Communities, which were introduced in 2021 when the firm was still known as Twitter, were designed to give members of the social network a way to engage with one another based on common interests. X is now permanently disabling the feature, claiming it was swamped with spam and difficult to administer.
The official shutdown of the Communities feature on X is at the end of next month, precisely on May 30, 2026. After an initial deadline of May 6 that was extended following creator feedback, due to low adoption, with less than 0.4% of the platform’s user base using the feature, and overwhelming spam and security issues, as Communities were responsible for 80% of all spam reports, financial scams, and malware on the platform, according to X’s Head of Product, Nikita Bier.
Nikita Bier further added that very few people were utilising them.
In an explanation of the company’s reasoning for eliminating the prominent feature, Bier wrote on X, “Communities had a great vision, but they were used by less than 0.4% of users, yet contributed to 80% of spam reports, financial scams, and malware on X.”
“The majority of the few communities that were successful were either compensated clipper communities or Kick user-acquisition channels.”
We're going to be investing heavily in XChat.
Communities had a great vision, but they were used by less than 0.4% of users—yet contributed to 80% of spam reports, financial scams, and malware on X. It occupied half the team's time some weeks, while the rest of the app suffered.…
To put it another way, communities were frequently not being utilized for their intended purpose. Rather, they had turned into a site dedicated to bringing in (sometimes paid) traffic to other online producers who weren’t affiliated with X. (Sharing brief snippets of another artist’s work or a brand’s video, for which the clipper receives payment, is known as clipping. These communities are used by marketers and content producers to spark interest in their own works.)
Bier even mocked X’s botched Communities initiative, calling it a “Temu version of subreddits,” a reference to the groups on Reddit, the more well-known interest-based social network.
Although he acknowledged that there were some excellent communities in the mix that would have to relocate, he generally implied that the feature wasn’t worth preserving given its generally low usage.
On May 6, 2026, Communities on X will close. Community administrators have the option to transfer their members to the recently updated group chat feature. (The migration deadline was extended by the corporation to May 30.)
XChat, the app’s messaging service, which is about to emerge as a separate app, will enable “joinable” links for group chats in order to prepare for the inflow of X Community members. Up to 500 users are supported by these public connections, which can be shared and pinned on X’s timeline. In the coming weeks, the goal is to achieve 1,000.
Bier emphasized that X isn’t abandoning communities in spite of these modifications; the business will simply adopt a different strategy.
This week, the firm introduced custom timelines for its premium subscribers, which let users pin various topical feeds to their home tab, in addition to the extended group chats. Additionally, these feeds are tailored to each user based on how they interact with X.
With plans for its XChat app and another for payments, as well as new features like Cashtags, mute buttons for topics, voice notes in chat, a new photo editor, automatic translations, new reply settings, and the new custom timelines, X’s product releases and updates have been coming more quickly lately.
The X team has started to establish a routine of releasing two to three net new features every week, as Bier observed in March, indicating that there are probably still more innovations to come.
As part of its plan to simplify the platform, X is encouraging users to migrate from Communities to alternative features, including group chats within the newly launched XChat app, where member limits will increase to 500 on April 24 and eventually to 1,000; custom timelines for Premium subscribers seeking an asynchronous, topic-based experience; and pinned group chat links that moderators can use to help members transition before the final shutdown, with X’s Head of Product Nikita Bier noting that maintaining Communities consumed roughly half of the team’s time in some weeks, hindering progress on other parts of the app.
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