X Shuts Down Communities, Launches AI-Powered Custom Timelines and Enhanced Group Chats for Real-Time Personalization

X is shutting down its Communities feature, citing low usage and high spam rates, and replacing it with AI-powered custom timelines and expanded group chats in the XChat app to shift focus toward real-time and personalized interactions.

Communities, launched in 2021 when the platform was still known as Twitter, were designed to let users connect around shared interests but saw minimal adoption. According to X’s head of product Nikita Bier, the feature was used by less than 0.4% of users yet contributed to 80% of spam reports, financial scams, and malware on the platform.

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.

Nikita Bier, Head of Product at X

Bier noted that many active Communities functioned as user-acquisition channels for Kick or compensated clipper communities rather than serving their original purpose of fostering organic interest-based discussions. Clipping, the practice of sharing short clips of another creator’s work for compensation, had become a dominant use case, diverting traffic off the platform.

Of the handful of Communities that succeeded, most were user-acquisition channels for Kick or compensated clipper communities.

Nikita Bier, Head of Product at X

X is directing users to migrate to group chats in its XChat app before the Communities feature is retired at the end of May. The migration deadline has been extended from the original May 6 date to May 30 to allow more time for users to transition.

XChat currently supports group chats of up to 350 people and is planned to scale to 1,000 participants in the future. Moderators can pin links in their Communities to help members join the corresponding XChat group before the feature is fully discontinued.

Moderators are able to pin links in their Communities so members can join a group chat before the Communities feature is fully retired on May 30, an extension to the previously proposed deadline of May 6.

Engadget

Alongside the shutdown of Communities, X is introducing AI-powered custom timelines, which use the Grok chatbot to curate personalized feeds based on user interests and behavior. Grok, developed by xAI and integrated into the X platform, launched in November 2023 and has since seen updates including Grok 4.3 Beta released on April 17, 2026.

Grok is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by xAI. It was launched in November 2023 by Elon Musk as an initiative based on the large language model (LLM) of the same name.

Wikipedia

The custom timelines feature represents a shift from topic-based group feeds to algorithmically driven, individualized content streams, leveraging Grok’s ability to analyze user preferences and surface relevant posts in real time. This approach aims to increase engagement by delivering more relevant content without requiring users to join or manage topic-specific communities.

Hands on with X’s new AI-powered custom feeds

TechCrunch

By replacing Communities with AI-driven custom timelines and enhanced group chat capabilities, X is betting that personalized, real-time interaction will better serve user needs while reducing the moderation burden associated with underused, spam-prone features. The company has not disclosed specific user engagement targets for the new features but emphasizes improved relevance and reduced spam as key goals.