Our Guide to Disney’s Circle
What is Circle?
Circle Home is a device that connects to your router to control how the Wifi is used in your home. Circle Go is a portable version of Circle Home that travels with your child’s iPhone or iPad when it’s not connected to your home’s wi-fi network–so your child’s covered at school, at a friend’s house and on vacation.
The Key Features
With Circle installed, you can
#1 Pause or block the internet for any device connected to your home Wifi.
#2 Manage computers, gaming consoles, Smart TVs and mobile devices
#3 Set schedules so that devices are only available during certain hours
# 4 Create allowance time by user that tabulates across all devices assigned to a user
#5 Manage access to content by using pre-assigned filters, activating YouTube’s Restricted mode and turning on Safe Search for web-browsing,
Set Up
Setup is fairly easy. Circle Home (also known as Circle by Disney) pairs wirelessly with your home Wi-Fi, and then you download the app, Circle: Smart Family, to manage your family and your Wifi devices. Circle Go is an upgrade feature found
is the and Circle Go is anand allows you to manage every device on the network—tablet, TV, or laptop.
It’s hardware that connects to your router to control how the wi-fi is used in your home. Circle Go is a portable version of Circle that travels with your child’s smartphone when it’s not connected to your home’s wi-fi network.
Circle Home pairs wirelessly with your home Wi-Fi and allows you to manage every device on your network. Using the My Circle app, families can create unique profiles for each family member. From here, kids will have a connected experience that is designed just for them.
Pricing:
$99 one time fee for the device and $4.95 per month for the service
#1 Features of Circle
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Set Time Limits
Screen time is very important to kids and for parents who manage it. Time Limits offers the ability to limit daily online screen time for platforms, apps, and categories, painlessly.
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Set a BedTime
With Circle’s BedTime feature, no more asking every night for kids to get off their devices. When BedTime kicks in devices say goodnight all on their own.
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Filter Content
Set individual filter levels for each family member that matches their age and interests. Do it once and it will apply to every one of their devices.
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Rewards
Sometimes kids deserve to be rewarded, and with the all-new Rewards feature, parents can do just that. Bump up the Daily Time Limit, give a late BedTime, or disable an OffTime, just for the day.
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Pause the Internet
Yes, you actually get a pause button for the internet. Pause one of your kids because it’s time for homework or everyone because it’s game night. Either way, Circle has your back.
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OffTime
OffTime makes it easy to schedule times during the day and week where there’s no internet so the kids can play, do homework, and just get some plain old family time in.
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Usage
Circle Usage gives you the ability to compare time online today, last week, or even last month. Per site or by interest. You can even find out where you waste time the most.
#2 Devices that Circle can control
- Laptops
- Tablets
- Smart TVs
- Gaming Consoles
- Desktop Computers
- Streaming Boxes
- iPhones
- Smart Home Devices
- iPods
#3 Things needed to set up Circle
- Your Circle Device
- Micro-USB cable (included in box)
- USB power adapter plug (included in box)
- The Circle App (go to meetcircle.com/app to download)
- Your home Wi-Fi network name & password
#4 System Requirements and Circle Set-Up
- The Circle app. Circle’s app requires an iOS device running iOS 9 or later or an Android device running Jelly Bean (4.2) or later. Click here if you’re setting up using an iOS device.
- A compatible router. If you haven’t checked this yet, head here to check on your router’s compatibility with Circle.
- A compatible network. If you plan to use a guest network with Circle, please read our article about guest networks here. We don’t recommend pairing Circle to an extender or behind a second router. Check out our advanced network setup guide for more info on other configurations! Note: your network must be password protected for use with Circle.
After ensuring these, you can set up circle by going to ‘Circle-Set up.‘
During setup, the Circle device will look for devices that should be Unmanaged and pre-select them to avoid issues on your network. Unmanaged Devices are ignored by the Circle device to ensure that none of your sensitive or smart home devices accidentally get Paused or Filtered. Your Circle device should ignore the following:
- Smart thermostats
- Smart smoke detectors
- Wi-Fi enabled outlets
- Wi-Fi enabled light bulbs or switches
- Other smart home devices, like speakers, etc.
- Sensitive Wi-Fi controlled equipment
- Networking equipment that may be detected by Circle
#5 The How-Tos of Circle
To Pause Your Home Network’s Internet Dinner time. Homework time. Or just no-Internet-time.
- To pause the internet on your home network,
- On the Home Screen, tap Pause
- Confirm your Pause
- To Un-Pause, tap Pause again
- To Pause the internet for a Family Member
- On the home screen, tap the family member you want to pause
- On their profile screen, tap the Pause button
- To un-pause the family member, tap Pause on their screen again
- To Pause a Single Device
- On the home screen, tap the Devices icon in the top-right corner
- Select the device you want to pause from the list by tapping it
- Tap the Pause button on the Device Settings screen
- To un-pause, tap the Pause button on the same screen
To Set the Filter of a Platform or Category
- Tap the button next to a category to toggle between Allowed, Not Allowed, and Unmanaged.
- Tap Save in the top-right when finished. Allowed, Not Allowed, and Unmanaged
- Allowed means the profile will be able to access this category, platform, or website except during Pauses, BedTimes, etc.
- Not Allowed means the profile will never be able to access this category, platform, or website.
- Unmanaged means the profile will always be able to access this category, platform, or website, regardless of BedTimes or Pauses. Usage will also not be tracked.
The Daily Time Limit – It is the total amount of time that a family member can spend online each day across all their devices.
Category Time Limit – You can also set individual time limits for any category or platform.
Daily Time Limit Note: Each platform is also part of a category (i.e., Facebook is part of Social Media). If the category has a time limit, the platform will also be limited to that amount (or less). You can also set individual time limits for any category or platform.
To set up a Time Limit:
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- Open the profile of the family member you’d like to set a time limit for
- Tap on Time Limits
- Tap the toggle to enable Time Limits. The Daily Time Limit option and platforms/categories will appear
- Scroll down to find the Platform or Category you’d like to adjust time limits for
- Tap a Platform or Category to change its limits
- Scroll to the amount of time you want the time limit set to
- Make sure to hit Save in the top-right corner when you are finished
To set a weekend Time Limit:
- Open the profile of the family member you’d like to set a time limit for.
- Tap the Time Limit section.
- Tap the toggle to enable time limits.
- Tap Add Weekend, right underneath the Enable toggle.
- Tap a day to turn it on or off.
- A prompt will appear, asking if you want to apply the current Time Limits set to the weekend. Tapping Yes will copy your Weekday Time Limits as a baseline for your Weekend Time Limits; saying No will initially leave your Weekend Time Limits blank.
- You’ll now see a separate tab for Weekdays and Weekend. You can edit the Time Limits separately for both.
How to set a bedtime?
- Open the appropriate family member’s profile, and tap the BedTime optio
- Turn on BedTime by toggling the Enable switch
- Set a BedTime for when you want your family member’s devices to stop Internet activity
- Set an awake time for when you want to resume Internet activity
- Make sure to hit Save at the top right when you are finished
To View History
- Open the profile of the family member you would like to view History for.
- Tap the History section.
- The History page will load, detailing the list of websites visited by the family member, with the most recent websites listed at the top.
Visited History
The Visited tab displays websites that were opened by devices under your family member’s profile by date and time.
To filter a visited website:
- Click on the website you want to filter.
- Tap “Set as Not Allowed“.
- The site will now be filtered and can no longer be accessed.
- A toggle for this site will now be present under Custom Filters within the family member’s profile.
To Set an OffTime
- Open the appropriate family member’s profile in the Circle Home app. The option to set an OffTime is located at the bottom of the profile settings options.
- Tap “OffTime” to begin.
- Tap “Add OffTime”. When you add your first OffTime, you may see a small description of OffTimes; tap the “X” to exit this description.
- Use the create OffTime screen to set the Name, Days of the Week, and Time of Day for this OffTime.
- Once you are finished, tap Done.
Note: Between the start and end times you set for this OffTime, this profile will lose access to the Internet, just like during Pause and BedTimes.
OffTime works just like BedTimes with the added benefit of being able to add a name, as well as create multiple OffTimes.
Circle Rewards are a simple way for parents to give extra time online to kids on the fly without having to change their existing Time Limits, BedTime, or OffTime settings.
To send a reward:
- Open the appropriate family member’s profile
- Tap the Reward icon.
- Tap on the reward you would like to send.
- Tap on the selected Time Limit, BedTime, or OffTime to set up your reward
- Tap Send in the top right of the screen when you’re done. The reward will now be successfully set for the day!
