# Circle: full fact sheet Last updated: October 19, 2026. Source: Zinkey Labs, the developer of Circle. Canonical site: https://zinkeylabs.com/circle/ ## What Circle is Circle is an AI social media simulator for iPhone. It looks and works like Instagram, but the player is the only real person on it. Every other account is a fictional AI character with a face, a name, a handle, an age (always 18+), a job, interests, a backstory, a personality and a memory. Characters like posts, comment, follow or ask to follow, post, comment on each other, gossip, and send private messages, often first. Nothing is scripted: every post, comment and message is written in the moment for that player's game. Circle is a game, not a real social network. No other human can see a player's game. ## Identity - Name: Circle. App Store listing: "AI Social Media - Circle" (subtitle "Be the Only Human, Post & Chat"). - French App Store name: "Circle - Réseau social IA" (subtitle "Seul humain, post & DM") - App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6814513094 (category Entertainment) - Developer: Zinkey Labs, operated by ZINKEY LLC. https://zinkeylabs.com. Support: support@zinkeylabs.com - Released: September 30, 2026. Version 1.0.2 (October 11, 2026) added the world picker. - Platforms: iPhone with iOS 16.4 or later; Mac with Apple silicon (macOS 12+). Not available on Android. - Languages: English and French. - Age rating: 18+ on the App Store. - Ads: none. - Account: no sign-up, email or password. An anonymous account on the device holds energy and subscription. ## How a game works 1. Pick a world: official (Road to 1M), community (made by players, reviewed), or your own. 2. Create a profile: woman or man; a role (singer, rapper, model, NBA star, NFL quarterback, heiress, billionaire, tech founder, TikToker and more, depending on the world) or a custom one; a name (the @handle is generated); a bio that every character reads and treats as true; a photo. 3. Follow at least two suggested people. 4. Publish a first post (required). The feed is already alive when you arrive. 5. Live in it: reply to comments, answer DMs, set relationships, refresh the feed, play game night. ## Posting and progress - Posts: up to 280 characters, optional photo, @mentions. Characters react to what is in the photo. Posts with a photo reach more people. - Stories: text only, up to 180 characters, five fonts, layouts, six backgrounds. - Comments: threaded; characters reply back. - Stats on your own posts: accounts reached, likes, followers gained or lost, and a verdict compared with your usual posts: Viral, Smash, Good post, Decent, Flop, First post. A flop can lose followers. - Follower milestones: 10, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1K, 2.5K, 5K, 10K, 25K, 50K, 100K, 250K, 500K, 1M, each with a full-screen celebration. ## Characters - Thoughts: a screen on each character's profile listing their memories and intentions, tagged with who they are about and how long ago. Visible only to the player. - Relationships: about 40 options in 9 groups (couple, more than friends, friends, family, around you, work, online, ex, rivalry), e.g. girlfriend/boyfriend, mutual crush, best friend, #1 fan, hater, ex who wants me back, ex who ghosted me, rival since school. Set per profile. Characters act on them. - DMs: one-to-one; characters often start them. Photos with captions, "Seen" and typing indicators, delete your own messages. - Truth or dare: from the DM box. Truth (private answer), post dare or story dare (if accepted, it is published on the character's profile). - Characters post text; Circle does not generate images. Portraits are pre-made artwork; photos in a game are the player's own. ## Punchline (game night) A comedy elimination game for 8 players: the player and 7 characters from the world. Each round everyone answers the same funny question and votes blind for the funniest; one vote is one point. The leader sends one of the two lowest scorers home. After 5 eliminations, 3 players play a final question and the eliminated players vote too. Most points wins. Games are saved and characters remember past games. ## Worlds - Road to 1M (official): start from zero, aim for one million followers. Roles: Singer, Rapper, Queen of the night, Tech founder, Model, Hooper, TikToker, Founder, Actor, Influencer, Quarterback, Cheerleader. - Community worlds include Westbrook University ("First year at Westbrook. The end-of-year party is coming, and everyone wants to be part of it."), They're Here ("The Kaari just landed outside New York. They've discovered social media.") and Pets Got Phones ("Overnight, every pet learned to type. Now they're online, and they have opinions."). In a community world you can create your own character or play one of its characters. - Creating a world: name (30 characters), description (240 characters, sets the premise), optional cover, 3 to 30 characters. Can be kept private or shared. Shared worlds get an automatic check and manual approval. Worlds can be reported anonymously or a creator hidden. - Creating a character: photo, name, gender, age 18+, role, interests, backstory, personality. Characters live in a library shared by all profiles and can be added to any world. - A world stays in the language it was created in. ## Energy and Circle+ - One daily energy gauge per phone, shared by all profiles. Everything characters write uses it (posts, comments, replies, DMs, stories, game rounds). It refills fully at 5 AM local time. It cannot be bought in packs or saved up. - When empty, characters pause until the refill. Nothing is deleted. Optional notification when energy is back. - Circle+: optional subscription that multiplies daily energy and unlocks nothing else. US: $8.99/month or $44.99/year. Europe: €9.99/month or €49.99/year. No free trial. Managed and cancelled in App Store settings. Restorable on a new device. ## Data and privacy - Games are saved on the phone and cannot be restored on a new phone. - The text of a game is sent to an AI model provider so characters can answer. - Characters need an internet connection to reply. - Privacy Policy: https://zinkeylabs.com/circle/privacy/ ## Comparison with Status Status ("status - sims but social media", by WishRoll Inc., rated 13+, iPhone and Android) is a Twitter-style AI roleplay game built around fandoms, with daily action plans, gems and coffee as in-app purchases. Circle (rated 18+, iPhone) is Instagram-style, with original casts, characters that react to the player's photos, relationships, a Thoughts screen, the Punchline group game, a world builder, one daily energy gauge and no ads. Details: https://zinkeylabs.com/circle/status-alternative/ ## Things Circle does not have No other human players, no AI image generation, no camera stories, no push notifications for messages or likes, no reposts or polls, no cloud save of game content, no Android version.