WordPress.com has launched a new feature called Lately, a weekly letter designed for sharing casual updates with a select group of close friends. The feature is now available in beta for new sites, offering a more controlled and intimate blogging experience than a traditional public website.
The feature, announced by the company, aims to bridge the gap between public blogging and private group messaging. Lately allows users to compile a weekly letter every Friday, which is then sent exclusively to a list of approved friends via email. The service is accessible through a dedicated page on WordPress.com.
How Lately Works
The process is centered on simplification. Users can send notes, images, and other content to the WordPress Agent via the Telegram messaging app throughout the week. These messages are automatically captured and stored as a draft for the weekly letter. On Friday, the user can review the accumulated material, decide which items to keep, edit the text, or discard unwanted content.
Once the user is satisfied with the draft, Lately publishes the letter and sends it via email to their pre-approved list of friends. For those friends who have a WordPress.com account, the letter is also accessible via the web or directly within the WordPress.com Reader. This design positions Lately as a simpler and quieter alternative to traditional blogging, focusing on a closed, private audience rather than a public one.
Functionality and Audience Control
The core principle of Lately is privacy and friend-based sharing. Users can generate a unique link to their Lately site and share it with friends. When a friend visits the site, they see an option to subscribe. Subscriptions are not automatic; the user must approve each friend who requests access. Only approved friends will receive the weekly letter, ensuring that content is shared only with the intended audience.
The company states that there is no new software to learn for the user. The primary method of content creation is simply sending a message in Telegram, with the WordPress Agent handling the formatting and aggregation into a draft. This approach attempts to combine the flexibility of a full blogging platform with the simplicity of a messaging app interface.
Visual Customization Options
For readers who view the letter on the web, Lately provides three distinct visual style packs. These are described as Modern, Pop, and Zine. The Modern theme features a minimal, elegant look with a white background. The Pop theme uses bold colors reminiscent of comic books. The Zine theme offers an editorial feel with pink highlights.
Users can switch between these themes using a palette picker located in the site’s header. The company noted that while email versions of the letter currently default to the Modern style, plans are in place to bring the Pop and Zine styles to email templates in the future.
The development of Lately reflects an ongoing trend in social media and blogging toward smaller, more private groups. By limiting the audience to a small circle of approved friends and automating the publishing schedule, the feature seeks to reduce the pressure of maintaining a public blog while encouraging more frequent, casual updates.
Lately is currently available as a beta feature. The company is actively seeking user feedback during this testing phase to refine the product before a wider release. Future developments are expected to include the expansion of visual themes to email formats and potentially further integration with messaging platforms.
Source: Delimiter Online
