Gospel Living App Circles Admin Enhancement Request

Is the functionality to be able to create custom circles ever going to be a feature? and if so, WHEN is this feature slated to be fulfilled? Just curious, as a current YW president, I need the ability to have a YM/YW Presidency circle, Priest and oldest YW Class circle, Ages 14 - 18 circle, youth committee circle,. etc.

kjablonski wrote: Tue Nov 15, 2022 11:13 am Is the functionality to be able to create custom circles ever going to be a feature? and if so, WHEN is this feature slated to be fulfilled?

The church rarely if ever shares it's development timelines. The ones they do share frequently slip.

I echo this request. I am currently serving in the Stake YM Presidency and would love for a way to communicate with them, or even for the Stake Youth Committee to communicate with them. We've looked into alternative apps, but having that capability within this app would be best.

I am the Ward Family History Leader and would like a circle for Ward Family History that contains the WFH Leader, Consultants, and the Elders Quorum and RS Counselors that are also a member of our Council. We are also supposed to have some youth on the committee.

We have been using a Texting Group, but every time a calling changes, we have to recreate the group and lose all of our text stream.

cjones1957 wrote: Sun Dec 18, 2022 9:37 pm I am the Ward Family History Leader and would like a circle for Ward Family History that contains the WFH Leader, Consultants, and the Elders Quorum and RS Counselors that are also a member of our Council.

Unfortunately, there is nobody here in the Tech Forum that can do anything to help in this matter. The Tech Forum is primarily user-to-user help, support, and discussion. You can use the in-app Settings > Send Feedback feature to submit your request. This is one method to get this feedback to those who can consider it. The other is to work the request up the priesthood chain starting with your bishop, to your stake president, to the area coordinating council, and so on.

There have been hints of a future development capability for the ability to add circles. For now this feature does not exist. With that said, take note that very seldom are development efforts and in-progress development timelines made public.

I'm not holding my breath on this one, the adoption of the app is so low I doubt they put much into it anymore.

The below was posted a week ago on the Gospel Living app. For those who cannot be bothered clicking on it, it says "Next year we will be trying to make this app experience better than ever". Not saying a whole lot however, it does indicate that the church is still committed to developing the app.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/ins ... fbd5410000

I think that comment about making it better was about the app as a whole and not necessarily Circles.

I’m wondering if the circles portion automatically changes administrations with a new calling. I’m a fairly new yw ward Pres and have no way of seeing who’s in what circle. But I do see a girl who has moved from our ward 2 years ago still has a comment in one circle. Do I talk to my ward clerk? I’d really really like to be able to use this rather than having 10 different texting groups lighting up my phone constantly.

It _should_ automatically adapt to your new calling provided you have your MRN connected to your account and your calling was recorded as a standard (rather than custom) calling. It may take a couple of days for the systems to catch up to changes in callings, and you may have to sync your app.

jokoegler wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:56 pm I’m wondering if the circles portion automatically changes administrations with a new calling.

I'd expect so, but it make take some time. Perhaps 24 hours after it's been recorded properly.

jokoegler wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:56 pm I’m a fairly new yw ward Pres and have no way of seeing who’s in what circle.

Funny. I'm not an admin, but I see retrieve a list of who is and isn't in a circle.

jokoegler wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:56 pm But I do see a girl who has moved from our ward 2 years ago still has a comment in one circle.

How old is the comment? I wouldn't expect them to disappear when they move out, but I wouldn't expect them to remain in the circle. (Although others have reported issues)

jokoegler wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:56 pm Do I talk to my ward clerk?

I doubt if he has much control over circles. But he can tell you if that girl who moved 2 years ago still has her records in the ward and may be able to help you with the app.

The App does seem to be buggy. You may need to log out and back in to fix things.

jokoegler wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:56 pm I’d really really like to be able to use this rather than having 10 different texting groups lighting up my phone constantly.

You can disable notifications for specific circles.

kjablonski wrote: Tue Nov 15, 2022 11:13 am Is the functionality to be able to create custom circles ever going to be a feature? and if so, WHEN is this feature slated to be fulfilled? Just curious, as a current YW president, I need the ability to have a YM/YW Presidency circle, Priest and oldest YW Class circle, Ages 14 - 18 circle, youth committee circle,. etc.

No, Never in a Million Years, it'll never happen.

Is there a way to post an attachment on the circles app? Like a newsletter?

CBailey04 wrote: Wed May 10, 2023 12:26 pm Is there a way to post an attachment on the circles app? Like a newsletter?

Not currently.

jdlessley wrote: Wed May 10, 2023 2:07 pm

CBailey04 wrote: Wed May 10, 2023 12:26 pm Is there a way to post an attachment on the circles app? Like a newsletter?

Not currently.

I haven't used Circles much in Gospel Living, but I think it's possible to attach an image to a message. You could try converting your newsletter to a PNG or JPG image and posting it. Or, you could put the newsletter online (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and post it to the Circle as a link. (If you put the newsletter online where it can be accessed by anyone, make sure it doesn't have sensitive information like names and photos of children and youth, or members' ages.)

@CBailey04: You can post an image as a post in circle (and gifs, etc). However, I don't think a newsletter would be a viable option. It wouldn't likely be readable unless you tapped on it to open as a pic on your phone and zoomed in. Then you would be sliding the zoomed-in section around to read the text. I don't know about anyone else, but if one were sent to me this way, I might try it...once.

"Attaching a document" to a circle might be something to provide as feedback from within the app if that is an important feature (just understand that features promised a year or two ago still are not available so a high level of patience is advised). We don't know what the priorities are that are assigned to the small development group and we are not their customers - the department that sponsors the app (and receives the feedback) is their customer.

+1 for admin enhancement. We really need to be able to communicate with the Stake YM Presidency for activities/planning and Stake Youth Committee.

I love the Gospel Living app. Our stake had a special training fireside about several years ago. But no one in our ward uses it. I really wish they would. When I was in the ward council, I suggested we could at least use it as a council and also encourage the YM/YW and the rest of the organizations to use it, but was ignored.