Managing your Circles

Learn how circles work to organize your memories and people.

This guide explains what Circles are and how to create and manage them.

Think of a Circle in two ways. First, as a folder: every memory you save belongs to exactly one circle, which keeps your archive organized. Second, as a membership: Ember is meant to be shared, so you can invite family and friends into a circle, and people in that circle who have an Ember account can see the memories shared there.

Circles come in 3 types: Family (for family members), Affiliation (for groups like classmates, an art club, work friends, or a sports team), and Self (your private vault — only you belong to it, and only you can see its memories unless you choose to publish and share them).

If you belong to more than one family circle, you can mark one as your Primary Family for quick access.

A memory always belongs to a single circle and can't be moved between circles — this is deliberate, for privacy and security. You can belong to many circles, and so can the people you share with. Billing is per circle, a lot like a Spotify Family Plan.

To view and manage your circles, open your People page (tap your profile photo in the top right) and choose Circles. If you're an admin, Manage Details lets you update the circle's photo, name, and admins, and handle invites and billing from the same place.

As you move around the app, a circle switcher near the top lets you filter what you see by circle — for example, to show only certain circles' topic invitations, or to view a different circle's memories on your home screen.

There are separate guides on how to invite people to circles and how to save memories to the right circle.