X rolls out Grok-powered Custom Timelines for 75-plus topics as Communities wind down
X has launched Grok-powered Custom Timelines, a new way to browse topic-specific feeds that can be pinned to the app’s home screen.
The feature arrives as the company winds down X Communities, signaling a shift in how it wants users to organize conversation.
The new timelines aim to make discovery feel more deliberate than the main For You feed, with over 75 topics available at launch. X says Grok analyzes posts for meaning and assigns topic labels, rather than relying mainly on hashtags or keyword matching.
How Custom Timelines work?
Users can access the feature by swiping past For You and Following, then tapping a plus button to add topic feeds. X limits pinned selections to 10, and users can reorder them to prioritize what they want to see first.
At launch, Custom Timelines are available to Premium subscribers on iOS, with other platforms expected to follow. X has positioned the change as a major update designed to make the home experience more customizable without building complex lists manually.
What changes with Communities ending?
The rollout coincides with X Communities shutting down, a tool that previously enabled member-based groups around shared interests. X’s product team has indicated that group chats and link-based joining are becoming the preferred way to gather smaller communities.
The company is also introducing topic controls such as Snooze Topics, letting Premium users reduce certain subjects in For You. Together, the updates point to a strategy of more granular controls layered on top of algorithmic recommendations.
Ads and the business incentive
Early testing shows ads can appear prominently within the topic feeds, which could expand X’s available ad inventory. That matters as the platform continues to rebuild advertiser demand after years of volatility in its ad business.
Whether Custom Timelines meaningfully changes daily usage will depend on quality and balance of the feeds, especially for news-heavy topics. Still, the combination of Grok labeling and pinned feeds gives X a clearer pitch: tailored browsing that feels less chaotic than the default scroll.
