X replaces Communities on the platform: they will now be group chats with limited members

The red social X has announced a new update that allows join a group chat within XChatcon limited users, thus replacing the Communities function within the platform, which will no longer be available from May 6.

Communities were launched in late 2021, when X was still Twitter, as a feature intended to form groups according to the interests of users. These spaces were created and managed by people and users could join them through an invitation.

With the arrival of Elon Musk to the platform, this function had a redesign of its interface in 2025 so that they could be reviewed and sorted by trends, popularity or chronological order.

The company’s Product Director, Nikita Bier, has announced in a publication on the social network itself the possibility of join group chats within XChat via a public link. At the moment the groups admit 350 membersbut Bier has clarified that if it is expanding to 500 y Soon the limit will be one thousand members.

As a result of these group chats, Bier has announced that The Communities will be obsolete starting next May 6which is why it has urged administrators to migrate to XChat before then. “To migrate your Community members, pin your group chat link so people can join in the next 2 weeks,” he said.

Today we’re announcing two product changes for organizing communities on X:

1. XChat now supports joinable links for groupchats. Create a public link & share direct to Timeline. With support for 350 members per chat (and growing), Groupchat Links are the fastest way to bring… pic.twitter.com/GNcRB99Opc

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) April 22, 2026

Bier has explained that the reason for the closure of the Communities in X is due to the decrease in use. According to your data, less than 0.4 percent of users on the platform they used them, and even so contributed to 80 percent of the complaints for ‘spam’, financial scams and ‘malware’.

USER REACTION

The measure has not been well received by some of the usersespecially by those who already have a significant Community, such as that of the streamer IShowSpeed, which reaches the 154,200 members. “I don’t think it’s a good idea, I have a community with more than 100k there and it allows me to talk to my community,” he lamented regarding the announcement.

i personally don’t think this is a good idea i have a community with over 100k in there and it allows me to talk with my community. you shouldn’t do this 💔 https://t.co/jfxZKvlhKi

— Speed⭐️ (@ishowspeedsui) April 22, 2026

Bier has responded to him that they will increase the member limit in XChat group chats, but that his community has a average of 287 members assets since April 14, so it would adjust to the 500 maximum that the update supports. However, the reply from the director of X has been qualified with a community note denying the average figure of active members, which amounts to between 2,200 and 8,900 members instead of 287.

“There are a handful of very cool Communities that will have to migrate (e.g. coin collectors, baseball cards, skin care, artists), but that content should actually live on the Timeline or in chats instead of a Temu version of subreddits,” Bier explained to another user who criticized the move.

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

Other users, less kind to Bier, have reminded him of his publication on March 8, in which he revealed his plans to make the Communities obsolete, and recognized that this “would cause a riot.”

Fixing a 20-year-old app is so hard. I want to deprecate Communities so bad, but it would cause a mutiny.

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) March 8, 2026

The measure has come after the launch of a new custom timelines feature on the platformwhich allows you to add more than 75 topics of interest to users to your main ‘feed’.