Meta Launches New Reddit-Like App: Forum

Meta has quietly rolled out a new standalone application for Facebook Groups named “Forum.” The company seems to be marketing Forum as a platform similar to Reddit, portraying it as a “dedicated space for in-depth discussions, genuine answers, and communities that matter to you.”

The app was reportedly first spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra.

After signing in with your Facebook account, Forum will show your groups, profile, and activities, allowing you to post under a pseudonym, just like the regular Facebook app. Meta stressed that your groups are still hosted on Facebook, and any content shared on Forum will be visible within your Facebook groups.

Meta has indicated that Forum’s feeds concentrate on group interactions, enabling users to witness “what real people are discussing, not just what’s trending,” thereby making it easy to pick up conversations right where they left off.

The app includes an AI-driven “Ask” tab, which allows users to ask questions and receive answers sourced from discussions across different groups. Additionally, there’s an AI administrative assistant to support group admins in managing and moderating content.

This is not Meta’s first endeavor with a standalone group app. In 2014, the company introduced a dedicated Groups app aimed at facilitating content sharing among groups, but that effort was discontinued in 2017.

Forum is one of two new applications launched by Meta in recent weeks. Last month, Meta introduced another app named Instants, which enables users to share disappearing photos with their Instagram friends.

Both Instants and Forum are part of Meta’s larger initiative to create more applications. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently indicated to employees that with AI-driven efficiencies enabling the development of more applications, the goal is to introduce significantly more apps than in the past.

Zuckerberg reportedly discussed this with Meta’s chief product officer Chris Cox, stating, “So Chris and I have been talking about ‘well can we build 50 new apps?’ Like, yeah probably. But we should probably start by creating a few before we dive into trying to do 50 all at once.”

While Meta might believe that consumers want more applications, the reality could be different, especially given that many of its new offerings often replicate existing popular services. For example, Instants draws inspiration from BeReal and Snapchat, whereas Meta Edits, introduced last year, is largely a clone of ByteDance’s CapCut.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.