Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, has made the decision to discontinue its Circle feature, marking the end of its somewhat troubled history. This feature enabled users to share posts exclusively with a select group of individuals, essentially serving as the platform’s response to Instagram’s “Close Friends” feature.

The company has announced that the Circle feature will be retired on October 31, 2023. After this date, users will no longer have the capability to create new posts limited to their Circle, nor will they be able to add new members to their existing Circles. However, the option to remove individuals from one’s Circle by unfollowing them will still be available.

X has also assured users that they will retain access to view their historical Circle posts even after the feature is discontinued.

Twitter initially introduced the Circle feature in August 2022, following a beta testing phase. Users were allowed to include up to 150 people in their Circle and were limited to creating just one Circle.

Earlier this year, concerns arose among users when they noticed that their Circle posts were not labeled with a green flag, leading them to believe that these posts were visible to all their followers. While this turned out to be a false alarm, in April, users reported instances where their Circle posts appeared in other people’s algorithmic timelines, known as the “For You” section. In May, the company acknowledged this issue as a “security incident” that may have allowed individuals outside of a user’s Twitter Circle to access Circle posts.