Meta has launched a new app called Forum in a push to build communities for Facebook groups.

The standalone app primarily focuses on Facebook groups, aiming to provide a new community-driven social experience where the groups can discuss, recommend and get replies that would normally sit inside Facebook.

It is seen as Meta’s latest attempt to make accessibility of knowledge better without users back into the main feed. The app requires a Facebook account to sign in, with all existing Groups, activity and profiles carrying over.

It does not replace Facebook, in fact, posts made in Forum appear in the main Facebook app and vice versa, allowing for smooth cross-platform interaction.

Talking about privacy and identity, users are allowed to mask their identities under anonymized usernames. But the group administrators retain the ability to know about the real identity of any user who is posting or sharing the posts and commenting on it.

Competitor to Reddit?

The Forum app is also drawing comparisons with the popular community-based platform called Reddit. Because at the heart of experience lies the user's questions and community advice. The recommendations and posts are arranged around shared interest instead of a broader social feed. The app heavily pushes questions, recommendations and real answers from real people, showing Reddit-coded.

AI integration

AI is another significant feature of the app, as the tool can summarize your interests, conversations and aggregates from multiple Groups, saving users from manual searching.

The AI tool is also designed to help Group admins manage community activity more efficiently.

As per Meta, the app is currently in experimental testing phase, but appeared on Apple’s App Store without an official announcement.

The release coincides with Meta’s intensified focus on AI infrastructure and products, amid reported corporate layoffs and ongoing scrutiny regarding AI data usage and legal challenges.