X confirmed that it will end Communities, a feature launched in 2021 to group users with common interests, because it ended up becoming an underutilized and very problematic tool to moderate. The original idea was good, but in practice the feature didn't take off and accumulated too much spam, scams, and unwanted content.

X shuts down Communities due to low usage

The decision comes with a fairly simple explanation: less than 0.4% of users were using Communities, according to X's product manager, Nikita Bier. At the same time, that section accounted for 80% of reports of spam, financial fraud, and malware on the platform. In other words, it was a feature that consumed resources, generated internal work, and contributed very little in terms of actual adoption.

This helps explain why X prefers to shut down the service rather than continue trying to salvage it. The company believes that Communities stopped fulfilling their original purpose and became more of an operational burden than an advantage for the social network.

What will happen to The alternative the company is pushing is XChat, its group chat system, which will allow public links to join and chats of up to 350 members for now. The move aims to shift the conversation towards a simpler, faster format, more aligned with how content is consumed today within X. Bier even made it clear that the company isn't abandoning the idea of ??communities, but rather changing the format with a more modern and less cumbersome approach. Beyond the closure, this move fits into a broader strategy: X is betting on group chats, personalized timelines, and new features with greater speed than before. The platform wants to prioritize formats that generate more direct interaction and less friction for the user, something that seems more useful today than maintaining inactive, niche forums.

There's also a fairly clear underlying message: X wants to clean house and focus on products that actually have traction.If a feature is so little used and, moreover, it becomes a magnet for spam and abuse, the most logical solution for the company is to shut it down and push the audience toward another format.

In terms of product, the decision makes sense. In terms of community, it leaves a bittersweet feeling: X tried to create a space similar to subreddits or themed groups, but the proposal never really caught on with most users. Now the platform prefers to stick with a lighter version that is probably easier to monetize and control.

X is shutting down Communities because almost no one used them and because they became a huge source of spam, fraud, and malware. The feature will disappear on May 6 and will be replaced by group chats within XChat, in a new bet by the social network for more active and less complicated formats to manage.