Sony is rolling out invites to a select group of PlayStation 4 players to test out the PS4 beta update 8.50 before it's released to a wider audience in the near future. According to the patch notes first reported by MP1st, the software update, which PlayStation has apparently dubbed the Spring 2021 beta in their email invitations, will remove the PlayStation Communities feature.
Communities were introduced in September 2015 as part of PS4 system update 3.00 for players with similar interests in particular games, niches outside of games, and everything in between. The feature, which operates somewhat like a social media website, allowed you to join games and parties and included a message board. However, once PS4 8.50 phases out of the beta test and gets released to all PS4 owners, Communities will be discontinued effective April 14.
On top of removing Communities from the PS4 entirely, the update will be making some other quality of life changes, including the ability to toggle group notifications on and off for each group you're in, asking a game session leader to join in the game by simply clicking on the "Request to Join" button, and hiding games you're playing from other players.
Back in October, the PS4 8.00 update removed the ability to create private Communities under the Community app, as well as eliminated the ability to create Events or access them. However, players could still access existing Communities whether they joined them or not. That same update also enhanced two-factor authentication and made parental controls easy to use, providing flexibility between parents and children, among other updates.
The imminent absence of Communities on PS4 appears to be the final nail in the coffin for the feature that is used less often than others. PlayStation pulled the plug on the Android and iOS companion app in March 2020 without warning, although many people chalked the termination of the Communities app to a severe lack of activity. Players still used Communities on PS4 fairly frequently, but the number of active users dwindled once the PS5 rolled around.
Even so, most people ignored the Communities app on their PS4 consoles whether they joined some groups within the network or not. PlayStation seems to be making the right choice in programming the 8.50 update to get rid of Communities because it makes no sense for the service to continue existing when there are a plethora of gaming communities to join on various social media platforms.