Social media platform X has officially announced it will discontinue its Communities feature effective May 30, marking the end of a feature that struggled with abysmally low adoption and disproportionately high abuse rates. In its place, the company is rolling out a new AI-driven system called Custom Timelines, powered by Grok AI, designed to deliver a more personalized and intelligent content experience.
Product Head Nikita Bier confirmed the decision, revealing stark metrics that sealed Communities’ fate. The feature was being actively used by a mere 0.4 percent of the platform’s user base, a figure that already made its future uncertain. However, the more compelling reason emerged from the platform’s safety data. An overwhelming 80 percent of all spam reports, financial scams, and malware cases reported on X were traced directly back to the Communities feature. The combination of negligible engagement and rampant misuse left the company with little choice but to retire it entirely.
The replacement feature, Custom Timelines, represents a significant technological shift. Unlike the outgoing Communities format, the new system does not rely merely on keyword matching. It leverages Grok AI to read and comprehend each post, categorize it intelligently, and build feeds that align precisely with individual user interests. The approach promises a cleaner, more relevant browsing experience with substantially less noise.
According to details shared by the platform, the Custom Timelines system offers considerable user control. More than 75 curated topics are available for users to explore. Each user can pin up to 10 topics simultaneously and access them directly from the home tab, allowing seamless switching between different feeds. Users also retain the flexibility to re-organize feeds according to their preferences. Complementing this setup is a new tool called “Snooze Topics,” which permits users to mute any subject, such as politics or sports, for a full 24 hours.
The rollout of Custom Timelines is currently underway in phases. Premium subscribers on iOS devices are the first to receive access to the complete feature set. The Snooze functionality is already live for web users. The company has indicated that Android users can expect the Custom Timelines feature to become available shortly.
