What do public, friends, and circles mean on TouchGrass?

What do public, friends, and circles mean on TouchGrass? TouchGrass gives posts an audience before they become part of your profile. Public posts are for things you are comfortable sharing more openly. Friends posts are for people you have accepted as friends. Circles are for smaller, intentional groups. These choices help social software feel closer to real life: you do not speak to everyone the same way in every room. They are not magic privacy shields. Screenshots, copying, recipient misuse, and remote-server behavior can still matter, especially as open-web and federation features develop. Open does not mean everything is public. Why TouchGrass made this choice Most social platforms flatten context. A joke for five friends, a recommendation for neighbors, a long post about a hobby, and a public note about a project can all end up in the same performance arena. That makes people cautious in the wrong way: not thoughtful about audience, but anxious about reach. TouchGrass is designed around social context first. The question is not “How can this get more engagement?” The better question is “Who is this for?” That is why audience controls are core to the product. Friends and circles are not decorative labels. They are part of the posting surface. You choose the room before you post. TouchGrass is also built for exits. Portability, federation, and open-web direction matter because people should not have to choose between social connection and platform lock-in. But “open” needs careful language. Open can mean portable, interoperable, or publicly addressable. It does not mean every post is public by default. What TouchGrass does today Today, TouchGrass centers profiles, posts, longform writing, photos and albums, recommendations, and intentional audiences. You can think about the main audience choices this way: Public posts are for things you are willing to share beyond your close social graph. They can help your profile become a place on the web, not just a temporary feed item. Public posts are the right fit for open notes, recommendations, explainers, and writing you would be comfortable having visitors read. Friends posts are for accepted friends. They are meant for everyday personal sharing where the audience is known, but not necessarily tiny. A friends post may fit normal life updates, photos, and writing that belongs among people you have chosen to connect with. Circle posts are for narrower groups. A circle can represent a real-life context: family, a local group, a project, a trip, a hobby group, or a small set of people who should see one specific kind of post. Circles help you avoid treating every friend as the same audience. TouchGrass avoids addictive feed mechanics around these choices. There is no algorithmic feed designed to pull more from you, no infinite scroll treadmill, no public like-count scoreboard, and no video-first engagement loop. The audience selector is not there to feed a reach machine. It is there to help you share with the right people. TouchGrass is also working in an open-web direction, including portability and protocol work. Some directions involving federation, ATProto/Atmosphere, Solid, ActivityPods, and private sharing may be shipped, partial, experimental, or planned depending on the feature. The feature-status page should be treated as the source of truth. Limits / what not to overclaim Audience controls reduce accidental oversharing, but they do not make a post impossible to copy, screenshot, describe, or misuse. A friends-only or circle-only post should not be described as private from the people who can see it. Private sharing also has technical boundaries. If federation, protocol integrations, or remote-server features are involved, remote behavior may affect what can be guaranteed. TouchGrass should explain those limits plainly instead of pretending that a label solves everything. Public posts are different from open-web direction. A public post may be intentionally visible. Open-web work is about choice, portability, interoperability, and exit doors. Those ideas belong together, but they are not the same thing. Do not imply that every protocol direction is fully shipped. When discussing portability, federation, ATProto/Atmosphere, Solid, ActivityPods, or private sharing, link to feature status and name what is shipped, partial, experimental, or planned. FAQ Are circle posts private? Circle posts are limited to the circle audience inside TouchGrass, but they are not protected from screenshots, copying, or misuse by recipients. Any privacy claim should include that caveat. Is public the default? The important product principle is that audience should be visible and intentional. Draft copy should avoid implying that every post is public or that “open” means “public by default.” What is the difference between friends and circles? Friends are your accepted social connections. Circles are smaller groups inside that social graph, built for specific contexts. Does TouchGrass support federation or portability? TouchGrass is built with portability and open-web direction in mind. The exact state of federation, ATProto/Atmosphere, Solid, ActivityPods, and related private-sharing work should be checked on the feature-status page. Why not just use one private account? Real life has more than one audience. TouchGrass gives you more than a public/private switch so you can share differently with friends, circles, and the open web. Related TouchGrass pages Read more about audience controls: /privacy-and-audience-control Read more about friends and circles: /friends-and-circles Last updated: May 15, 2026. Language: English. See what you can do: /what-you-can-do Feature status: /status/features Proofreading notes: Confirm final article URL and the current shipped/partial/experimental/planned status before scheduling.