I remember when Twitter was extremely hesitant to add too many options to the bottom bar in the app, and even flip-flopped on whether to give “Moments” its own quick link because it was potentially too cluttered.
Evidently, X is not of the same mind, because it’s now experimenting with another bottom bar shortcut, this time for Communities.
As you can see in this screenshot, posted by X News Daily, Communities may soon get premium placement, alongside its Grok chatbot shortcut, which it added to the nav bar late last year.
That would take X’s access bar to six icons, up from the preferred four under previous Twitter management.
I’m not sure what the UI science is on what’s too many in this respect, and what impact that may have on usage. But again, Twitter had tried a couple of different icons over time, but always reverted back to the four tab limit.
But X, which is keen to expand the way that people use the app, is obviously more focused on maximizing Communities than worrying about such impacts. And given the growth stats that X has shared, it does seem like Communities could drive more engagement.
X reported back in March that time spent on Communities has grown 600% in the past year, while there are now over 350,000 communities on X, and around 650,000 community posts created daily.
Which seems surprising, but clearly, there is demand for more enclosed chats and discussion groups within the broader X experience.
Which has also seen X roll out a bunch of updates for Communities, including updated recommendations for Communities that you might be interested in, improved in-group search, and highlights from new Communities that are trending within the “Communities” tab.
And now, potentially, a dedicated, persistent access tab as well, though X Premium subscribers could also have added the Communities icon via their custom navigation options at one stage too (it’s not clear if this is still an option for paying users).
But that wouldn’t have given you more tabs, just the capacity to change the five displayed.
Will that get more people checking into Communities more often?
Well, maybe, and again, given the usage stats reported by X, there does seem to be enough interest to justify it.
Though it would be interesting to know more about why previous platform management was so resistant to adding in more tabs along the bottom nav bar.
I’ll send Jack a DM.
