Apple bids adieu to support community forums

Apple announced it will discontinue its support community forums on 20 November after nearly three decades of operation. This forum, which allowed users to help each other resolve issues ranging from device overheating to camera malfunctions, will now be in read-only mode and will permanently close the following week. Apple stated that the forum no longer met its strategic or customer needs.

Once the forum closes, users will be directed to Apple's other support channels, such as phone, chat, and in-store assistance. The Apple Support Communities forum has existed since at least the late 1990s and was previously known as Apple Discussions before relaunching in 2011 as Apple Support Communities. Other companies, including Verizon and Microsoft, have also transitioned their community forums to read-only or redirected users elsewhere.

The decline of forums can be attributed to the rise of AI, which has revolutionized how users find answers to technology-related questions. For instance, Stack Overflow, a forum for developers, experienced a significant drop in activity following the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, with a 25% decline in six months. Despite challenges, Apple's latest financial report indicated strong performance, with a 12% year-over-year increase in quarterly revenue to $114.5bn and nearly $83bn in net product sales.