A new member joins on a Sunday night. They poke around on their laptop, read your welcome post, fill in half their profile. Then Monday happens.
Your community lives in a browser tab they won’t open again until something reminds them. Nothing does, because the reminder you’d send is a push notification, and they never installed the app. A quiet first week like that is a big part of why new members leave your community.
So how do you get members to download the Circle app when asking nicely hasn’t worked?
You stop asking and start rewarding. By the end of this, you’ll have a lesson in your onboarding course, a secret space worth getting into, and one Circle workflow that connects the two automatically.
Why Get Members to Download the Circle App at All?
Members on the Circle app visit your community more often, and they’re the only ones your push notifications can reach. The download makes every other nudge possible.
On a laptop, your community competes with every other tab. On a phone, it sits next to the apps people check all day. More members on the Circle mobile app means more daily visits, and those visits show up across every engagement number you track.
Then there’s the part people underestimate. Push notifications only land on phones that have the app. Every event reminder, every “we’re live” nudge, every alert about a new conversation depends on this one download happening first.
And the download says something about the member. Someone who puts your community on their phone has decided it’s worth a spot on their home screen. That’s commitment, and commitment is worth rewarding.
How Does Rewarding the Download With a Secret Space Work?
The member marks your download the app lesson complete, and a workflow adds them to a secret space with content they can’t get anywhere else. They invest first. You give back right away.
I think of it as a trust exchange. The member does something that shows they’re in, and you respond with access to something valuable. That back and forth, early and often, is what a strong community relationship is built on.
It only works if your onboarding is set up as a course, with each key action as its own lesson. That gives new members a clear path, and it gives Circle a specific moment to respond to: a lesson marked complete. If your onboarding still lives in a pile of pinned posts, build your Circle onboarding course first, inside a start here space that onboards members, with downloading the app as one of the lessons.
Why secret and not private? A secret space is hidden from the sidebar for anyone who isn’t in it. No locked door to stare at. The lesson can tell members something is waiting on the other side, and the space itself stays out of sight until they’ve earned it.
One honest caveat: Circle sees the lesson being marked complete, not the app being installed. The workflow runs on trust, which is part of the point. Make the easiest way to finish the lesson the real one: link straight to the App Store and Google Play, and keep the steps short.
How Do You Set Up the Completed Lesson Workflow in Circle?
Create a custom automation in Workflows, set the trigger to Completed lesson, pick your download the app lesson, add the Add member to space action, choose your secret space, and activate.
Create the workflow
This all starts in Workflows, the same place every Circle automation lives.
What that looks like:
- Click the caret at the top of your community and choose Workflows
- Choose New workflow, then custom workflow and automation
- Name it something you’ll recognize later. Mine is simply My Mobile
Set the trigger
The trigger is the moment that starts everything: a member finishing that one lesson.
What that looks like:
- Add a trigger and choose Completed lesson
- Choose specific lesson, rather than all community lessons, lessons in a space, or a whole course
- Select your download the app lesson, then click continue
Choosing the specific lesson is the step that matters. Pick all community lessons and every lesson anyone finishes will drop them into the space.
Add the action
The action is what happens once the trigger fires.
What that looks like:
- Add a new action and choose Add member to space
- Select the secret space that holds your exclusive content
- Click continue
Build and stock the secret space before this step. The action needs somewhere to send people, and you want it ready before the first member arrives.
Turn it on
Choose activate, and that’s it. From here on, every member who completes the lesson lands in the space without you touching anything.
What Other Onboarding Lessons Can Grant Access to a Space?
Any lesson that marks real commitment can use the same trigger: filling out a profile, posting a first introduction, or attending a first live event. Each can open its own space.
The app download is where I’d start, because it pays off twice. But the build is identical for any lesson in your onboarding course. Swap the lesson in the trigger, swap the space in the action.
A few worth considering:
- Filling out their profile. A member with a photo and a headline is easier for everyone else to connect with.
- Posting their first introduction. The first post is the hardest one to write. It deserves a reward.
- Attending their first live event. Showing up live is a different level of commitment than reading along.
If a visible badge fits some of these better than a space, the same completion triggers can award one instead. Here’s how to create Circle member tags that automate onboarding.
What Should the Secret Space Actually Hold?
Something members genuinely value and can’t find anywhere else in your community. If the space is empty or recycled, the reward reads like a trick, and the trust exchange breaks.
The goal was never just the app download. It’s ongoing engagement with your most committed members, and this space is where those members now gather. Treat it that way.
A few questions to decide what goes in:
- What do your most engaged members keep asking for more of?
- What could you share here that you wouldn’t put in front of everyone?
- Will there be a reason to come back next month, not just the day they’re added?
Then put the app they just installed to work. Once members have it, push notifications can tell them when something new lands in the space, or when a conversation they’d care about is happening. I walk through that setup in the custom push notifications video, linked further down this page.
Try This Prompt
If you’re not sure which milestones deserve a space, or what to put in each one, this gives you a plan to edit instead of a blank page.
“I run a [type of community] on Circle for [who]. My onboarding course has these lessons: [list them]. I want to reward a few key lessons, starting with downloading the Circle app, by adding members to a secret space when they mark the lesson complete. Suggest which two or three lessons show the most commitment, and for each one, what the secret space could hold that would give members a reason to come back. Give me a table with the lesson, the space name, what goes inside, and one line on why it’s worth the effort.”
Check every suggestion against what you can actually keep stocked. You decide what gets built.
Give Something Back Right Away
Most onboarding asks and asks. Read this, fill that in, download the app, turn on notifications. Members do it, and nothing happens.
This flips one of those moments. The member does the thing, and the community notices within seconds. Not with a thank-you message, but with a door that wasn’t there before.
That’s the pattern worth building on. Every time a member invests a little more, give something back, and make it automatic so it never depends on you remembering.
People keep showing up where showing up gets noticed.
Watch the Video
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More Like This
Watch: How to Onboard New Members with Ease: Create a Circle Course That Works. Build the course, and the download the app lesson, before you build the workflow.
Watch: How to Create Member Tags and Automate Onboarding in Your Circle Community. The same kind of trigger, with a badge as the reward instead of a space.
Watch: Circle Space Access Explained: Open vs. Private vs. Secret. Get the secret space set up correctly before anyone lands in it.
Listen: How to Build a Community Onboarding Process That Sticks. The full system this workflow slots into, from first email to first post.
Keep Going
coCreator Society is where community builders and membership founders work through this together, with the templates, the walkthroughs, and people who are one step ahead of you. Join coCreator Society
If you would rather not do this part alone, Rachel and the team build, migrate, and run communities for founders who need it done properly the first time. Talk to the team
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