I stopped using Twitter a long time ago, and Instagram Reels are too addictive for me, so I mostly avoid the app altogether. I don’t miss refreshing my Twitter feed every 15 minutes or falling into endless Reels sessions watching strangers perform the latest viral TikTok dance. But I do miss knowing what my close friends are up to. I miss the small stuff: what they’re reading, what song they have on repeat, or what they quietly became obsessed with this week. I don’t think I’m alone in wanting something quieter: a way to feel connected without the addictiveness of the feed.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working with my colleague Andrew Spittle on a private social network for exactly that. It’s called Lately, and it started as an idea I’d had in the back of my mind for a while, heavily inspired by Tim Ferriss’ 5-Bullet Friday newsletter. I love 5-Bullet Friday, but I’d rather read my closest friends’ diaries of cool things than an internet celebrity’s. No offense, Tim.

This idea probably would have stayed in my backlog if it weren’t for Radical Speed Month, a one-month initiative at Automattic where two-person teams get full autonomy to build and ship without the usual approval processes.

Lately is a private network of close friends, built on top of WordPress. Throughout the week, you forward things to the WordPress Agent in a Telegram chat: an article you enjoyed, a song on repeat, a photo, a half-formed thought. On Friday morning, you spend five minutes deciding what to keep, what to edit, and what to quietly forget you ever sent. Then your update goes out by email to the small circle of friends you’ve approved and shows up in the WordPress.com Reader for those who use it.

No public posting. No algorithm picking the audience. No endless scroll. Just a quiet Friday letter to people you actually care about. Blogging without the performance. A newsletter without the distance. Your personal diary of cool things.

Last week, we posted an internal call for testers. I hope we’ll have an onboarding flow ready this week so we can start inviting friends and family to try it.

If you’d like an invite once it’s ready, leave a comment or drop me a note.