Social media platforms all want to be like each other. After all, there are certain things that some platforms do better than others. For instance, it’s hard to beat Instagram when it comes to sharing photos. And when it comes to forums, it’s honestly nearly impossible to dethrone Reddit. This is why it doesn’t come as a surprise to learn that X is shutting down its Communities feature.
X Communities is shutting down
For those unfamiliar, the Communities feature was initially introduced back when X was known as Twitter and before Elon Musk bought the platform and rebranded it. The idea was that users could create and join online communities based on their interests. Think of a kind of Reddit or Facebook Groups, but on X.
Users could also follow a feed that contains posts made by people or subjects they cared about. On paper, it sounded promising. For those who use X often, it made sense. However, gaining the same amount of traction like Reddit is a monumental task for any platform. This is why the Communities feature didn’t take off the way the company hoped, and it’s why X is shutting Communities down.
Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, said the following in an X post: “Due to declining usage, we’re deprecating X Communities on May 6. To migrate your Community’s members, pin your groupchat link so people can join it over the next 2 weeks. This is part of our broader effort to simplify the experience on X.”
“Less than 0.4%” of X userbase
Bier also shared additional information, revealing exactly how many users of X actually used its Communities feature. “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,” he stated.
A potential replacement
That being said, while X Communities is shutting down, the company isn’t done with the idea just yet. Instead, XChat is where Communities will live on in spirit. This is because with the XChat app, users can host group chats of up to 350 people. That is expected to eventually expand to up to 1,000 people.
Granted, it won’t be as huge compared to Reddit, but it might be enough for some. Also, Bier states that the launch of Custom Timelines will also attract users who want to find more niche content catered to their interests.
The post X Is Killing Communities and the Numbers Explain Why Nobody Will Miss It appeared first on Android Headlines.
