X to Close Communities Feature Due to Low Usage and Spam

X is shutting down its Communities feature, citing extremely low user engagement and high levels of spam and scams.

Launched in 2021 when the platform was still known as Twitter, Communities were designed to let users connect around shared interests, similar to subreddits on Reddit. However, the feature failed to gain meaningful traction.

According to Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, Communities were used by less than 0.4% of users, yet they accounted for 80% of spam reports, financial scams, and malware on the platform. Bier described the feature as a “Temu version of subreddits,” noting that many of the more active communities had become channels for driving traffic to external platforms like Kick or for compensated content clipping rather than genuine interest-based discussion.

The company will officially discontinue Communities on May 6, 2026. Community admins have been given until May 30 to migrate their members to X’s revamped group chat feature. To prepare for the transition, XChat – which is set to launch soon as a standalone app – will support “joinable” public links for group chats. These chats can support up to 500 members initially, with plans to increase the limit to 1,000 in the coming weeks.

X is not abandoning the idea of community entirely. Instead, the company is shifting its approach. This week, it introduced Custom Timelines for Premium subscribers, allowing users to pin personalized topical feeds to their Home tab. The platform is also expanding its group chat capabilities as the primary replacement for Communities.