X to Shutter Communities Amid Spam and Low Engagement
X is officially sunsetting its Communities feature, a tool introduced in 2021—when the platform was still known as Twitter—that aimed to foster interest-based connections among users. The decision follows a critical internal assessment revealing that the feature struggled with both low adoption and significant security issues.
Nikita Bier, head of product at X, confirmed the closure, characterizing the project as a “Temu version of subreddits.” According to company data, less than 0.4% of the platform’s user base actively participated in Communities. Despite this minimal engagement, the feature was responsible for 80% of the platform’s reports related to financial scams, malware, and general spam.
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.…
— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) April 23, 2026
A Shift in Strategy
The internal analysis found that instead of organic social interaction, many of the surviving groups had devolved into hubs for compensated “clipping”—where users share unauthorized videos to drive traffic to external sites—or acquisition channels for platforms like Kick. Maintaining the infrastructure required substantial resources, with Bier noting that the feature consumed up to half of the product team’s time during certain weeks.
Migration and New Features
The shutdown is scheduled for May 6, 2026, though the company has provided an extension for admins to migrate their members until May 30. The transition focuses on moving these groups toward the company’s revamped messaging experience, XChat. Key updates for the platform include:
- Public Joinable Links: XChat will support public links for group chats, which can be pinned to a user’s timeline.
- Capacity Expansion: Initially supporting up to 500 members, the company plans to increase this limit to 1,000 in the coming weeks.
- Custom Timelines: Recently launched for Premium subscribers, these allow users to pin personalized, topical feeds to their Home tab.
This move is part of a broader push to accelerate feature deployment. X has been releasing roughly two to three new updates per week, ranging from Cashtags and mute buttons for topics to voice notes and automatic translations.