a circle and the contact panel shows a Circles section on its Main tab, just below Labels. Each circle lists its other members with their roles, and the person whose chat is open is marked "this chat". Click any member to go straight to their chat.
So when the secretary at a client writes to confirm a visit, the boss who has to approve it and the technician who will turn up are on the same screen, one click away. A member with no phone number or email saved cannot be opened, and the row says so instead of failing silently.
The same Circles section, with the same controls, appears when you open a contact on the Contacts page.
Roles that only mean something inside the circle
A role belongs to the membership, not to the contact. That is what lets one person carry a different role in each circle they are in, while their contact card stays the same.
| Circle | Member | Role in that circle |
|---|---|---|
| Acme Ltd | Maria | Boss |
| Acme Ltd | James | Secretary |
| Acme Ltd | Tom | Tech |
| Parents committee | Tom | Chair |
| Miller family | Sarah Miller | Family |
Boss, Manager, Employee, Secretary, Tech, Accounting, Owner and Family are suggested, along with the roles your account already uses. Type anything else to make your own, or leave the role empty.
Building a circle
- 1
Start from a chat
Open a person’s chat, find Circles in the contact panel and press "Add to circle". Pick an existing circle, or type a new name and choose a color. You can give the person a role in the same step.
- 2
Add the others
Inside the circle, press "Add member" and search by name, number or email. Press "Add role" on a member to set their role, or the X to take them out; Undo on the notice puts them back.
- 3
Or drag them in
On a computer, drag any chat from the chat list onto a circle in the Circles section to add that person. Drop it on "Drop a chat here to start a new circle" to start one with both people; the open contact’s company is suggested as the name.
- 4
Or work from the Contacts page
Its Circles tab lists every circle in the account. Search by name, sort by name, most members or newest, and press "New circle" to create one without opening a chat.
- 5
Add many people at once
On the Contacts page, tick the contacts you want, press "Add to circle" in the bar that appears and pick a circle or type a new name. People already in the circle are not added twice and keep their role.
Circles across the inbox
Once circles exist, they show up where you already work, without changing how any of those screens behave.
- Chat list: a chat whose contact is in a circle shows a small colored dot for each circle, up to two and then a "+" with how many more. Point at the dots to see the circles’ names.
- Circles filter: press "Circles" beside the Labels filter and tick one or more circles to see only their chats. It is not kept in saved filters, and choosing a saved filter clears it.
- Pipeline board: a card whose contact is in a circle shows the first circle and the role there, for example "Acme Ltd: Boss, +3". "Peek at messages" lists each of the contact’s circles with the other members and their roles, and a click opens a member’s chat. The board only shows circles, and moving cards works as before.
- Contacts page: the Circles tab shows every circle, its members and their roles, with the same add, remove, rename, recolor and delete controls.
Who can see and change circles
A circle belongs to the account, not to the person who made it, so the whole team works from the same circles. What each teammate can do follows the access they already have.
| Teammate | What they can do | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Managers and the circle’s creator | Rename the circle, change its color or icon, delete it | Deleting a circle never touches the contacts or their chats |
| Teammates who can edit contacts | Create circles, add and remove members, set and change roles | Within the chats they can see |
| Read-only teammates and view-only shares | See circles and their members | No changes |
A teammate who sees only some chats sees only the members they can see, and a circle with none of their people in it is hidden from them. Being in a circle never lets anyone open a chat they could not open before.
What a circle deliberately is not
A circle is a way for your team to see who belongs together. Knowing where it stops is what keeps it predictable.
- It sends nothing. Creating a circle or adding someone to it sends no message and changes nothing on WhatsApp, and the people in it are never told.
- It is not a label. A label marks a chat or a contact; a circle connects people to each other and gives each one a role. The two work side by side.
- It does not change access. A circle never widens what a teammate can see or open.
- It does not replace contact fields. Company, department and job title stay on the contact, and the circle sits beside them.
- Deleting a circle deletes only the circle. The contacts, their chats and their other circles are untouched.
- It holds people only. Groups, newsletters and Spun chats cannot be members.