X is shutting down Communities feature
What's the story
X has announced its decision to shut down the Communities feature. The move comes in response to low usage and high spam levels, making the feature difficult to manage. Launched in 2021 (when X was still called Twitter), Communities was intended as a space for users with shared interests to connect and interact.
Spam issues
80% of spam reports came from Communities
Nikita Bier, X's head of product, revealed that the Communities feature was plagued by spam and financial scams. Despite its potential, less than 0.4% of users actually used it. However, these users were responsible for 80% of spam reports, financial scams, and malware on the platform. This high ratio of abuse to usage ultimately led to the decision to shut down this feature.
Misuse concerns
Many Communities were actually user-acquisition channels for other platforms
Bier also noted that many successful Communities were actually used as user-acquisition channels for Kick or compensated clipper communities. This means they weren't being used for their intended purpose. Instead, they were mainly focused on driving (often paid) traffic to other online creators outside of X itself. Clipping is a practice where short clips of another creator's work or a brand's video are shared and the clipper is compensated.
Shutdown timeline
Migration to revamped group chat experience available
X has confirmed that it will shut down the Communities feature on May 6, 2026. Community admins have been given an option to migrate their members to a revamped group chat experience. The company has extended the migration deadline until May 30, giving users more time to transition from this soon-to-be-defunct feature of the platform.
New features
XChat will support 'joinable' links for group chats
To accommodate the influx of X Community members, XChat, the app's messaging service, will support "joinable" links for group chats. These public links can be shared on X's timeline and pinned. They can accommodate up to 500 members with plans to increase this limit to 1,000 in the coming weeks. This is part of a broader strategy by X to improve user experience on its platform.