X is shutting down its Communities feature in 2026 after the company determined that minimal user engagement and rampant spam made the product unsustainable to maintain.
The feature, originally launched in 2021 when the platform was still called Twitter, will officially close on May 6, 2026, with community admins given until May 30 to migrate their members to the platform’s revamped group chat experience.
According to Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, Communities were used by less than 0.4% of the platform’s users yet contributed to 80% of spam reports, financial scams, and malware on X. The feature consumed half the team’s time during some weeks while other parts of the app suffered, Bier explained in a post on X on April 23, 2026.
Communities were intended to provide users with dedicated spaces to connect around shared interests. However, most successful communities deviated from this vision, instead becoming user-acquisition channels for platforms like Kick or compensated clipper communities that drove traffic outside X. Bier dismissed the feature as a “Temu version of subreddits,” comparing it unfavorably to Reddit’s popular community groups.
To accommodate displaced community members, X is expanding its XChat messaging service, which is set to launch as a standalone app. The service will support “joinable” public links for group chats that can be shared and pinned on timelines, with capacity for up to 500 members and plans to reach 1,000 members within weeks.
X also launched Custom Timelines for Premium subscribers this week, allowing users to pin topical feeds to their Home tab. The move reflects X’s broader product acceleration, with the team now launching two to three new features per week, including planned apps for payments and ongoing updates to messaging and content curation tools.
Source: TechCrunch