Circles App Wants

[wlewis]

We are looking at the Circles APP again for the leadership in our Stake. I believe The Circles App could be a great benefit for leaders if it could have some options.

I will probably be told this is not something that will be coming or needed, but here it goes.

We use a lot of text messaging for disseminating information to a group. The problem that you face with using IOS is you are limited to the number of persons that can be on a text stream. I believe the number is 20. When you are trying to send information to ten ward's bishoprics you over run the number 20 pretty quickly.
In our Youth Council we use "Group Me" to over come this limitation. So now I have two apps to cover, regular texting and now "Group Me". Circles is being looked at again but I see a lot of limitations. This might be from my limited knowledge of how to use it.

Can we build our own Circles? Like Bishoprics or make one for our Youth Council? If not will we be able to in the future.
This is our main question. We are getting push back because the leaders don't want to add another app to look at. Hoping we can move everyone to circles and get off the other servers.

Thanks

[russellhltn]

The church rarely shares their plans with us in advance.

Since you are in the stake, I'd suggest you bring it up with your coordinating council. That would have more impact than the usual feedback in the app.

[jdlessley]

I will probably be told this is not something that will be coming or needed ...

Actually we'll let you know we don't have any inside information or contacts with anyone in authority to discuss development plans or timelines. The Tech Forum is user-to-user discussion and collaborative self help. We are users just like you.

Can we build our own Circles? ... If not will we be able to in the future.

That capability is not yet available. In a Church News article a number of years ago ,that was one of the development items promised along with nonmember access for friends of the Church.

[wlewis]

Thank you for your input and information.

[Victornyepon]

I am using the Iphone old version, so; I can't get the Gospel App on my phone. Can something be done about it?

[davesudweeks]

I am using the Iphone old version, so; I can't get the Gospel App on my phone. Can something be done about it?

Other than purchasing a newer phone, probably not. I believe this is not driven by the church - it is driven by the OS manufacturers (Apple and Android). As they implement newer requirements in OS versions, that eventually prevents the apps from being used on older hardware.

[mfassbinder]

+1 on having circles groups for stake leaders. This would be helpful.

[MikeMallett]

There needs to be ways to create new circles, add people to circles, and remove people from circles.

The Circles app (Technically the Living App but we all call it the Circles App) has good potential, but it misses functionality that might make it useful. For example when you have complex family situations where you have separated parents or grandparents acting as guardians for children it's not super easy to get people who should be in circles added to the circles they should be in. One example I would cite is a situation where one parent lived in another stake after a divorce, but the children attend my ward because the other parent was in my ward at that time. It is hard enough to keep the kids informed when both parents are together, but when you have a situation where one parent is out of the loop on communications that is not good for preventing kids from going inactive. Communication and engagement is key, but both parents need to be involved even when they attend another stake or ward. Being able to add parents or grandparents outside the ward manually would be one way to help with this.

The same thing could be said for certain callings. When I was a Temple and Family History Leader there is no circle for the members who attend the Temple and Family History Coordination Meetings. When you use the Member Tools website you can text everyone or eMail everyone with a specific Temple and Family History Callings, but there are other people who are not included in this list of callings. For example a member of the EQ Presidency, a member of the RS Presidency, A young man and a young woman leader, and a Primary Presidency member have to be manually added to any communications. When you try to communicate with all of the people involved in TFH work there is no easy one way to do it. It would be nice to be able to use the Circles App to invite people to the meetings rather than needing to create a new cell phone group text message every time one calling changes. In other words you should be able to create new circles for specific things like TFH or building security or other similar groups or auxiliaries. Right now the app decides which circle you are in as near as I can tell. Without some sort of local control I really don't plan to use it much.

[BrianEdwards]

There needs to be ways to create new circles, add people to circles, and remove people from circles.....

As mentioned previously in this thread, the Tech Forum primarily serves as a location for user-to-user self help and discussion, and is not connected to any Church Support mechanisms. The correct way to request improvements like this, is using the "Feedback Tool" available at the bottom of most Church webpages, and also inside Church apps.

Note: your observations have been made by many others in various Forum posts, and I'd imagine most Forum users agree with you that the current implementation is quite lacking. But we have no insight into current/future Church tech plans, so submitting Feedback is the only option any of us have.