People
Following, followers, close friends, circles, and the three different ways to make someone go away.
Following
Following an account guarantees its posts are eligible for your feed; they are pinned into the candidate set and never cut by the cap. If your account is private, follows arrive as requests you approve in Settings, then Follow Requests.
Close friends and story groups
Close friends is one list, used to share stories with a smaller audience. Story groups are named audiences you define yourself, for example Work or Family. Both live in Settings, under Friends and Groups.
Circles
Circles, included from Sapphire, group the people you actually interact with rather than everyone you follow. They need real history to be meaningful, so they need around two weeks of activity, roughly twenty interactions and at least twenty-five contacts before they settle.
Making someone go away
| They know | They see your posts | They can message you | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mute | No | Yes | Yes |
| Restrict | No | Yes, limited reach | Held quietly |
| Block | Effectively yes | No | No |
Each has its own list in Settings, under Privacy and People. If someone is making you unsafe rather than merely annoying you, report them as well as blocking them. See Reporting.